Presidential landmarks bring history to the traveler

In this election year, the news is filled with candidates vying for the country’s top political post. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter who lives at the White House next. There are plenty of opportunities to experience America’s rich presidential history up close.

Independence Hall
The site where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and approved, Philadelphia’s Independence Hall could be called the epicenter of liberty. History buffs will appreciate glimpsing the original inkstand used to sign the Declaration. 
nps.gov/inde

Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Though no POTUS hails from South Dakota, the state has one of the most familiar presidential memorials. The 60-foot-tall faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt took 14 years to carve into the Black Hills’ granite.
nps.gov/moru

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library
A 6,338-pound piece of the Berlin Wall, a retired Air Force One Boeing 707 plane that transported seven U.S. presidents (including Reagan, who traveled to 26 countries and 46 states) and more than 500,000 feet of archived motion picture film, all housed in Simi Valley, Calif., are a fitting tribute to the actor-turned-president’s legacy.  
ronaldreaganmemorial.com

Mount Vernon

George Washington’s home from his boyhood to his death is 10 times the size of an average colonial house (at 11,028 square feet, it’s massive even by today’s sprawling standards). Situated along the Potomac River 15 miles south of Washington, D.C., in Virginia, it features a wine cellar used for storing Washington’s favorite wine, Madeira. 
mountvernon.org

Hoover Dam
Made of 6.6 million tons of concrete and steel that span the Colorado River, this engineering marvel was built by 21,000 men during the Great Depression and still supplies hydroelectric energy to California, Nevada and Colorado. 
usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam

The Hermitage
Andrew Jackson’s home, a stately Federal-style house in Nashville, had to be largely rebuilt after a fire in 1834, and the estate now covers 1,120 acres. The “People’s President” is buried on the sprawling property, next to his wife, Rachel. 
thehermitage.com

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
Walk the very halls of the former Texas School Book Depository in Dallas that was the “sniper’s perch” on Nov. 22, 1963, the day that President Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza below.
jfk.org