You might think you know the USA – its landscapes and cities are blown up on cinema screens, its past laid bare in history books. But even so, this vast and fascinating country is still full of surprises. Here are 30 fascinating facts we bet you didn't know about the United States of America.

There have been several iterations of the US flag over the centuries and the current version is one of the most recognisable symbols of a nation in the world. Fun fact: it was designed by a 17-year-old high school student. As the story goes, young Ohioan Bob Heft completed the design as homework for an American history class and earned a humble 'B-' grade. But after Heft submitted his work to his congressman as a dare, the design was picked up by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower and eventually adopted as the national flag in 1960.

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America has plenty of small towns, but Monowi, Nebraska is minuscule indeed. It was once a prosperous farming town, but after the work dried up, so too did the population. It's now home to Elsie Eiler, who's been the sole resident since 2004, when her husband Rudy passed away. Today, she wears many a hat, including as the town's mayor and as bartender at the Monowi Tavern. She's pictured here in the town's 5,000-book library.

The most adorable small town in every US state

The USA encompasses some giant green spaces, from national wonders like Yellowstone to urban oases such as New York's Central Park. But quirky Portland's Mill Ends Park comes in at the opposite end of the scale. The teensy plot stretches just two feet (0.6m) across and is home to a single tree. Not the ideal place for a lunch break.

You might assume that English is the official tongue of the USA – but although it's the most widely spoken language in the States, it's not federally recognised as the official language. In fact, the US has no official vernacular at all. It's estimated that more than 350 languages are spoken in the country today, from Spanish to Swahili and everything in between.

You can't go far in the States without seeing those dramatic golden arches – so perhaps it's no surprise that so many Americans have earned a pay cheque at McDonald's. It's estimated that about one in eight American workers have rubbed shoulders with Ronald McDonald, whether that be flipping burgers, working the cash register, or doing white-collar work. 

New York City is one of the most populous places on Earth. It sprawls across five boroughs and is home to more than eight million people, who speak hundreds of languages between them. To put this into further context, the Big Apple contains far more residents than some of the country's most spacious states, including Montana, Utah and Oregon.

It's hard to comprehend the sheer scale of the United States. But at more than 3,474,919 square miles (9m sqkm), it's almost the size of the entire continent of Europe. In fact, the UK could fit into the single state of Texas nearly three times. America's giant landscapes are sculpted with a hugely diverse array of geography, including rippling mountains, wildlife-filled forests, lakes and Alpine tundra. Pictured here is the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Yosemite National Park, California. 

Ranked: America's most beautiful landscapes

American Independence Day is zealously celebrated with fireworks and parades each year on 4 July. But, according to the history books, there's another date that ought to be recognised. Congress actually voted in favour of independence on 2 July 1776, though the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted two days later.

Grazing the wide, open plains of the USA's west and beyond, cattle are one of the most common sights along America's highways. Many US states are world heavyweights when it comes to beef production. In several – including Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming – the number of cows exceeds the number of human residents.

Americans are die-hard pizza fans. The love affair began at Lombardi's in New York City – the country's first pizza parlour, which opened in 1905 – and has raged on ever since. Today it's estimated that the nation feasts on a giant 100 acres of pizza per day. That equates to about three billion pizzas per year. Pepperoni is the topping of choice.

The USA boasts plenty of firsts, including what's widely recognised as the world's earliest beach boardwalk. New Jersey's Atlantic City boardwalk – an entertainment hub lined with down-to-earth restaurants, shops and casinos – opened in 1870. And at more than five miles (8km), it's tipped as the longest boardwalk on Earth too.

Pennsylvania's Centralia was once a thrumming mining town with upwards of 1,000 residents. But in the 1960s, an ill-advised attempt to dispose of the town's trash by dumping it underground and setting it alight sparked a blaze that has burned for decades. Today, just a handful of residents remain in what's now a veritable ghost town. The ground beneath the settlement still smoulders. 

The eeriest ghost towns in America

Packed tight with world-class museums, striking historic monuments and important political buildings, Washington DC is the nation's modern capital. But it didn't earn that status until 1800. In fact, New York City was the initial seat of the US Congress immediately after the Constitution was ratified in 1789, and Philadelphia served a 10-year term while Washington DC was being constructed.

America has natural wonders aplenty, but many of them lie beneath the Earth's surface. Intricate caverns filled with stalagmites and stalactites create a subterranean world, and Kentucky's Mammoth Caves are among the most impressive. This sprawling network is the longest known cave system in the world, with 400 miles (644km) explored so far. There may be up to 600 miles (966km) of cave still to go...

It's not just America's natural wonders that are larger than life – it has plenty of Hulk-sized buildings too. Among them is the Pentagon in Virginia, which is tipped as the largest office building in the world, at 6.5 million square feet (603,870m²) of space. It serves as the headquarters of the United States Defense Department and was tragically targeted during the attacks of 9/11, killing 125 people on the ground and a further 64 in the plane.

The USA noses up to Canada, with iconic attractions such as Niagara Falls straddling the two countries. The border between the two lands is the longest land border in the world, stretching out to approximately 5,525 miles (8,892km). Highlights on the US side include Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park, where you might be lucky enough to spy the Northern Lights in the sky.

With so much land, it's not surprising that the USA is one of the world's farming powerhouses. In fact, the National Association of Wheat Growers estimates that, each year, Kansas alone produces enough wheat to feed the world's population for about two weeks. The country's central Corn Belt also produces more than a third of the world's corn.

Ask most people to name the world's tallest mountain and they'd say Everest: Nepal's sky-scraping peak soars to 29,032 feet (8,849m) above sea level and is widely recognised as the Earth's mightiest bluff. But, when measured from its underwater base, Hawaii's Mauna Kea would earn that accolade. It's partially submerged, but it reaches 33,500 feet (10,210m) when sized up from base to tip.

New York City's Statue of Liberty is the most American of landmarks. But did you know that Lady Liberty was actually a gift from France? The country gave the hulking statue to the American people as part of a centenary celebration of their independence and as a marker of friendship between the two countries.

Yes, you read that right. It's been possible to obtain a license to hunt these majestic and mythical beings since 1971. It's a tongue-in-cheek tradition dreamt up by Michigan's Lake Superior State University as a way to boost publicity for the new college. Students can still apply for a 'license' to go 'questing' in the woods, on the hunt for the fabled creatures.

The biodiversity of the USA is awesome and that's partly because it has all five of the Earth's major climate zones: dry, temperate, continental, tropical and polar. The searing, stark plains of the southwest's Death Valley couldn't be more different to the snowy expanses of Denali National Park, or the wild tropics of Hawaii (pictured) and South Florida.

The USA is one of the greatest musical destinations on Earth, not least because so many of the world's genres were born in the USA. Rooted in European or African traditions, country, soul, jazz, hip-hop and rock 'n' roll all sprouted and grew legs in the USA, and today legendary live music venues in cities from New Orleans to Austin breathe life into these native genres.

There are approximately 30,000 semi-wild bison living across North America, roaming the plains from North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park to Utah's Antelope Island. They also represent one of America's great conservation success stories, as they were brought back from the brink after excessive hunting. The hulking mammal was granted US symbol status in 2016. 

These iconic animals were extinct – then conservationists brought them back

Though Santa Claus himself prefers to take up residence in Lapland, the self-professed 'Christmas Tree Capital of the World' is in Indiana County, in southwest Pennsylvania. It's been known as such since 1956, when a bumper crop meant that some 700,000 festive fir trees were harvested for the winter season.

Consider the largest organism on Earth and you might imagine an Antarctic blue whale, or perhaps a majestic sequoia tree. But, according to experts, the world's biggest organism is actually a giant fungus. A sprawling and ancient fungal colony of Armillaria ostoyae was discovered by scientists in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon's Blue Mountains several decades ago. At a gigantic four square miles (10sq km), it is tipped as the largest organism by area in the world.

The USA has many impressive manmade structures – among them is Nevada's Hoover Dam. This giant feat of engineering formed the largest reservoir in the country, Lake Mead, and caused an entire city to spring up during its construction. Today it contains so much concrete that, if you laid it out, you could build a road stretching from Seattle to Miami. 

America's most beautiful lakes in pictures

The mighty Empire State Building dominates the New York City skyline. The Art Deco icon was finished in 1931 and soars to an eye-watering 1,454 feet (443m) – upon completion, it was the tallest building in the world. Such is its scale and importance that today the humungous landmark has its very own zip code. It's 10118, in case you were wondering.

The dizzying Library of Congress is a book lover's dream. About 173 million items are piled up on its shelves. If the bookshelves were arranged in a line, they would spool out for a whopping 838 miles (1,349km). The tomes range from children's fiction to important political titles and they sit alongside photos, journals, maps, sound recordings and more.

Soak up that famous NYC skyline while you can, as it will soon be no more, according to a recent US government study. The Big Apple is subsiding at a rate of 1-2mm per year – the same as the floating city of Venice, Italy – and the weight of its towering skyscrapers and continuous construction are to blame. The threat of sea level rise is three to four times higher in New York than in other areas along the Atlantic Coast, and coupled with the mass of the one million-plus buildings in the five boroughs equalling 762 billion kilograms (1.68 trillion lbs), subsidence is inevitable. Parts of the city, which is home to more than eight million people, are sinking faster than others, with increasing storm intensity also contributing to the gradual sinking of land.

There are some 574 federally recognised tribes in the contiguous US and Alaska, each with distinct cultures and beautiful and sacred homelands. The largest among them is the Navajo Nation, which has its own court system and police academy. Sprawling across 27,000 square miles (69,930 sq km) of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the tribe's reservation is larger than the state of West Virginia. 

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