The United States is filled with famous attractions, from the world-renowned Statue of Liberty to the towering faces of Mount Rushmore. But did you know that a whole crop of would-be attractions never made it past the drawing board? These are the fascinating American monuments, museums and amusement parks that could have changed the makeup of the modern US... if only they'd been completed.
The Big Apple swells with impressive hotels – from the newly opened ultra-luxurious Aman to stalwarts like the Plaza. And there was almost another landmark stay in the city’s portfolio. In the early 1900s, the futuristic Hotel Attraction was dreamed up by none other than iconic Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, whose renowned masterpieces still draw millions of tourists to his adopted city of Barcelona. The rocket-like building would have soared at least 980 feet (299m) into the sky, and been filled with restaurants and luxurious guest rooms.
It’s not clear why Gaudi’s extravagant design – barely known publicly until the 1950s – was never realised. Some say that Gaudi became ill and there was no choice but to cancel the project, while others claim that his whimsical blueprints were too elaborate for American tastes at the time. Either way, New York City’s ever-changing skyline remained untouched by the Catalan architect.
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Few architects are more celebrated than Frank Lloyd Wright, the Wisconsin-born designer behind masterpieces like New York City’s Guggenheim Museum and Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois. But one of his designs (pictured) never made it beyond his sketches. The Illinois Hotel was designed in 1957 for Chicago, where the architect spent his formative years. If the plans had been realised, the one-mile-high (1,600m) hotel would have been four times taller than the then-tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building, and nearly twice the size of current incumbent the Burj Khalifa.
Though Lloyd Wright (pictured) threw his own weight behind the project, the gargantuan structure was never built because it was deemed to be technically impossible. This lone failed undertaking hasn't stopped Lloyd Wright from becoming one of the most respected architects in history.
The Las Vegas Strip is famously larger than life and a Titanic-themed resort wouldn’t look out of place alongside the model Eiffel Tower, the replica of the New York City skyline and the dancing fountains of the Bellagio. The proposed hotel, which was intended to open in the late 1990s, would have included 1,200 rooms, a replica of the fated ship, a casino, an amusement park and possibly even a zoo.
It’s not clear exactly what sank this bold homage to the Titanic. But, since the project was reportedly set to cost in the region of $1.2 billion (around £900 million), money might well have had something to do with it. Regardless, a walk along the Vegas Strip is still an assault on the senses, with winking neon, pulsing music and hotels and casinos galore.
DC's National Mall (pictured) is heaving with the world-famous Smithsonian institutions – from the National Museum of African American History and Culture to the National Museum of Natural History. And another one almost joined their ranks. Proposed in the mid-20th century, the National Museum of Man would have been curated by anthropologists and was intended to shine a light on the world’s diverse cultures in the face of rapid industrialisation and globalisation. It would have contained a variety of artefacts and informative displays.
The Parisian Musée de l'Homme (pictured), which opened in 1937, was a major inspiration for the proposed Washington venue. However, despite efforts from the Smithsonian’s then-secretary, ornithologist Sidney Dillon Ripley, the museum failed to gain support from Congress and never got off the ground. Over the decades that followed, the plans were scrapped altogether.
There were other forces attempting to remodel DC’s National Mall too. Among them was Franklin Webster Smith (pictured), a 19th-century reformer who envisaged a giant and elaborate gallery complex dedicated to history and the arts. The planned site would have sprawled across 62 acres, with individual courtyards dedicated to civilisations like Egypt and Byzantium, complete with impressive architectural replicas.
Smith’s designs, pictured, were impressive – the New York Times labelled them "stupendous", and some members of Congress backed his lofty ideas. However, the project was set to cost around $10 million (£8.3m), and though many dignitaries liked the proposal in theory, they balked at the sums required. Smith campaigned tirelessly to secure financing throughout his life, but the plans never came to fruition.
Disney has much-loved theme parks from coast to coast in the USA – but Port Disney (plans pictured) was one of its few failed endeavours. The ocean-themed park was announced in 1991 and would have sprawled around Queensway Bay in Long Beach, California. Amenities would have included a handful of resort hotels, a cruise ship port and DisneySea, a classic theme park with roller coasters, shows and what might have been the biggest aquarium in the world.
In reality, the park faced financial constraints and opposition from Long Beach residents, who feared that the neighbourhood would become overcrowded and that funds for local infrastructure would be diverted towards the project. Ultimately the development was abandoned, though Tokyo DisneySea, which opened in 2001, borrowed elements of the original Port Disney plans.
Back in the 1960s, there were plans afoot for a Disney theme park in one of Missouri’s major cities too. St Louis is known for the mighty Gateway Arch (pictured) and in its shadow would have been a resort with sections dedicated to St Louis as well as New Orleans, plus plenty of shops and a banquet hall. These grand Midwestern plans were not to be, as money and ownership issues halted the project, causing Walt Disney to turn his attention to Florida instead.
See these incredible images of Disney parks through the decades
Mineral King was another ill-fated Disney project. In the mid-20th century, the ever-ambitious Walt Disney set his heart on turning this beautiful valley into a winter resort. The Alpine-inspired complex would have included a mammoth hotel, a golf course and ice rinks, plus four miles (6km) of varied ski runs. However, Disney's death in 1966 and friction with conservationists scuppered the proposals, and the area eventually became part of Sequoia National Park.
Fans of the enigmatic superhero Batman would have loved this attraction, originally planned for Universal Studios Orlando in the 1990s. The land was almost fully planned out, and would have included a Batmobile-themed ride, a Riddler-themed puzzle shop, a Joker-themed roller coaster and the Batcave Nightclub, which would have come with large speakers and laser shows. Above it all the Batman signal would have sat imprinted into the sky – luring Bat fans in.
Some outlets report that Warner Bros and Universal were unable to reach an agreement on royalties, so the attraction never took off. In any case, Marvel Super Hero Island was born instead. The land brings to life fan-favourite Marvel characters like the Hulk, Captain America and Spiderman with restaurants, roller coasters and meet and greets.
The Coney Island Globe Tower was proposed in the early 1900s and would have forever changed the makeup of Brooklyn's gloriously kitsch beach, boardwalk and amusement parks. The striking attraction was set to rise to 700 feet (213m) into the air – it was marketed as the soon-to-be second tallest building in the world – and would have overseen a circus, an amusement park, gardens and an observation tower.
Investors plunged money into the tower but, after the cornerstones were laid, no further building work followed. As more time passed, the project was eventually written off as a money-making scam.
The landscape of DC's National Mall would have looked rather different if a man named John Russell Pope had had his way. The American architect, who went on to design the Jefferson Memorial, was desperate to take charge of the newly-commissioned Lincoln Memorial in 1911, and dreamt up several potential designs including a vast circular building ringed with classical columns, a stepped ziggurat-style structure and this Egyptian-style pyramid.
Unfortunately for Pope, he wasn't the only designer to throw his hat in the ring, and architect Henry Bacon put forward a design for an elegant Beaux-Arts monument with columns and a giant statue of Lincoln himself inside. It was his proposal that was eventually chosen, built and dedicated in 1922. Sorry, Pope.
Another lost DC monument, the Mothers' Memorial was envisioned by socialite and founder of the Women's Universal Alliance Daisy Calhoun in the 1920s, and had a groundbreaking ceremony on Mother's Day in 1929. "The world has memorialised fighters, thinkers, monarchs and prophets, sea kings and generals," said Calhoun, "but as yet no mother genius has been raised in imperishable stone...to proclaim the debt each mortal owes to the woman who risked her own life to give life." The proposed design was by William Clark Noble and included intricate freestanding columns, a grand staircase and a vast central structure adorned with reliefs and arches.
Sadly, the monument was never realised. Reports vary, but it's widely thought that fundraising difficulties during the Great Depression and a feud between Noble and Calhoun stopped the project in its tracks. Noble is pictured here with a bust of the 16th US president, Abraham Lincoln.
Dreamed up in the early 20th century, the National American Indian Memorial would have paid tribute to America's Indigenous peoples from a parapet high above the Narrows – the strait that forms the main entrance to New York Harbour. The proposed design featured a towering statue of a Native American warrior – not wholly unlike the nearby Statue of Liberty – perched atop a museum of Native American history, reached by a sweeping staircase.
30 Indigenous leaders were present alongside then-president William Howard Taft at the monument's ground-breaking ceremony in 1913. But support for the monument sadly petered out and construction never began. With the onset of the First World War, the project was quickly forgotten.
Hailed as the West Coast’s answer to the Statue of Liberty, the Monument to Democracy was dreamt up for the San Pedro neighbourhood of Los Angeles in the 1950s. It would have soared to 480 feet (146m) and been formed of giant gilded human statues holding up a globe-like object. It was apparently the brainchild of 20th-century American artist and designer Millard Sheets (pictured).
Sheets couldn’t muster the financial means to build the mighty monument, and so it remained a mere vision. Today San Pedro (pictured) is known for its buzzy waterfront, art galleries and family-friendly museums.
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