The 14 Most Overrated Tourist Attractions in the United States

Every one of these pulls a queue around the block, and every one sends somebody home muttering that the photographs oversold it.

1

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Brass stars set into a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk.

2

Times Square

A canyon of advertising screens and costumed characters in midtown Manhattan.

3

Mount Rushmore

Four presidents carved into a South Dakota granite face, smaller in person than in photos.

4

Fisherman's Wharf

San Francisco's souvenir-and-clam-chowder waterfront.

5

Bourbon Street

Six blocks of bars in the French Quarter that never quite close.

6

Liberty Bell

A cracked bell in a glass pavilion with a queue outside.

7

Four Corners Monument

A plaque where four state lines meet in the desert.

8

The Alamo

A small mission church surrounded by downtown San Antonio.

9

Plymouth Rock

A boulder behind railings, marked with a date.

10

Charging Bull

A bronze bull near Wall Street, usually obscured by the crowd around it.

11

Space Needle

Seattle's 1962 World's Fair tower and its rotating glass floor.

12

Graceland

Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion, preserved in its 1970s decor.

13

Gateway Arch

A 630-foot stainless steel curve over the Mississippi in St. Louis.

14

San Francisco Cable Cars

Wooden trams up the hills, charming from outside and packed within.