1st choice...The Pentagon. It's tough (you can crash a plane into it and it barely crumbles). Geometrically sound. Largest office building (in the world?) ..much less the region.

Falling Waters. How that home can hang over the edge like that...amazing!

I'm done here

Is the Washington Monument too obvious?

Nope, not too obvious at all. That's one vote for the W.M.

Washington National Cathedral

Foamhenge in Natural Bridge, VA -- just like England's Druid ruin, except it's styrofoam. And a lot closer than Salisbury Plain.

My choices would be the Chrysler Building in NYC for its elegant proportions; Lucy the Elephant in Margate, NJ for pure kitsch value; and the entire District of Columbia for L'Enfant's street plan and the beautiful vistas it creates all through the city.

My votes goes for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It nearly took my breath away the first time I drove across it, and it never fails to awe me whenever I travel across. I even take out of town guests just to ride over it. The views, the experience, the majesty are simply uncomparable.

How about Skyline View Drive. Beautiful most of the year but especially in the Fall

My man-made favorites in DC are the US Capitol Building, Thomas Jefferson Memorial (especially at night) and The Awakening on Haynes Point. Within driving distance, Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, Monticello. Too bad we are not working on the "natural" wonders list - there are so many!

Old Executive Office Building--beautiful inside and out.

When people say "Chesapeake Bay Bridge" do they mean the Rte 50 bridge, or the Bay Bridge Tunnel on Rte 13? I've driven both many times and the latter is far more impressive as a man made wonder IMHO.

Skyline Drive--it was an incredible accomplishment achieved by the CCC, so it both created a beautiful thing and helped a lot of desperately poor families. Two good books about it I just got at the Park Service online bookstore called "Everything Was Wonderful" and "The Greatest Single Feature, A Sky Line Drive".

Rosslyn, you've inadvertently touched off a little controversy here in the Travel section. I was about to answer you that of course we meant the Bay Bridge-Tunnel, when my colleague John Deiner opined that he thinks the Route 50 bridge, popularly known as the Bay Bridge, is the real contender. I don't really get it since the B.B. seems pretty pedestrian to me. But perhaps that's just because I'm always so freaked out by driving it that I never notice its beauty (?). So readers, please indicate which bridge you mean when you send in your nominations. Thanks!

how about the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge? It is truly a marvel of engineering and a vast improvement on the old piece of garbage. And I third the Skyline Drive nomination.

I would have to nominate the planned city of Columbia, Maryland, which just celebrated its 40th birthday. It illustrates that the humane vision of one man, Jim Rouse, can be accomplished when political, community, economic and institutional forces are lined up behind it.

Reston should get the nod over boring Columbia. Though, honestly, I don't think either qualify...My seven would be: US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Chrysler Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Independence Hall, Yankee Stadium, and Doo Wop motels on the shore!

Reston should get the nod over boring Columbia. Though, honestly, I don't think either qualify...My seven would be: US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Chrysler Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Independence Hall, Yankee Stadium, and Doo Wop motels on the shore!

Interesting...
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
The Capitol, hands down, my favorite.
Brooklyn Bridge.
Empire State or Chrysler Building.
Verrazano Narrows Bridge or GW Bridge.
If we're going to look at a city, either NYC or DC has it as a marvel over Reston or Columbia.
And I'm not sure where, but don't we have a big dam-med lake around here that's impressive enough to qualify?

I vote for the Air & Space Museum. Not for the building itself, but for the wonderful marvels inside. The entire history of the twentieth century is contained within those walls - from Wilbur & Orville through the Apollo program and beyond. There's nothing else like it anywhere in the world and it's the one place that everyone loves, no matter who they are.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and the Memorials in DC (Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam, etc)--they're (almost) all amazing, so just make them one entry!