5 fun facts about America

Does the United States have an official language? What is the country's most visited museum? In honor of the Fourth of July, Travel + Leisure's Nilou Motamed shares the answers to those questions and reveals other surprising facts about the U.S.

By Travel + Leisure

Did you know that the world?s tallest roller coaster is right here in the U.S.? Read on to find out which state it?s in, plus more fun facts about America.

---

Fun Fact #1: The world's tallest roller coaster is in New Jersey
At 45 stories, Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure in N.J., is the tallest roller coaster in the world, plummeting 456 feet and reaching speeds up to 126 mph. The highest roller coaster recently opened in Colorado at an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet.
Source: The Rollercoaster Database and News.com.au

Related: See the World?s Scariest Roller Coasters

Fun Fact #2:?There are 182 places in the U.S. that have the word "Christmas" in their names.
They range from towns such as Christmas, Ariz., and Christmas Valley, Ore., to islands like Christmas Island in Florida ? and even some lakes (Christmas Lake in Washington).
Source: US Geological Survey

Fun Fact #3: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is the most-visited museum in the U.S.
The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum gets 8.3 million visitors a year and is second only to the Louvre in attendance worldwide.
Source: Travel + Leisure

Fun Fact #4: Sitka, Alaska, is the largest city by area
At 2,870 square miles, the Sitka city and borough is the largest city in the states. The four largest cities by area are in Alaska and the fifth largest is Jacksonville, Fla. Surprisingly, Los Angeles comes in at No. 15 and New York City at No. 34.
Source: U.S. Census

?Fun Fact #5: The U.S. does not have an official language
Small but significant measures have been made to establish English as the official language in many places (most states, and the government itself) but a federal law does not yet declare it as a national, official language.
Source: USConstitution.net

More from Travel + Leisure

Source: http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12482906-5-fun-facts-about-america?lite

robert de niro winner of x factor cheesecake recipe leona lewis carlos beltran air jordan 11 concord unemployment extension