Every day, 10,000 people enter New York’s Grand Central Terminal—with no intention of catching a train. They come to slurp bivalves at the Oyster Bar or cocktails at the Campbell Apartment.
They gawk at the ceiling embellished with gold constellations, browse shops, and take tours. It’s enough to make the landmark one of America’s top five most-visited attractions.
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Location, of course, plays a role, and many of the most popular attractions are found in major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. Size, too, matters. While the National September 11 Memorial had an impressive 4.5 million visitors during its first year (it opened on Sept. 12, 2011), it was dwarfed by Central Park with 100 times the area.
Yet for every traveler drawn to the big city, there are others who embrace the great outdoors. With its accessibility and size, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a natural choice for millions—more than 9 million to be precise, making it the No. 16 most-visited attraction in the nation.
Like it or not, the white-tailed deer, black bears, and brilliant foliage of the Great Smokies can’t quite compete with the popularity of Disney among Americans and international visitors; five theme parks made it into the top 20.
To determine these rankings, we gathered the most recent data supplied by the attractions themselves or from government agencies, industry reports, and reputable media outlets.
Read on to find out which tourist attraction claimed the No. 1 spot with more than 41.9 million visitors in 2011. Were you one of them?
The Methodology: Our definition of tourist attractions included natural, cultural, and historic sites as well as recognized areas of limited geographic scope like the Las Vegas Strip. (We eliminated national parkways as they spread over extensive distances).
Accurate numbers weren't available for some popular attractions such as Waikiki Beach in Honolulu and the Atlantic City Boardwalk in New Jersey.
In the case of transportation hubs like Grand Central Terminal or San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge that bring in both travelers and locals, we focused as much as possible on visitor data that excluded the strictly commuting set.
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Times Square, New York City
Annual Visitors: 41,900,000
Neon signs, megastores, street performers, and historic theaters lure tourists to this five-block intersection that has become increasingly family-friendly.
The addition of pedestrian-only areas with café tables, for instance, has made it more appealing to hang out here.
At the small museum within the visitors’ center, the 2007 New Year’s Eve Centennial Ball drops four times an hour.
Write a wish on a piece of confetti, and it—and two tons of other pieces of confetti—will flutter down on Times Square at midnight New Year’s Eve.
Central Park, New York City
Annual Visitors: 40,000,000
Locals and visitors alike find respite among these 843 acres of paths, lawns, lakes, and gardens in the center of Manhattan.
Walk, skip, skate, ride a bike, row a boat or ride in a horse-drawn carriage.
You can admire the views from 19th-century Belvedere Castle; check out the modest-size zoo; or join the fans who gather to pay quiet tribute to John Lennon at Strawberry Fields.
Union Station, Washington DC
Annual Visitors: 36,500,000
Designed during the age of railroads and opened in 1907, this grand train station was built to be a monumental gateway—symbolized by its many arches—to America’s capital.
The Beaux-Arts gem is also a gateway to commerce, with more than 120 shops and eateries.
The 36 statues of Roman legionnaires lining the balcony were originally nude, but concerns that the public would be shocked led to the addition of strategically placed shields.
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