US National Symbols Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

What shape appears on the reverse side of the Great Seal? It looks unfinished at the very top.

Question 2

Which famous document is Thomas Jefferson best known for writing? It announced America's break from Britain.

Question 3

Who designed the metal framework inside the Statue of Liberty? He later built an even more famous tower.

Question 4

What annual spring tradition invites children to roll eggs across the White House lawn? It has continued for well over a hundred years.

Question 5

Which US state is home to Mount Rushmore? This state also has a famous group of hills.

Question 6

About how tall is the Washington Monument? It was once the tallest structure in the entire world.

Question 7

What does the eagle hold in one claw on the Great Seal? This object is an old symbol of peace.

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About US National Symbols

Every country picks a handful of objects to stand in for itself, and the United States has collected an unusually large set of them over nearly two and a half centuries. Some were chosen on purpose by Congress, like the bald eagle in 1782. Others, like Uncle Sam, grew out of popular habit long before any government ever made them official.

The bald eagle almost was not the pick at all. Benjamin Franklin argued that the eagle had "bad moral character" and pushed for the wild turkey instead, calling it a "much more respectable bird." Congress disagreed, and the eagle has appeared on the Great Seal, on money, and on official buildings ever since.

Some symbols are actual physical objects you can still visit today. The Liberty Bell hangs near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, cracked and silent, while the Statue of Liberty still stands on its island in New York Harbor, exactly where millions of arriving immigrants once saw it for the first time.

Other symbols are not real objects at all, but characters invented to put a face on the whole country. Uncle Sam is the best-known example, a drawing of a tall man in a striped hat whose name may trace back to a real meat supplier named Samuel Wilson during the War of 1812.

A few national symbols are surprisingly recent. The American bison was not officially named the national mammal until 2016, and the rose became the national flower only in 1986, more than two hundred years after independence. It turns out the country kept adding to its own symbol collection long after the founding generation had died.

Some symbols were designed with hidden meaning packed into every detail. The Great Seal's eagle holds an olive branch in one claw and a bundle of arrows in the other, meant to show that the country prefers peace but is ready to defend itself. Even the number of stars, olives, and arrow feathers was chosen to echo the original 13 states.

Mount Rushmore is a reminder that some national symbols were built rather than born. A sculptor named Gutzon Borglum spent 14 years carving four presidents into a South Dakota mountainside, a project so large it required dynamite as often as chisels.

Taken all together, these symbols make a strange kind of family: a bird nobody could quite agree on, a bell that cracked, a statue built abroad and shipped over in pieces, a mountain carved on purpose, and a cartoon man in a hat. Each one, in its own way, still gets used to say the same simple thing: this represents America.