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Comment by franciscop | Hacker News Reader

> "It is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world"

Why do the USA press and people insist that if it's famous in the US it's famous in the rest of the world? I only guess it looks like a pentagon but for non-English speaking countries (most of the world) I wouldn't say it's one of the most recognizable buildings.

Just do a quick google search (probably with anonymous browsing/VPN?) of "famous buildings" and you'll see it's nowhere near them.

Edit: if you can read this (English + HN) you and your friends/family are most likely not part of the rest of the world, but I agree that I messed up confusing famous with recognizable.

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European here. Never even been to the US.

I'd say that as famous buildings go, the Pentagon is up near the top of my passive vocabulary - instantly recognizable and nameable. Washington, D.C. is rich in those.

But actively? No. If tasked with naming ten or twenty world famous buildings, I simply wouldn't think of it. Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, the Pantheon (oh yes), and somehow, Word Trade Center, even if it is no more, but no Pentagon would occur to me.

[Edit: The usual typos]

You'd put The Pantheon above The Parthenon? Or do you too suffer from my problem of having to check which is which?

I'd put the Pantheon obove the Parthenon, yes. For one thing, it is - magically - a functioning building, which just happens to have been going for 1800 years.

I do know the difference :-)

It's great - I assume the hole had a cover of some sort as a damp day makes it less functional (though just as impressive).

>instantly recognizable and nameable. Washington D.C. is rich in those.

I'm curious as to what other instantly recognizable and nameable buildings are in Washington D.C. to a non-American. I can think of the Pentagon and the White House. I can't really think of any others I would think a non-American would immediately recognize and be able to name. The Capitol, maybe? The Washington Monument?

I'm also wondering, with time, if the rebuilt World Trade Center will become just as recognizable. It certainly is striking in the Manhattan skyline, but it just doesn't seem "the same" to me for some reason I can't put my finger on.

Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, respectively. (American, guessing from the recognizable structures that show up in our cultural exports)

That just about sums it up, yes. Not too bad for one city.

Nope. I couldn't identify those, and I visited DC when I was about 14.

The Washington Monument (the big obelisk thing?), the White House, and the Pentagon -- the last as much because it's used in the news in the same way that "10 Downing Street" is, but unlike a London street, the Pentagon is a unique, distinctive structure.

They are commonly shown in tv and films but I doubt many outside the US could actually name them.

And they're on our currency :)

That Obelisk thing and the house with the Lincoln figure in it that is in the same park (or whatever).

That park or whatever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mall

If you saw a picture of it (remember, it's shaped like a pentagon), would you recognize it? I'd bet yes, making it recognizable.

Why do certain non-Americans insist on acting like our famous stuff isn't? It's ok if people know some of our stuff, it doesn't diminish you.

They're more than likely American, I know me and a few others have gone through phases of randomly pointing out common "misconceptions" like that to my fellow citizens! Mostly harmless

Actually for me, a citizen of a non English speaking country, it is. On the same level with the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben.

Same here. Any movie remotely related to the cold war (or just any conflict involving America) will probably have dramatic views of the Pentagon, often with "The Pentagon" as a caption.

There's a difference between being "an attraction" and "recognizable".

"most recognizable" and "famous" are correlated but not identical. The pentagon is not simply well-known, it's also very recognizable because - well, because it's a huge freakin' pentagon, and there aren't many other buildings that look anything like it.

Same applies to lesser-known Frank Gehry buildings, as one example. Many people might know the Guggenheim Bilbao, but might look at the much less well-known DZ Bank building in Berlin and think "that must be a Gehry!"

I get your point, but the pentagon is pretty recognisable if only because it's often the backdrop of news reports. That and it's a giant pentagon.

"backdrop of news reports" what? Maybe in the USA, not anywhere else.

in the backdrop of news reports originating in other countries about the USA

I'm getting down voted to oblivion, but in the UK Ive never seen a uk news reporter stand in front of the pentagon. Nore a French reporter. Maybe it's a USA thing?

>>backdrop of news reports

And films, don't forget the films. That is probably how most people know of The Pentagon.

As the article mentions, the Pentagon was a target in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. So, a billion people have probably seen it on TV.

In some sense you don't have to recognize the Pentagon to know it when you see it. Everyone knows that the words "the Pentagon" are used as a metonym for the US military, and it's pretty much the only pentagonal building. So if you saw a pentagonal building you'd say "Hey I bet that's the Pentagon" even if you'd never seen it before.

Its continuos involvement in international politics since the Cold War made the Pentagon universally famous (mostly in the bad sense). Also, its milimalistic fascist-like architecture makes it more easily recognizable than other simmilar symbols like the White House or the Kremlin (who actually knows what the Kremlin looks like?).

Many Westerners are under the impression that St. Basil's Cathederal is the Kremlin. It's a bit like thinking that the Washington Monument is the White House.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral

The Kremlin is a whole bunch of buildings, kind of like the Tower of London. It contains multiple palaces and churches, built over the course of ~400 years, in somewhat of a variety of architectural styles. What it looks like depends on which of those buildings you're looking at.

"Recognizable" is not the same thing as "famous."

Before I had seen it myself, I knew the name but I would not have recognized it from pictures.

If you had pictures of ten different buildings and knew that one of them is called Pentagon would you be able to reason which one that might be?

Maybe because I am German I wouldn't connect the word "Pentagon" with the geometric shape. In German a Pentagon is a "Fünfeck".

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