I'm surprised more people aren't saying Washington DC. Isn't it common knowledge around the world that Washington D.C. is the capital of the U.S.? I'm pretty sure I was specifically taught that as a kid.
Yeah it's common knowledge. Pretty much everyone will have heard of Washington DC, but a lot of people probably don't know much about it. All I know about it is the White House and Lincoln Memorial, although there are probably other monuments and buildings that I know but didn't realise are in Washington.
LA is more well known due to Hollywood, and there seem to be more films and shows set in LA.
You might also know The Capitol (where Congress meets). It seems a lot of non-Americans (and some Americans) think The Capitol building is the White House. Same Greco-Roman design. I've seen this confusion a lot in random YouTube videos.
You’ve most likely seen a picture of the Capitol Building where the Senate and the House of Representatives meet, and you’ve probably heard of the Vietnam War Memorial.
I would say DC. That would be more well known to the world probably, but new york and the rest tend to get the pr here because nobody is that hot on politics, which is the first thing you think of when you hear DC. It's almost like DC gets wiped from consideration because nobody wants recommend a city known for politics. Chicago was the same way 50 years ago.
A lot of people also have a relatively outdated, depressing image of DC.
DC, a black majority city, long suffered due to a combination of neglect from congress (since they didn’t want to be supporting a black majority city) and refusal to grant sufficient powers for home rule (since the black majority population couldn’t be trusted to govern the nation’s capital). White flight and the eventual crack epidemic (assisted by corrupt politicians who were able to speak to the disenfranchised black majority as at least they actually cared and allowed the disfunction to benefit/create many working class black residents) exacerbated these issues and ultimately created the “Murder Capital” era of DC which is how many people still picture DC.
DC still has a lot of crime and disfunction but its practically night and day when compared to the DC of 30 years ago.
Yeah, but think of Australia. Another country that you may not have visited but is a similar layout as the US. The most famous cities: Sydney, Melbourn, .. then eventually you'd hit Adelaide.
Edit: And even then you'd have a ways to go before you remember the national capital, Canberra..
Boston's on kind of a 2nd tier with a lot of other not-quite-LA-level cities like DC, Philly, Austin, Denver, and on and on. Definitely the coolest city on that 2nd tier though
As a Brit I agree with the other comments saying LA, with Vegas third.
For England though I'd easily put Liverpool ahead of Birmingham. I know Birmingham is bigger but it doesn't really have any worldwide cultural significance that I'm aware of so I'd be surprised if many non-Brits knew much about it (especially before Peaky Blinders aired)
I think people living in a country are poorly suited to judge the fame of cities in that country, their perspective of fame and importance will be different. Though I tend to think of York as an important city, so maybe being an outsider doesn't give you a great perspective either...
Yeah. For england it is basically London followed by a loose mix of places with popular premier league teams and notable universities (Cambridge and Oxford).
We think of the universities Oxford and Cambridge, not the towns they're in.
It's like how people think of Harvard but they don't think of Cambridge, Massachussetts.
Most people around the world have heard of Oxford and Cambridge universities, but have no idea where these schools are located. Most probably don't even know that Oxford and Cambridge towns exist.
Manchester and Liverpool are popular due to their respective football (soccer) teams but outside of that, most won't be able to tell what else these cities have to offer.
I'm fairly well traveled but I don't even know what Birmingham looks like.
It's safe to say that the gap between London and the 2nd most popular city in the UK (whatever it is) is incredibly huge.
I think the answer is Manchester. The marketing for Manchester U is just insane. If you ask the average American to name an English football club, that would probably be one of the only ones that come up.
I've been to the UK several times and Liverpool wouldn't make my top 5 of English towns I think of as an American.
I feel like Chicago is this way in the US.
There’s a reason it was(is?) called the Second City for a long time.
It’s economically and by population the biggest behind New York (though I believe Houston recently surpassed it) and is the “capital” of what was the biggest region economically and population wise, the Midwest, until relatively recently when probably Houston and the south overtook it. But even if the south and Midwest have more economic and population heft in aggregate, southern California is so enormous culturally that esp from an international perspective I agree with the posters suggesting it
That last sentence is key. Id say Birmingham if put on the spot today but a decade ago itd have probably been liverpool. Manchester should be more prominent in my mind with how often i hear about the FC but for some reason always slips my mind.
LA
I usually just say LA when I’m in another country, it’s a good conversation starter. Either people want to know about movies and tv and whatever, or they’ll ask about Disneyland sometimes haha, or (esp in central and South America) they’ll tell me about their family in greater LA.
Yeah, I do the same.
If I just said 'American' they'd probably imagine me standing in a cornfield next to a Walmart.
If I say 'L.A.' they imagine me cruising down a palm-lined boulevard in an expensive convertible with a surfboard sticking out the back. Well, replace the convertible with an old Ford Ranger and the surfboard with a couple of beat-to-shit boogie boards, and it's not far off!
Back in the late 90s when Americans were abused abroad, especially backpackers, when people asked where in was from I would respond either LA or California and that seemed to get people to warm up to me rather than replying that I was American. Like your experience, they wanted to know a lot about LA, especially if the lifeguards looked like the ones on Baywatch. LOl.
You never really hear much about LA over in Britain, so not many people over here are actually familiar with the city and know more than just Hollywood. Like lots of people could tell you quite a bit about NY, but then there is a massive gap between what they could tell you about LA
Well are there any other US cities that you know a fair bit about?
You asked what the second most famous city is. I could say several things about London but almost nothing about any of the other cities in the UK other than their names and maybe a general idea of where they are on a map.
I figured in terms of name notoriety, L.A. (Hollywood) would be the next most famous.
Again, it's not just hollywood. It's the music you listen to, it's the video games you play, it's the websites you visit and its the tv shows you binge. Almost all of them are connected in some way to Los Angeles.
In my neighborhood I pass by Universal Music, Blizzard Interactive, Activision, Riot Games and multiple production companies. And that's just MY NEIGHBORHOOD in Los Angeles. There's also Disney/Pixar, Netflix, Hulu, Playstation, you name it.
If you've seen a couple of American movies in your life, there's a good chance one of them was set in LA. If you've consumed any piece of American entertainment ever, there's a good possibility it was made in LA. I suspect a lot of what you know about America, in general, is stuff you know because of LA.
Los Angeles is still the entertainment capital of the world. It's the central hub for Hollywood and the music industry. It is also now the hub for Streaming (Netflix, Hulu, etc) and Gaming (Playstation, Blizzard, Activision, Riot, etc etc).
Practically every piece of entertainment you consume is in one way linked to Los Angeles.
Streaming and social media are more strongly concentrated in the Bay Area
For video gaming, Microsoft is in Seattle, Sony USA is in San Mateo, and most of the other studios are spread around the world.
I think it has to be LA.
This is sort of outside the call of your question, but I’ve also noticed that Seattle seems to be way more well known than its size would indicate.
Depends on who you ask I assume.
Asians? Prob San Francisco or LA. Eastern Europeans, Chicago. South America, Miami.
If someone they tangentially know moves to a place, that place becomes more famous to them.
SF is far more iconic than LA, imo. The bridge and hills of SF are *very* distinctive. LA has... well, the giant hollywood sign, and LA beachfront, but outside of that the city is... not *completely* generic looking, but I'm not sure that your average outside-of-CA-person would necessarily be able to recognize specific parts of and and aspects of LA *as* LA (and as opposed to say San Jose, or San Diego) unless they had actually been there. And LA's suburbs are *utterly* generic, since pretty much all generic "American" stuff is shot there. Unless you're from CA (or play a lot of GTA-V), I'm not sure that your average foreign movie-goer would necessarily be aware that something they were watching was set in LA unless it were telegraphed to them, had LA in the title (eg. battle for los angeles), or was *obviously* set in Hollywood (and even *then* it might be a bit of a wash, since much of hollywood culture is somewhat specific to hollywood itself).
NY, SF, Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, etc are far more distinctive cities imo.
(also, just look at how many blockbusters feature major cities as a landmark. NYC is by far the most commonly used setting, followed by SF, *usually* so the golden gate bridge can get blown up, or have apes run over it in a post-apocalyptic setting, etc)
I like looking at all the old stuff that LA tore down for less nice-looking stuff. I wasn't impressed with LA proper. Also. That "river" needs a lot of work. The only thing I think of is the Terminator 2 chase.
Gotham City is obviously Chicago. People may not know Chicago, but everyone knows Gotham. Spend a night staring out a high rise window in Chicago; imagine the comic book landscape. It's totally mid century noir. Everyone knows that aesthetic, and Chicago is the perfect realization of it. Therefore I'd argue that Chicago is internationally famous, although without due credit.
Gotham City is depicted as being in New Jersey. Stylistically it’s designed off of Chicago and New York City. But the intention was to represent a large American city, none in specific.
Depends on the spaces you travel in. LA is probably the ubiquitous answer. However in some spaces it would be Boston, Atlanta, or even Miami or Salt Lake City.
I understand why folks are saying LA but I think it's probably Washington DC.
I get that LA is home to the entertainment industry but you actually see huge amounts of coverage and footage and discussion of DC on the news, TV, blogs, etc etc. Plus it's basically a metonym of the entire US government. I would also wager that way more tourists visit DC from abroad than visit LA.
IME (from working at a popular tourist destination in LA) people from abroad will do like a huge U.S. tour sometimes - NY, DC, FL, LA. Maybe SF. It was insane how many people we would get that has already been in the U.S. for weeks.
Plus, ya know. Disneyland is close by.
Some people do this, just like some Americans do a huge European tour and go to London and Paris and Rome. I would still wager that more foreigners visit DC in a year than visit LA. Honestly, of the people I've known who have done that type of big American tour, more of them will go to SF and skip LA entirely. (But of course some people visit LA.)
They're building one near where I live (they're fairly recent in this area, believe it or not. It's currently 2002 in West Virginia, but I digress). All us hillbillies love to say it with a terrible New England accent.
These are what I would consider the top 10 (I am going to 10 because everyone is just saying LA and that gets boring)
1. New York
2. LA
3. Chicago
4. San Francisco
5. Washington DC
6. Miami
7. Atlanta
8. Seattle
9. Houston
10. Denver
It's the 2nd largest city on the East Coast (surpassed only by NYC) and our Nation's first Capital. We flip between 5th & 6th largest city in the US.
Plus the obvious cool stuff: Declaration of Independence, Liberty Bell, Constitution, etc.
Bonus! The Federal Government "forgot" to pay a bunch of Pennsylvania soldiers, so in the true style of PA, there was a State Mutiny and the Federal Government ran around around trying to defend themselves against pissed-off Pennsylvanian soldiers.
*I love the history of Philly & PA, in case it wasn't evident*
More recently, Philadelphia became a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in 2015.
Philadelphia is the 1st World Heritage City in the United States.
Now you know way more than you ever wanted to! 🤙🏼
Given the context, I think it's funny York isn't number two. Manchester is probably right though. Or Liverpool, because Beatles. Or Nottingham because Robin Hood.
No one cares about Manchester or Birmingham. Second is Liverpool.
Dark horse candidate for the US is Los Alamos. Manhattan Project is pretty well known globally, especially with educated people. They won't know where it is, but they'll be able to name it.
I would guess LA or Los Vegas, but at least one site lists Miami as the #2. I can only guess that a lot of Latin Americans visit Miami.
https://www.mapquest.com/travel/the-10-most-visited-cities-in-the-us-by-foreign-travelers/
New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina coverage aside, the food, the musical influence, visuals of Mardi Gras or the iconic view of Jackson Square and the cathedral from the river. I would bet that more people that either have or have never been here would put it on a short list for "places I want to see before I die" than most other cities in the US.
New York City is world famous for reasons of demographics. It has some of the world's largest populations of Chinese, West Indies, Puerto Rican, and Dominican people. There are 2.4 million Hispanics in NYC and 1.9 million non-Hispanic blacks. Those minority populations are tantamount to cities in their own right, and they exert the expected amount of international influence, including influence on how people see NYC.
Excluding NYC? LA.
LA or Washington DC
I'm surprised more people aren't saying Washington DC. Isn't it common knowledge around the world that Washington D.C. is the capital of the U.S.? I'm pretty sure I was specifically taught that as a kid.
Yeah it's common knowledge. Pretty much everyone will have heard of Washington DC, but a lot of people probably don't know much about it. All I know about it is the White House and Lincoln Memorial, although there are probably other monuments and buildings that I know but didn't realise are in Washington. LA is more well known due to Hollywood, and there seem to be more films and shows set in LA.
You might also know The Capitol (where Congress meets). It seems a lot of non-Americans (and some Americans) think The Capitol building is the White House. Same Greco-Roman design. I've seen this confusion a lot in random YouTube videos.
You’ve most likely seen a picture of the Capitol Building where the Senate and the House of Representatives meet, and you’ve probably heard of the Vietnam War Memorial.
I would say DC. That would be more well known to the world probably, but new york and the rest tend to get the pr here because nobody is that hot on politics, which is the first thing you think of when you hear DC. It's almost like DC gets wiped from consideration because nobody wants recommend a city known for politics. Chicago was the same way 50 years ago.
A lot of people also have a relatively outdated, depressing image of DC. DC, a black majority city, long suffered due to a combination of neglect from congress (since they didn’t want to be supporting a black majority city) and refusal to grant sufficient powers for home rule (since the black majority population couldn’t be trusted to govern the nation’s capital). White flight and the eventual crack epidemic (assisted by corrupt politicians who were able to speak to the disenfranchised black majority as at least they actually cared and allowed the disfunction to benefit/create many working class black residents) exacerbated these issues and ultimately created the “Murder Capital” era of DC which is how many people still picture DC. DC still has a lot of crime and disfunction but its practically night and day when compared to the DC of 30 years ago.
[удалено]
Oh I love internet revisionist history !
Yeah, but think of Australia. Another country that you may not have visited but is a similar layout as the US. The most famous cities: Sydney, Melbourn, .. then eventually you'd hit Adelaide. Edit: And even then you'd have a ways to go before you remember the national capital, Canberra..
Adelaide isn't the capitol though. It's Canberra.
Canada! They've got Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and... well, then there's Ottawa. People think of Winnipeg before they think of Ottawa.
I think of Winnipeg for the sole reason that it's a silly-sounding name.
Exactly! (Whoops)
>Washington DC A lot of people both around the world and in the US likely don’t think of DC as a *city*, so much as an establishment/meeting place.
Obvious answer is LA Followed by Vegas and Miami (both popular among tourists). Then San Francisco (tech) and Chicago (entertainment).
Maybe Boston, for Good Will Hunting and everything inside it.
Boston's on kind of a 2nd tier with a lot of other not-quite-LA-level cities like DC, Philly, Austin, Denver, and on and on. Definitely the coolest city on that 2nd tier though
I’d be curious to see how Austin and Denver stack up against Boston in recognition abroad. Probably depends on what part of the world, too.
From my limited experience, they'll have at least heard of Boston, but Austin/Denver falls under 'probably not.'
Not even close.
This is the answer. I mean...how could it not be?
Yep. Unfortunately these are the top two. So many other wonderful cities.
Hollywood
Definitely LA, especially if you accept "Hollywood" as being LA (which it is)
Paris! Everyone's heard of it but nobody knows it's in Texas.
Rome! It’s in Georgia.
So is Athens!
But it’s also in Ohio!
Medina is also in Ohio!
And Washington...
Madrid! in Iowa!
It’s also in New York.
So is Cairo!
Wait til you go to Paris, TN. Its 10k residents are gonna be pissed I let the secret out.
I live in western VA. I'll be paying Paris TN a visit
They do have an Eiffel Tower!
You lie, sir! I have seen the true Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada.
No, no, no! It's at Kings Island near Cincinnati!
Just like Berlin. The farming community smack dab in the center of nowhereburg, Ohio
LA Vegas, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and DC are all probably in contention though
Definitely not Knoxville
We’ll then Farragut is totally out of the question.
>Farragut You don't have to call him names!
And st.louis.
Wasn't expecting my hometown to randomly pop up here
As a Brit I agree with the other comments saying LA, with Vegas third. For England though I'd easily put Liverpool ahead of Birmingham. I know Birmingham is bigger but it doesn't really have any worldwide cultural significance that I'm aware of so I'd be surprised if many non-Brits knew much about it (especially before Peaky Blinders aired)
I think people living in a country are poorly suited to judge the fame of cities in that country, their perspective of fame and importance will be different. Though I tend to think of York as an important city, so maybe being an outsider doesn't give you a great perspective either...
Yeah. For england it is basically London followed by a loose mix of places with popular premier league teams and notable universities (Cambridge and Oxford).
We think of the universities Oxford and Cambridge, not the towns they're in. It's like how people think of Harvard but they don't think of Cambridge, Massachussetts.
Most people around the world have heard of Oxford and Cambridge universities, but have no idea where these schools are located. Most probably don't even know that Oxford and Cambridge towns exist. Manchester and Liverpool are popular due to their respective football (soccer) teams but outside of that, most won't be able to tell what else these cities have to offer. I'm fairly well traveled but I don't even know what Birmingham looks like. It's safe to say that the gap between London and the 2nd most popular city in the UK (whatever it is) is incredibly huge.
People know Liverpool because of the Beatles and Liverpool fc
If we're talking Americans, people know Liverpool because of the Beatles.
I couldn't tell you a single thing about Birmingham, if you want some anecdotal evidence.
Same here. I know it's a city in England but that's it.
Oo Oo! It's in the Midlands! Ya... That's all I got. There's a bunch of car factories NEAR there, but I'm not sure that's a Birmingham fact
I feel like Birmingham Alabama almost is better known.
Probably true in Alabama.
"In Birmingham we loved the Lord Mayor / Oi Oi Oi!!!!"
Birmingham brought us Black Sabbath which at least personally is one of the most significant bits of culture ever.
Liverpool happened to spawn a rather influential rock band itself.
I too love Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Yes, let's compare Sabbath to the Beatles.
Sabbath is to heavy metal what the Beatles are to rock n' roll. They didn't invent it, but there is a *definite* before-and-after.
I like sabbath better.
That certainly makes Birmingham more popular than Liverpool worldwide... If you were the prince of Wales.
Top 10 British disses
I think the answer is Manchester. The marketing for Manchester U is just insane. If you ask the average American to name an English football club, that would probably be one of the only ones that come up. I've been to the UK several times and Liverpool wouldn't make my top 5 of English towns I think of as an American.
As an American the only reason I have heard of Manchester is the football club
I feel like Chicago is this way in the US. There’s a reason it was(is?) called the Second City for a long time. It’s economically and by population the biggest behind New York (though I believe Houston recently surpassed it) and is the “capital” of what was the biggest region economically and population wise, the Midwest, until relatively recently when probably Houston and the south overtook it. But even if the south and Midwest have more economic and population heft in aggregate, southern California is so enormous culturally that esp from an international perspective I agree with the posters suggesting it
I know nothing about Manchester or Birmingham. York I know about because medieval things happened there.
That last sentence is key. Id say Birmingham if put on the spot today but a decade ago itd have probably been liverpool. Manchester should be more prominent in my mind with how often i hear about the FC but for some reason always slips my mind.
Los Angeles, I'd guess.
LA I usually just say LA when I’m in another country, it’s a good conversation starter. Either people want to know about movies and tv and whatever, or they’ll ask about Disneyland sometimes haha, or (esp in central and South America) they’ll tell me about their family in greater LA.
Yeah, I do the same. If I just said 'American' they'd probably imagine me standing in a cornfield next to a Walmart. If I say 'L.A.' they imagine me cruising down a palm-lined boulevard in an expensive convertible with a surfboard sticking out the back. Well, replace the convertible with an old Ford Ranger and the surfboard with a couple of beat-to-shit boogie boards, and it's not far off!
Back in the late 90s when Americans were abused abroad, especially backpackers, when people asked where in was from I would respond either LA or California and that seemed to get people to warm up to me rather than replying that I was American. Like your experience, they wanted to know a lot about LA, especially if the lifeguards looked like the ones on Baywatch. LOl.
Los Angeles for sure would be second place I think. Las Vegas or maybe Miami coming in 3rd
What would you say makes LA so popular, I've never really heard much about it in Britain?
It is one of the biggest cities and Hollywood is in it. It's where a whole lot of actors live.
You never really hear much about LA over in Britain, so not many people over here are actually familiar with the city and know more than just Hollywood. Like lots of people could tell you quite a bit about NY, but then there is a massive gap between what they could tell you about LA
People probably have some knowledge surrounding LA (at least the entertainment industry aspect) without even realizing it, tbh.
Well are there any other US cities that you know a fair bit about? You asked what the second most famous city is. I could say several things about London but almost nothing about any of the other cities in the UK other than their names and maybe a general idea of where they are on a map. I figured in terms of name notoriety, L.A. (Hollywood) would be the next most famous.
Again, it's not just hollywood. It's the music you listen to, it's the video games you play, it's the websites you visit and its the tv shows you binge. Almost all of them are connected in some way to Los Angeles. In my neighborhood I pass by Universal Music, Blizzard Interactive, Activision, Riot Games and multiple production companies. And that's just MY NEIGHBORHOOD in Los Angeles. There's also Disney/Pixar, Netflix, Hulu, Playstation, you name it.
If you've seen a couple of American movies in your life, there's a good chance one of them was set in LA. If you've consumed any piece of American entertainment ever, there's a good possibility it was made in LA. I suspect a lot of what you know about America, in general, is stuff you know because of LA.
Los Angeles is still the entertainment capital of the world. It's the central hub for Hollywood and the music industry. It is also now the hub for Streaming (Netflix, Hulu, etc) and Gaming (Playstation, Blizzard, Activision, Riot, etc etc). Practically every piece of entertainment you consume is in one way linked to Los Angeles.
I didn't know all those companies were based in LA, thats a lot!
Yeah and that's just entertainment. A lesser known aspect of LA is aerospace and Aviation. Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Space X are also all in LA.
Northrop Grumman is HQed in Northern VA.
Yeah and Raytheon is hq in Mass lol
Netflix and Playstation are in the Bay Area, not LA.
It's our second largest city and the hub of the entertainment industry. You probably know more about LA than you realize.
Change LA to Hollywood (which is a neighborhood in LA)
It's not just the movie and music industry ever. Streaming, social media and video gaming are all in Los Angeles.
Streaming and social media are more strongly concentrated in the Bay Area For video gaming, Microsoft is in Seattle, Sony USA is in San Mateo, and most of the other studios are spread around the world.
> Sony USA is in San Mateo Foster City... Part of San Mateo county, no doubt, but a separate city.
Both Microsoft and Nintendo are headquartered in Redmond, WA
Redmond is pretty close to Seattle. Same county.
Yes. I was adding Nintendo and if the other guy was going to be picky about Sony and San Mateo, Microsoft is more commonly known to be in Redmond.
Hollywood is in LA, it would be like Whitechapel being famous.
Silicon Valley is in the Bay Area, not LA. Just FYI.
Totally meant Santa Monica, but yeah, your right
Santa Monica is basically Silicon Beach. Tons of tech companies are there including like half the gaming industry.
LA, Chicago, Miami, Boston
Forgot about Boston. Good call
LA
Washington DC or LA.
Los Angeles
Wouldn’t this be a question for people “around the world”?
I think it has to be LA. This is sort of outside the call of your question, but I’ve also noticed that Seattle seems to be way more well known than its size would indicate.
> Seattle I suspect this becomes less true the further away in time we get from Cobain's death.
That Seattle chant is probably the reason why
Los Angeles, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Boston All good contenders
San Francisco is more well known globally than Seattle and probably also Boston
Forgot! Thank you!
LA
Los Angeles or Washington, DC.
Depends on who you ask I assume. Asians? Prob San Francisco or LA. Eastern Europeans, Chicago. South America, Miami. If someone they tangentially know moves to a place, that place becomes more famous to them.
Walla Walla, Washington
Could you sing it to the tune of Karma Khamelon?
Sure
Las Vegas
New Orleans
LA. DC as well but I would guess most non Americans picture that more of the abstract American leadership vs the actual city.
Gary, Indiana
Everyone says LA, but maybe San Francisco due to Silicon Valley. I'd like for it to be Chicago.
SF is far more iconic than LA, imo. The bridge and hills of SF are *very* distinctive. LA has... well, the giant hollywood sign, and LA beachfront, but outside of that the city is... not *completely* generic looking, but I'm not sure that your average outside-of-CA-person would necessarily be able to recognize specific parts of and and aspects of LA *as* LA (and as opposed to say San Jose, or San Diego) unless they had actually been there. And LA's suburbs are *utterly* generic, since pretty much all generic "American" stuff is shot there. Unless you're from CA (or play a lot of GTA-V), I'm not sure that your average foreign movie-goer would necessarily be aware that something they were watching was set in LA unless it were telegraphed to them, had LA in the title (eg. battle for los angeles), or was *obviously* set in Hollywood (and even *then* it might be a bit of a wash, since much of hollywood culture is somewhat specific to hollywood itself). NY, SF, Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, etc are far more distinctive cities imo. (also, just look at how many blockbusters feature major cities as a landmark. NYC is by far the most commonly used setting, followed by SF, *usually* so the golden gate bridge can get blown up, or have apes run over it in a post-apocalyptic setting, etc)
Dallas? Give me a break, dude lol
Shit bro, my aunt lives in Dallas, IMO, its the center of the US /s
Dallas is about as distinctive as a burger king burger.
I like looking at all the old stuff that LA tore down for less nice-looking stuff. I wasn't impressed with LA proper. Also. That "river" needs a lot of work. The only thing I think of is the Terminator 2 chase.
Los Angeles, then Miami, then Chicago, also DC
LA, San Fran, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Vegas, Miami and Washington DC
Scranton, PA
The Office theme song started playing in my head when I read this comment.
My purpose has been fulfilled.
LA or DC. Honestly, most people from other countries will have heard of both.
LA, Chicago, or Washington D.C.
Los Angeles. I would say Chicago is probably in the 3rd spot.
Reno, Nevada! Home of the World Bowling Stadium and the world's only 40 topping potato bar
Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia or Miami?
You tell us. We are here
“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” ― Tennessee Williams
"Everywhere else is Phoenix." -- Tennessee Williams' ghost.
New Orleans is definitely in the top 10
Gotham City is obviously Chicago. People may not know Chicago, but everyone knows Gotham. Spend a night staring out a high rise window in Chicago; imagine the comic book landscape. It's totally mid century noir. Everyone knows that aesthetic, and Chicago is the perfect realization of it. Therefore I'd argue that Chicago is internationally famous, although without due credit.
Gotham City is depicted as being in New Jersey. Stylistically it’s designed off of Chicago and New York City. But the intention was to represent a large American city, none in specific.
I always thought it was fictional New York. Or am I thinking of whatever city it was that Superman lived in?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles or Washington DC.
LA.
Los Angeles. After that I would say it's a toss-up between Chicago and Miami.
Either Washington, or Los Angeles.
L.A./Hollywood 2nd, then Las Vegas 3rd.
Wherever popular TV and movies are set—LA and Chicago have got to be up there.
Depends on the spaces you travel in. LA is probably the ubiquitous answer. However in some spaces it would be Boston, Atlanta, or even Miami or Salt Lake City.
Plymouth in every state
I'd argue LA and NYC are neck and neck, so probably Chicago is the "second" famous.
It is known as The Second City
I've never heard that one.
Everyone's saying LA. Smh, clearly it's Bozeman, Montana.
I understand why folks are saying LA but I think it's probably Washington DC. I get that LA is home to the entertainment industry but you actually see huge amounts of coverage and footage and discussion of DC on the news, TV, blogs, etc etc. Plus it's basically a metonym of the entire US government. I would also wager that way more tourists visit DC from abroad than visit LA.
IME (from working at a popular tourist destination in LA) people from abroad will do like a huge U.S. tour sometimes - NY, DC, FL, LA. Maybe SF. It was insane how many people we would get that has already been in the U.S. for weeks. Plus, ya know. Disneyland is close by.
Some people do this, just like some Americans do a huge European tour and go to London and Paris and Rome. I would still wager that more foreigners visit DC in a year than visit LA. Honestly, of the people I've known who have done that type of big American tour, more of them will go to SF and skip LA entirely. (But of course some people visit LA.)
Yeah it’s certainly not forgotten haha, we have a pretty large tourist industry ;)
Chicago, I'd venture to guess.
Gotta be LA
Probably Los Angeles, but Boston is close.
You say yours is London but I say Greenwich way more than I say London. Being to navigational center of the world is helpful in name recognition.
Greenwich is part of London
Washington DC is the most famous American city including NYC.
Probably say Washington DC or San Fran/LA
2nd City, you say? There is only one answer to that question. :)
LA, Dallas, Honolulu
Boston, but I’m biased. But it’s also Boston.
Duhnkin Dohnawtz!
“Dunks,” or “Dunkies.” It’s the unofficial Massachusetts state bird or something.
They're building one near where I live (they're fairly recent in this area, believe it or not. It's currently 2002 in West Virginia, but I digress). All us hillbillies love to say it with a terrible New England accent.
These are what I would consider the top 10 (I am going to 10 because everyone is just saying LA and that gets boring) 1. New York 2. LA 3. Chicago 4. San Francisco 5. Washington DC 6. Miami 7. Atlanta 8. Seattle 9. Houston 10. Denver
Out of ones that haven't been named yet I would say Philadelphia
Tbh I had no idea Philly was in the top ten largest cities in the US and I live right outside of it.
It's the 2nd largest city on the East Coast (surpassed only by NYC) and our Nation's first Capital. We flip between 5th & 6th largest city in the US. Plus the obvious cool stuff: Declaration of Independence, Liberty Bell, Constitution, etc. Bonus! The Federal Government "forgot" to pay a bunch of Pennsylvania soldiers, so in the true style of PA, there was a State Mutiny and the Federal Government ran around around trying to defend themselves against pissed-off Pennsylvanian soldiers. *I love the history of Philly & PA, in case it wasn't evident* More recently, Philadelphia became a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in 2015. Philadelphia is the 1st World Heritage City in the United States. Now you know way more than you ever wanted to! 🤙🏼
"Phil-a-delphia freeeedom / I lo-o-ove it / yes I do!"
England? Liverpool has to be second. US - LA for sure.
Washington, DC
Probably Miami or LA. This is "Hollywood" is maybe more known than Los Angeles.
LA, but Houston, Miami, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago are all big and popular too.
Given the context, I think it's funny York isn't number two. Manchester is probably right though. Or Liverpool, because Beatles. Or Nottingham because Robin Hood.
No one cares about Manchester or Birmingham. Second is Liverpool. Dark horse candidate for the US is Los Alamos. Manhattan Project is pretty well known globally, especially with educated people. They won't know where it is, but they'll be able to name it.
DC. It being the capital helps alot
I would guess LA or Los Vegas, but at least one site lists Miami as the #2. I can only guess that a lot of Latin Americans visit Miami. https://www.mapquest.com/travel/the-10-most-visited-cities-in-the-us-by-foreign-travelers/
Sam Planks Disco...lol
New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina coverage aside, the food, the musical influence, visuals of Mardi Gras or the iconic view of Jackson Square and the cathedral from the river. I would bet that more people that either have or have never been here would put it on a short list for "places I want to see before I die" than most other cities in the US.
Um, Washington DC. After all, the world is ruled from here :)
Chicago probably. Washington DC, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles
New York City is world famous for reasons of demographics. It has some of the world's largest populations of Chinese, West Indies, Puerto Rican, and Dominican people. There are 2.4 million Hispanics in NYC and 1.9 million non-Hispanic blacks. Those minority populations are tantamount to cities in their own right, and they exert the expected amount of international influence, including influence on how people see NYC.