Beautiful Man-Made Britain, Beautiful Natural America: Comments by Bill Bryson

by MOR | July 8, 2007 at 10:37 pm

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In a speech made by best-selling American-born writer, Bill Bryson says:

Where I come from [USA], when the landscape is stunning it's because nature made it that way. In Britain when it's stunning, it is, more often than not, because people made it that way. Of Britain's 27 World Heritage sites, only four are natural formations. The rest are monuments and landscapes built by humans.

I agree. The natural beauty of the US is unparalleled in the world. So why is it, whenever anything is touched by the hand of man in the US, it instantly becomes an eyesore? Strip malls, McMansions, box superstores, Las Vegas, suburban housing tracts, urban decay and blight, fast-food outlets, etc., etc. No wonder national parks in the US are overrun, they are some of the few places one can go to to avoid hurting one's eyes.