Giant Lion - Rex's Roar

San Diego, California

The San Diego Zoo was conceived in 1915 when a doctor named Harry Wegeforth drove past a menagerie left over from the Panama-Pacific Exposition and heard the roar of Rex, a lion. "Wouldn't it be splendid if San Diego had a zoo?" he supposedly asked his brother, and a year later he'd built one. The Zoo commemorated this legend on March 25, 2018, with the unveiling of "Rex's Roar," a 27-foot-long bronze lion balanced on one forepaw, with the back half of his body floating in the air.

The plaza surrounding Rex is outside the Zoo's main entrance, and has a cement-stained sun whose rays radiate from the landing spot of Rex's paw. Rex's antigravity butt -- he's supposed to be leaping -- was made possible by anchoring the ten-ton statue, through the foot, into 50 tons of buried concrete.