World's Only Washington Monument Skyscraper

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Built in 1929 and restored in 2008, Foshay Tower was the dream of super-salesman Wilbur Foshay. It was dedicated only a few weeks before the Stock Market crash, and Foshay went bankrupt six weeks later. He never had the chance to live in the Tower's three-bathroom executive suite.

At 447 feet tall, Foshay Tower is the only skyscraper in the world modeled after the Washington Monument (Wilbur Foshay was a big fan of George Washington). The tower would look more like the monument if it didn't have 32 floors of windows. It has a museum dedicated to itself on its 30th floor, and an open-air 360-degree observation deck that helps visitors to appreciate how dull the rest of Minneapolis's buildings are by comparison.

Foshay was sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary for fraud, but his sentence was commuted three years later by President Roosevelt. He made a new life for himself in Salida, Colorado, where he further cemented his Roadside legacy by popularizing the fur-bearing trout.