Eiffel Tower Effect / Real Life

• Given that it's literally the tallest building in the world, at four-fifths of a kilometer high, it's no surprise that the Burj Khalifa is this to the city of Dubai.
• Washington, D.C. has a thirteen-story height cap^note Well, not precisely. In general, it limits buildings to 130 feet or the width of the street they face plus twenty feet, whichever is less, except that on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 1st and 15th Sts. NW—the stretch between The White House and the Capitol—the cap is 160 feet. This amounts to a thirteen-story cap, on average. on buildings within its city limits, so the Washington Monument is at least partly visible throughout a large portion of that city.
  • Supposedly some building codes in the area were made for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.
  • Of course the Washington Monument is not the only notable building in media. The White House and Capitol Building are also well-known presences.
• The CN Tower is similar to the Washington Monument, but for different reasons. It's not that the buildings in Toronto are especially small, it's just the CN Tower really is that huge. It can even be seen from some points north of the city.
  • It can be seen (on a very clear day) in Rochester, New York, which is on the other side of a Great freakin' Lake and in another country.
• In Paris itself this does happen to some degree with the Eiffel Tower, visible from the entire Western half of the city, and to the dismay of many Parisians, it also happens with the Montparnasse tower and the Southern half.
  • Some go out of their way to avoid this effect: Novelist Guy de Maupassant supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that, as no big fan of the Tower, it was the one place in Paris where he knew he wouldn't see it.
  • Georges Clemenceau also allegedly chose his apartment in the Rue Franklin (in Passy, now a museum) so that he would not have to look at the Eiffel Tower from his study.
  • The Tower is so prominent because Paris, like Washington DC, has a strict height limitation in the central city. (It's one of the legacies of Baron Haussmann's enormous renovation of the city in the mid-nineteenth century.) Due to intensive underground quarrying, the ground under considerable parts of the city is too weak to support really high buildings. Paris does have skyscrapers, but they're concentrated at La Défense, a purpose-built business district in the suburb of Nanterre, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.
• Non-visual example. Lots of movies back establishing shots of Middle Eastern cities with the Islamic call-to-prayer chant to establish their Middle Eastern-ness. Also truth in television; for example, İstanbul alone has thousands of mosques, and the call to prayer can be heard sounding out, five times a day, anywhere in the city.
• New York City used to be instantly recognizable by the Twin Towers (One and Two World Trade Center). Since 9/11, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty, or the UN headquarters building - who were all subject to this trope even before 9/11 - are forced to stand in instead.
  • Since the Twin Towers were only completed in 1973, the aforementioned landmarks had already long been used to establish an NYC setting. The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building in particular have been used for this purpose since the very beginning of film.
  • New York has several lesser-used but still highly visible landmarks, especially the Washington Memorial Arch (When Harry Met Sally...), the Brooklyn Bridge (Taxi Driver, Spider-Man), the Flatiron Building (TV's Veronica's Closet and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)), etc.
  • Ever since the completion of the new World Trade Center (primarily One World Trade Center), TV shows and movies set in New York have been quick to include it in establishing shots; it won't be long before the tower is cemented in pop culture like its predecessors. Given the historical baggage of its predecessors, though, don't expect to see it destroyed onscreen anytime soon.
  • The Twin Towers are still featured in current media, only now they're used for the specific purpose of indicating that a story is not only set in NYC, but in the past between the 70's and the 90's.
• Speaking of newly completed structures, although Tokyo Tower has cemented its place effectively on a permanent basis in Japanese pop culture, Tokyo Skytree is starting to become a new one, already being featured in multiple works.
  • It may not be as noticeable as the above two, but the Rainbow Bridge and Fuji TV headquarters in Odaiba are these to some extent.
• If there's anything that would be synonymous with Japan as a whole, that would be Mt. Fuji.
• While Chicago's tallest building is the Willis Tower^note formerly the Sears Tower, and still called that by some insistent locals, it's the John Hancock Center that's the city's true "signature" structure.
  • But the Board of Trade is the coolest Chicago building...
  • Marina City gets used a lot, too. It's sometimes called the "Wilco Towers" since its appearance on the cover of their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
  • Buckingham Fountain, aka the Married... with Children fountain, is sometimes used if a non-skyline establishing shot is preferred, as is Cloud Gate (aka "the Bean").
• The Gateway Arch in St. Louis for Missouri in general. That's what ended up on the back of the Missouri quarter. Kansas City, on the opposite side of the state, is generally represented by one of the many, many, many fountains in the city, most often the JC Nichols fountain.
• The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (prevalent in the title credits in Full House, for one). You can substitute cable cars for similar effect.
  • The Sutro Tower really can be seen from anywhere in San Francisco—it's a tripod-shaped radio tower much taller than any building, located on the second-highest hill, in the geographical center of the city. Ironically, it almost never appears in film, possibly because it's often regarded as quite ugly, although it was featured in an episode of Mythbusters.
  • The Transamerican Pyramid Center is also a building that stands out in the city's skyline.
  • Also Coit Tower and the "crookedest street in the world" block of Lombard Street.
  • Or any photogenic intersection where a nice shot of a passing cable car can be filmed.
  • The Sing Chong Building is frequently used to establish the setting as San Francisco's Chinatown.
• Stockholm, Sweden has a few:
  • The most famous one is the City Hall, visible from much of the inner city. This building is to Stockholm what the Westminster Palace/Big Ben is to London. It even has a signature tune, played by the bells at 12 and 6 pm.
  • There's also Globen (aka Avicii Arena), a hemispherical ice hockey/entertainment venue, which is currently the largest hemispherical building in the world. When Sweden hosts an ice hockey world championship, it's usually there.
  • Usually depicted together with the City Hall and Globen are Hötorgsskraporna (Haymarket Buildings), a row of five high-rise office buildings.
  • A lesser one is Kaknästornet (the Kaknäs tower), a tall TV tower located on Djurgården.
• For Helsinki, Finland this is the 19th century St. Nicholas' Cathedral. If you do an image search with the city's name, it's literally impossible to not work out which building it is.
• Probably even more visible (though far less spectacular) than the tower in Paris is the Petřínská rozhledna on a hilltop in Prague, a city with few skyscrapers. Unfortunately, despite being higher up than the real Eiffel Tower, it's still not as conspicuous in the skyline as the world's second ugliest building◊.
• South African TV news, when broadcasting from Johannesburg, includes an opening shot of the Hillbrow Tower, even though it's just a radio antenna and the newsroom isn't in there, to establish the location (justified in that it's the tallest building in Africa). Foreign news stories tend to include shots of Table Mountain, which overlooks the country's legislative capital of Cape Town, if an event happened anywhere in South Africa generally. This is sometimes quite funny, as if you were reporting on an event happening in Maine while showing a picture of the Statue of Liberty. Close, but no cigar.
• The Space Needle's entire reason for existence seems to be as a means to set up establishing shots of Seattle. Never mind that the Needle itself is dwarfed by surrounding buildings to such a degree that it ends up looking comically small if not framed well. Even the idea behind the Needle was for it to be the "Eiffel Tower of the Space Age."
  • It also stands somewhat apart from the rest of the skyline, another reason for exact framing. As a result, almost every notable photo of the Seattle skyline is shot from a single location: Kerry Park. This often results in the Needle looking much taller on film than it is in real life.
  • One of the Seattle area's other iconic landmarks, Mount Rainier, is easily visible from a large portion of Washington State on a clear day.
  • Pike Place Market (with the big PUBLIC MARKET CENTER sign and clock) is sometimes used as a secondary establishing landmark.
  • Meanwhile, the nearby city of Tacoma has the Tacoma Dome featured in many shots of the city.
• The Oriental Pearl Tower since it's completion in 2004 shows up in nearly every establishing shot of Shanghai.
  • Shanghai's skyline is also instantly recognizable by the presence of the World Finance Center "Bottle Opener" building, which was the tallest building in the city until the Shanghai Tower surpassed it in height.◊
• Tian'anmen gate is often used as a establishing shot for Beijing, but as a bit of a subversion, the structure is only visible if you stand next to it. Classical Chinese architecture is rather disdainful of the vertical dimension. Chinese television and movies tend to use the CCTV tower instead.^note When it's not smogged in, anyway
  • The Temple of Heaven, or rather the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the central building of the complex, is also used not just to signify Beijing but China as a whole^note See World Showcase at EPCOT Center, even though it, too, is not very visible unless you're in the surrounding park.
• In Taiwanese Series, the Taipei 101 building in the country's capital is the tallest building on the island and tends to show up in the background of at least one episode.
• Los Angeles has the US Bank Tower, which is the tallest and usually the most recognizable skyscraper in the city. It's usually shown in establishing shots when the story takes place in Los Angeles, or they'll show the whole skyline if the shot is being taken from one of the many hills.^note Especially the view from Mulholland Drive, with the curving Hollywood Freeway in the foreground Sometimes a shot of the Hollywood sign is used as well/instead. The Hollywood sign is visible throughout most of West LA, but usually as a small white smudge on a big mountain range. It's best viewed — you guessed it — in Hollywood.
  • Another recognizable LA landmark is the Capitol Records building which isn't very tall, but it is cylindrical to simulate a stack of records.
  • For when you want to show the Gangsters Paradise side of things, shots of the Los Angeles River and the bridges spanning East LA with West LA get shown often. Watts Towers also get used a little.
  • You'd never know from TV or movies, but there are other streets in Beverly Hills besides Rodeo Drive.
• In the ultra-rare instances where you're filming in Salt Lake City (and want the audience to know you're filming in Salt Lake City), the Salt Lake Temple, the largest temple of the LDS Church, will be briefly shown.
• Mexico's main cities are not exempt from this.
  • Mexico City has this with the Zócalo, a huge slab of concrete bearing a huge monumental flag, as well as with the Angel of Independence, the Torre Latinoamericana, and the Reform Avenue.
  • Guadalajara has this with the cathedral, the Minerva Roundabout, and more recently, the small patch of skyscrapers near Puerta de Hierro in the northwest.
  • Monterrey, however, is best represented by the prominent Saddle Hill (Cerro de la Silla).
• California's state capital, Sacramento, as well as West Sacramento, is represented by the Ziggurat building (in West Sacramento) and the Tower Bridge (not that Tower Bridge) a golden bridge in Sacramento which crosses the Sacramento River.
• Due to the significant plurality of cultural groups in the Philippines, no one site could represent them if not beyond the capital city Manila's sites (as mentioned in Maynila's above). The examples, therefore, tend to be very specific to the local regions (and indeed heavily exploited by Philippine tourism advertising).
  • The usual candidates, specifically for Manila, would likely be the tower of Manila City Hall or the Rizal Monument, the central nexus of Rizal Park complex in honor of its national hero Jose Rizal.
  • The second (and previous) capital, Quezon City, is usually represented by the tower of Quezon Memorial Shrine, built in honor of its eponymous president, Manuel Quezon.
    • A more modern but negative example: Quezon City also is the site of the Skysuites Tower, which can indeed be seen from a very wide radius of the city, even from districts far away (though rather subverted since the tower was halted for construction for several years due to financial corruption, and thus is not yet operational nor prominently featured in local Philippine pop culture.)
  • Bicol Region is almost always represented by Mayon Volcano, which natural cone shape makes it a striking vista.
  • The islands of the Visayas region are likeliest to be represented by:
    • Boracay Island (usually for Beach Episode stories);
    • the Chocolate Hills (for unique nature-shots); or
    • the Leyte-Samar San Juanico Bridge, previously the longest sea-crossing bridge before it was surpassed by the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway.
  • Mindanao is likely to be represented by the Marawi Grand Mosque, as one of the largest structures representing the Islamic ethnic groups of the island region. Tragically, it would be a major casualty of the Siege of Marawi in 2017 due to the actions of terrorists affiliated with Islamic State.
• Thousands of Armenian paintings and photographs would suggest that Mt. Ararat is visible all over the country, when in fact it has to be a really clear day to be able to see it from its capital, Yerevan. And partly due to a long, sad history of horrible luck, Armenia's most iconic landmark isn't even in Armenia anymore but in Turkey.
• Many recent British productions have used the Gherkin in establishing montages because of its distinctive architecture. London's tallest tower (as of 2012), the Shard, may be joining it. These are both pretty well-justified examples, as it wasn't until fairly recently that advances in construction techniques enabled true skyscrapers to be built in London's soft ground, and they can be seen from quite a large section of the city.
  • In slightly-older works (i.e. since the millennium), the London Eye serves this purpose. Before that (and still commonly since), the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament housing Big Ben (now known as the Elizabeth Tower) is a standard indicator that we're in London, and the clock's chime provides a sonic equivalent.
• As mentioned before, the Great Pyramid of Giza and/or the Sphinx is generally the establishing shot for Cairo, or anywhere else in Egypt for that matter. Egyptian and other Middle Eastern productions tend to use the Cairo Tower or Tahrir Square for Cairo.
  • Again, framing matters, since The Pyramids are quite close to Cairo (the oldest parts of Cairo were actually built from the scavenged facade of the Pyramids, and the Sphinx is deteriorating due to the modern city's pollution).
  • Napoleon's Battle of the Pyramids actually took place about nine miles away from the Pyramids, where they were only faintly visible on the horizon. Napoleon named the battle as such because he was mindful of this trope. Accordingly, most paintings of the battle depict it happening much closer to the Pyramids than it really did.
• Any time Auckland, New Zealand appears, the Sky Tower is guaranteed to be shown. Justified, since it is a 328m (1076ft) structure in a city where there are only two other buildings taller than 150m. Locals sometimes use the tower as a compass, since it can be seen from afar and is to the north from most of the city.
  • The Sky Tower was only completed in 1997; before then the Auckland Harbour Bridge or One Tree Hill/Maungakiekie were used.
• The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House define urban Australia while Uluru/Ayers Rock defines the Outback.
  • Even within Australia the Harbour Bridge and Opera House are used to define Sydney since they are such iconic parts of the skyline. Sometimes they will use Sydney Tower (formerly known as Centrepoint Tower) to change it up.
  • As for other cities, Parliament House is used as short hand for Canberra - although often the old Parliament House, which is still more recognisable to many Australians 25 years after the switchover - and, more rarely The Story Bridge for Brisbane, though it's mostly seen in news casts.
  • Because Melbourne lacks any landmarks of international stature, the go-to iconic image for Melbourne is usually a tram (Melbourne, alone among Australian cities, has an extensive light rail network and in fact the world's largest urban tram network). If the media in question is aimed at Melburnians, expect to see steps at Flinders Street Station or the Arts Centre Tower. And a tram.
• St. Basil's Cathedral is the visual shorthand for Moscow and, to some extent, the entirety of Russia. So in works set during the Cold War, the atheistic Soviet Union is ubiquitously represented by a colorful, onion-domed church. (The building was turned into a museum under Soviet rule. Today it's a church and museum in one.) And just so everyone is clear on this, St. Basil's Cathedral is not the Kremlin (which is right next to the cathedral).
• The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, justified since it stands on a very high mountain top overlooking the city.
  • In an interesting subversion, the nearby city of Niterói, tired of being overshadowed by neighbouring Rio de Janeiro, built an "extravagant" landmark of its own. The Contemporary Art Museum has the shape of a flying saucer (think of the Space Needle minus needle, or the Chemosphere house of LA), and every single media appearance of the city has to feature it since - it's even on the city administration logo.
• Whenever something is established to take place in Cleveland, it always includes a shot of the Terminal Tower, the oldest and most distinctive highrise in the city. If not Terminal Tower, you are bound to see an image of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum.
• Saint Petersburg, Russia is often represented by the Peter and Paul Fortress or the Winter Palace.
• Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Square for North Korea, usually Stock Footage of a military parade there.
• A South Korean example would be the N Seoul Tower of Seoul, also known as the Namsan Tower, atop the Namsan mountain. It is visible at most parts of the city thanks to it's considerable height and since it's construction it has earned a landmark status, being featured in various news stock footages.
  • The Sungyemun, otherwise known as the Namdaemun, is the south castle gate of the Seoul city walls. Live footage of the intersection surrounding the gate is commonly featured as a background of news briefing.
  • Although to a lesser extent, the Trade Tower in Gangnam is also used to indicate something happening in the region. The tower was the first thing you saw in the Seoul mission of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare to show the battle going on the region.
• Las Vegas unsurprisingly has a couple of these:
  • First and foremost, the most popular way to establish the city in the media is having the camera pan down the Las Vegas Strip or Fremont Street (they're two different attractions and the Strip is technically outside the city proper) at night with the neon signs blaring.
  • Arguably the area's most well-known individual landmark is the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign at the southern end of the Strip. It helps that, unlike the actual casino resorts on the Strip, the "Welcome" sign is 1) in the public domain, and not owned by any casino chains and 2) not a Theme Park Version of an actual city such as (appropriately) Paris or NYC.
  • "Vegas Vic," the neon cowboy fixture that's also popular for establishing shots of the city, has become a symbol of Las Vegas to the point of lasting longer than the casino he was built to promote (it's now a souvenir shop).
• Pittsburgh is most often represented by the PPG Place, aka the glass skyscraper that looks like a castle. Before its completion in 1984, the US Steel Building and the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning were popular for this.
• The Milwaukee Art Museum's Quadracci Pavillion (completed and opened in 2001), with it's distinctive "wings" that give it the appearance of a sailboat has become this for Milwaukee. Before then, City Hall was often used (most famously in the opening montage on Laverne & Shirley).
• Ottawa contains no buildings other than Parliament. The Centre Block of Parliament, specifically.
• Buffalo NY has Niagara Falls, even though they're a roughly 45 minute drive away from each other in different counties, and because the falls themselves face Canada (and the larger of the two waterfalls is entirely within Canadian waters) all the tourist attractions are in a different country. Works that actually put in effort will most likely show Buffalo City Hall, a pretty impressive 1930s art deco skyscraper that kinda looks like a giant middle finger to the Canadians for getting the good waterfall.
• The big German cities are confusing. Either their defining building is rather unseeming/small, or they suffer from having too many to chose from (most often the case). Only some examples are given, since there are simply too many.
  • Berlin has so many, it's difficult to make a choice. The most well known are the Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag and the Siegessäule. In the future, the Stadtschloß, which is currently in reconstruction, could join them. In general, the Reichstag is used for political news and the Brandenburger Tor for the city itself
    • The landmark that can be seen from almost everywhere in the city (and from way outside) is the TV Tower, although that wasn't used much until reunification, because it is in former East Berlin.
    • For works set (or made) during the Cold War, expect the Berlin Wall to be used. Typically, it will be the stretch of the Wall which was in front of the Brandenburger Tor, thus putting two recognizable structures into one shot.
  • It's somewhat easier for Munich. The Münchner Frauenkirche is so iconic, everyone recognises it right away.
    • Located about 80 miles outside Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle is an iconic symbol of Bavaria and sometimes even Germany as a whole.
  • Cologne has two that are so close together, that they are often seen together. The Kölner Dom is of course the most well-known one of world fame, but the Hohenzollenbrücke right at its feet is also famous.
  • The city of Hamburg lost tons of old buildings in WW II, but still retained three that almost everyone recongises at once. The Hamburger Michel is the most famous one, closely followed by the Rathaus. The big surprise is the third one, which is the very distinctive Hamburg Central Station.
  • Dresden is a very interesting case. There was no defining building after WWII (many good ones, but nothing defining) until the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche.
    • A more modern defining building for the city is the Transparent Factory, a Volkswagen factory whose walls are almost completely made of glass.
  • The city of Bremen is an example of something rather small that is defining. The Bremer Roland is mere 5,47 meters high, but is the sign of the city.
• Major cities in Texas have these:
  • San Antonio has The Alamo.
  • Dallas has the Reunion Tower (the one with the big ball on top).
• The Merlion used to be Singapore's icon, but this privilege is gradually being taken over by the Marina Bay Sands buildings.
• Whereas there's no consent what the most iconic landmark for Poland is, St Mary's Basilica in Kraków remains the strongest contender (though it's sometimes challenged King Sigismund's Column in Warsaw, mirroring the centuries-long rivalry between the former and the current capital).
  • As for Warsaw itself, the Palace of Culture and Science is slowly becoming this. Many people in Poland revile this building for its socialist-realism ugliness and wish it were gone (imagine what would have happened in France had the Eiffel Tower been built by occupiers).
• Los Arcos in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
• For any tourist, foreign or local, landing in Manila, they would always stop for Rizal Park.
• Akron, Ohio has a few notable buildings and landmarks including the Goodyear Airdock, All American Soap Box Derby, and the Quaker Oats grain silos (a present-day student dormitory) but when the city is represented in media the most likely image you'll see is the Goodyear Blimp.
• Blackpool in Lancashire is usually represented by the Tower, which is a half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower. More recently, the Big One (which at launch was the world's tallest roller coaster) is sometimes used.
• A French example outside of Paris is Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption◊, which dominates the skyline of Clermont-Ferrand. While Clermont-Ferrand isn't exactly a common location for films, two of France's all-time classics were shot there and have panorama shots with the cathedral standing out (The Sorrow and the Pity and My Night at Maud's).
• For New Orleans, showing the French Quarter is mandatory, and showing it during Mardi Gras is strongly encouraged. Jackson Square, with the statue of Andrew Jackson framed perfectly in front of St. Louis Cathedral, is the secondary choice, and the Superdome also works. And of course, a second line parade with a colorfully-dressed brass band marching in any of those locations doesn't hurt either.
• When North Macedonia is shown in media and the go-to image is not a statue of Alexander the Great, it will often times be the main square of the capital Skopje, the skyline of the city of Ohrid as seen from the lake, the Macedonium found in the city of Kruschevo, or the main pedestrian street or clock tower of Bitola.
• Spanish examples include for its capital Madrid either Gran Vía, Plaza de Cibeles, Plaza Mayor, or La Puerta de Alcalá and for -to give some examples- Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Zaragoza, Ávila, and Segovia, either La Sagrada Familia or Las Ramblas, either La Giralda or La Torre del Oro, the Alhambra, la Basílica del Pilar, the Walls of Avila, and either the Alcázar or the Aqueduct of Segovia respectively.
• It is absolutely compulsory for establishing shots of Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, to include footage of the honking great castle on Castle Rock which dominates the city skyline and has done for centuries. Helpfully, it's very photogenic.
• When a media wants to depict Pripyat, an abandoned Soviet/Ukrainian city made (in)famous by the Chernobyl disaster, in addition of the Chernobyl Power Plant itself, it's almost mandatory to also include an establishing shot of the famous ferris wheel in its amusement park. A move popularized by many video games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Modern Warfare.
• The Mona Lisa: Want to show someone is in an art museum? Put them in front of the Mona Lisa! This even occurs in cases where the subject is not in the Louvre, nor even in France.
• For Lisbon and Portugal as a whole, both the Belém Tower and Padrão dos Descobrimentos can qualify.
• The Ka'aba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.