Mount Washington United States

Legendary

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On April 12, 1934, the men working at the summit weather station climbed onto the roof to knock ice off their instruments. The wind was already over 150 miles per hour.

By early afternoon, a gust hit 231 miles per hour. That was faster than any wind ever measured anywhere on Earth, and the record stood for 62 years.

Mount Washington is only 6,288 feet tall, less than half the height of the big peaks out west. But three major storm tracks cross right over it, and the wind travels hundreds of miles with nothing in the way before slamming into the summit.

Winds pass hurricane strength on more than 100 days a year. The temperature once dropped to 50 degrees below zero, and the wind chill has hit 108 below.

The observatory at the top calls itself the Home of the World's Worst Weather. Its crew still lives up there year-round, taking measurements every hour.

The Abenaki people called the mountain Agiocochook, meaning Home of the Great Spirit. They believed the gods lived on the summit and didn't climb it out of respect.

The first recorded climb came in 1642, by an Irish settler named Darby Field. In 1784, a group of scientists named the peak after George Washington, who wasn't even president yet.

In the 1860s, a businessman named Sylvester Marsh got lost hiking the mountain in a storm. He decided to build a railroad to the top so nobody else would have to walk.

People laughed and called it the "railway to the moon." It opened in 1869 as the first mountain-climbing cog railway in the world, and it still runs today.

Ride the Cog Railway up the steep track, where the engine pushes the car from behind at about three miles per hour. Drive or take a guided van up the Auto Road, which opened for carriages in 1861. At the top, visit the observatory's museum and step outside to feel the wind, even on a calm day.