Quote Originally Posted by mwilbert View Post
I'm pretty sure the idea of importance is broader than that. The Washington Monument doesn't do anything useful, but it is architecturally important to Washington D.C. The Eiffel Tower is pretty useless too.
The Washington Monument and Eiffel Tower do exactly what they were built to do. To say they are useless is not to understand why they were built.

It could be argued that both of these buildings are attractions in cities full of attractions. They are both iconic and people come from all over the world to go up into them. Now it could be argued that they do not do much for the local economy, but it gives tourists an extra couple of hours of activity which will lead to either a another meal or a night stay in a hotel [[which in turns employs people). Now they may not do much but could you imagine Paris or Washington without them?