National Monuments and Icons Sector: Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources

Sector Overview

The National Monuments and Icons (NM&I) Sector encompasses a diverse array of assets located throughout the United States and its territories. While many of these assets are listed in either the National Register of Historic Places or the List of National Historic Landmarks, all share three common characteristics:

1. they are a monument, physical structure, object, or geographic site;
2. they are widely recognized to represent the nation's heritage, traditions, or values, or widely recognized to represent important national cultural, religious, historical, or political significance; and
3. their primary purpose is to memorialize or represent some significant aspect of the nation's heritage, tradition, or values, and to serve as points of interest for visitors and educational activities.

NM&I Sector assets are all physical structures, objects, or geographic sites. Included as part of each asset are the operational staff and visitors that may be impacted by an attack on the asset. There are minimal cyber and telecommunications issues associated with this sector because of the nature of the assets.

Some physical structures that could be considered as monuments or icons (e.g., Golden Gate Bridge, Sears Tower, Hoover Dam, U.S. Capitol) have been determined to be more appropriately assigned to other sectors, such as Transportation Systems, Commercial Facilities, Dams, and Government Facilities, because of their primary purpose. The NM&I Sector-Specific Plan is primarily focused on the identification, assessment, prioritization, and protection of nationally significant NM&I that may be attractive terrorist targets.