Buildings that survived when nothing else did
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Buildings That Survived When Nothing Else Did — Daily trivia Friday, March 27, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Which Hiroshima landmark is kept as a skeletal ruin, just as the atomic bomb left it?
- AHiroshima Castle
- BItsukushima Shrine
- CHiroshima Peace Memorial
- DShukkei-en Garden
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Hiroshima Peace Memorial
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, better known as the A-Bomb Dome, opened in 1915 as a hall showcasing local products; its shell is kept as a ruin to remind the world what nuclear war does.
Q 02Which cathedral rises above burning buildings in the iconic Blitz photograph of London?
- AWestminster Abbey
- BCanterbury Cathedral
- CSalisbury Cathedral
- DSt Paul's Cathedral
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St Paul's Cathedral
Herbert Mason shot St Paul's Cathedral from the Daily Mail's roof that night, as Churchill insisted every firefighting resource be turned on it, saying its loss would sap the nation's morale.
Q 03Which part of Canada's original Centre Block survived the great fire because a clerk shut its iron doors?
- AThe Senate Chamber
- BThe Library of Parliament
- CThe Peace Tower
- DThe Speaker's Quarters
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The Library of Parliament
The Library of Parliament hung off the main building by a single corridor, and clerk Michael MacCormac secured its iron doors, so it was all that survived when fire gutted the Centre Block.
Q 04Which architect's 'floating foundation' Tokyo hotel withstood the Great Kanto Earthquake?
- ALouis Sullivan
- BWalter Gropius
- CLe Corbusier
- DFrank Lloyd Wright
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Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright meant the Imperial Hotel to float on Tokyo's mud 'as a battleship floats on water'; the quake struck on the day of its opening reception, and it took only light damage.
Q 05What was the nickname of the federal building that survived the 1906 San Francisco quake?
- AThe Granite Lady
- BThe Stone Fortress
- COld Ironsides
- DThe Iron Lady
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The Granite Lady
The Old Mint is 'The Granite Lady', though it is mostly sandstone; a courtyard well helped its staff save the building in 1906, along with a third of America's gold reserves.
Q 06Which stone structure in Nagasaki lost one of its two legs to the atomic blast yet still stands?
- AA pagoda
- BA torii gate
- CA shimenawa arch
- DA mon gatehouse
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A torii gate
The one-legged torii gate at Sanno Shrine was spun about 30 degrees on its base, and the leg the blast knocked away still lies beside the shrine path.
Q 07Which bullet-riddled Berlin landmark survived World War II, though only one horse's head remained of the statue on top?
- AThe Reichstag
- BThe Brandenburg Gate
- CThe Berlin Cathedral
- DCheckpoint Charlie
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The Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate's quadriga was recreated in 1958 from a plaster cast taken in 1942 as a wartime precaution; the lone surviving horse's head is in the Märkisches Museum.
Q 08Why did the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall largely survive the atomic bombing?
- AThe blast occurred almost directly overhead, so the vertical columns resisted the downward force
- BThe detonation altitude was too high for the shockwave to collapse stone walls
- CThe building was protected by a surrounding steel-reinforced seawall
- DThe bomb detonated on the far side of a river, shielding the building
Show answer
The blast occurred almost directly overhead, so the vertical columns resisted the downward force
The blast occurred almost directly overhead, so the vertical columns resisted the downward force: the bomb burst about 600 m up but only 150 m to one side.
Q 09After crushing a 1944 uprising, German troops systematically razed which European capital?
- AParis
- BPrague
- CWarsaw
- DBudapest
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Warsaw
Warsaw. By January 1945 about 85% of its buildings had been destroyed, many of them burned or blown up house by house after the uprising collapsed.
Q 10Why did the pumping station beside the Chicago Water Tower stop working during the Great Chicago Fire?
- AIts roof was not limestone and caught fire
- BIts water intake in the lake silted up
- CIts boilers had been dismantled for scrap
- DIts crew was ordered to evacuate the block
Show answer
Its roof was not limestone and caught fire
Its roof was not limestone and caught fire when burning debris landed on it, so the pumps stopped and firefighters lost their water just as the blaze spread.
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