The Great Wall of China has long been said to be the only man-made structure visible from space. Well, guess what, commies? America's got its own space-visible man-made structure: a mound of discarded tires in Calhoun County, South Carolina.

Or so we're told by Calhoun County Council Chairman David Summers. The Great Tire Graveyard, which covers several acres near Elloree, S.C., contains 250,000 tires and has earned its absentee landlords "charges of violating the state's solid waste act"; according to the myths and legends of the natives who live in its shadow, another tire pile, said to have existed in the 1990s, was even larger. Says Summers: "This tire pile here is a baby compared to what that one was."

But is it really visible from space? The Associated Press fudges a little bit, writing that you can see it on "satellite images," but at this point, you can see anything on "satellite images." On the other hand, the idea that the Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from space is something of a myth itself. So we're calling it: The South Carolina Mound of Tires is the Great Wall of America.

[AP]