Hands Across America was a benefit event staged on May 25, 1986 in which millions of people held hands for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. Participants paid ten dollars to reserve their place in line; the profits were donated to local homeless charities.
- "On the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, 1986, more than five million people joined hands to form a line that stretched 4,152 miles -- from New York City's Battery Park to a pier in Long Beach, California. This much-hyped mega-event, called Hands Across America, was intended to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness." [1]
Cities along the route included the following:
- New York City, New York
- Trenton, New Jersey
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (the first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland)
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Washington, D.C.
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Columbus, Ohio
- Toledo, Ohio
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Chicago, Illinois (the longest unbroken section of the chain was allegedly in Illinois)
- Springfield, Illinois
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Amarillo, Texas
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Phoenix, Arizona (desert areas were mostly empty, dotted with one-mile-long chains of people. Truck drivers driving along the route sounded their horns during the appointed time.)
- San Bernardino, California
- Santa Monica, California
- Long Beach, California