USA. New York City's Battery Park. Statue of Liberty and bald eagle. World Trade Center Towers. Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday, May 25, 1986 in which approximately 7 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes to form a line that stretched 4,152 miles (6,682 km) – from New York City's Battery Park to Long Beach, California along a path across the continental United States. 25.05.86 © 1986 Didier Ruef