BOSTON -- For the frugal traveler pinched by high gas and travel prices this summer, Boston's historic Freedom Trail has never seemed more aptly named.

The historic route through Boston has been named one of the top 10 free U.S. attractions by the travel Web site, TripAdvisor.

The trail rings in at No. 9, just ahead of New York City’s Central Park on the list of top free attractions this year.

Las Vegas’ Bellagio Fountains topped the list as the No. 1 attraction, based on traveler popularity and TripAdvisor editors. Also among the top free attractions on the list were the Golden Gate Bridge and Washington's Holocaust Museum.

The Web site also ranked Europe’s top free sites in a separate list led by the Pantheon in Italy.

Red-lined and mostly brick, Boston’s Freedom Trail features 16 historic sites that chronicle the American Revolution and other events in our nation’s early history. The trail zigzags 2.5 miles from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument north in Charlestown.

While many of its landmarks date back 200 years or more, the route itself is celebrating just its 50th anniversary in 2008.

A trail was first conceptualized in the early 1950s when a Boston journalist decided to establish an organized route linking Boston’s historic sites, according to a history of the trail from the Freedom Trail Foundation.

By 1958, local businessmen and entrepreneurs had developed an infrastructure that has helped the trail grow and exist as an official historic attraction.

The trail now receives 3.2 million visitors each year and is the largest attraction in New England, said Mimi LaCamera, President of the Freedom Trail Foundation.

LaCamera attributed some of the trail’s popularity to its urban locale, with all of a city’s amenities at visitors’ disposal.

“We’re located in the middle of one of the most wonderful cities in the world,” LaCamera said in a phone interview. “We’ve got it all here.”

She also emphasized the connection visitors feel to the sites on the Freedom Trail – sites whose stories and history are so rooted with the people.

“People like to identify with the characters who lived a long time ago,” LaCamera said. “We’re telling the story of the common man.”

To celebrate the silver anniversary of the attraction, the Freedom Trail Foundation has scheduled exhibitions, lectures and other events at the trail’s sites throughout 2008.

Top 10 Free U.S. Attractions

1. Bellagio Fountains, Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
3. Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii
4. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
5. Angel’s Landing, Zion National Park, Utah
6. U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
7. Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1, California
8. Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.
9. Freedom Trail, Boston, Massachusetts
10. Central Park, New York, New York

Top 10 Free European Attractions

1. Pantheon, Lazio, Italy
2. National Gallery, London, England
3. Museum of Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, England
4. Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France
5. St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels, Belgium
6. Duomo, Tuscany, Italy
7. Retiro Park, Madrid, Spain
8. Westminster Abbey, London, England
9. St. Mark’s Basilica, Veneto, Italy
10. Giant’s Causeway, Country Antrim, Northern Ireland