The taxidermied remains of Charles Dickens' pet raven, which helped inspire one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poems.

America's most famous museum of medical oddities is home to the remains of Albert Einstein's brain.

This urban oasis is a marvelous meld of music and landscape architecture.

Willy Wonka would love this weird half-a-home.

One of the largest underground systems runs under Canada's largest urban center.

Millions of numbers carved in glass represent the tattoos forced upon victims.

The remnants of a Gilded Age elegance preserved in the middle of a stark modern tower.

Dedicated to one of the darkest moments in Irish history.

This statue intended for children to enjoy became a minor political spat.

This Dutch-styled residential building was originally a cocoa company's World's Fair showpiece.

The restored and active Victorian-era final resting place of San Francisco.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

With the touch of a button, you can read a randomly selected short story.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

Home to items never before seen by the public.

During the Industrial Revolution this “Temple of Invention” was full of intricate miniature machines and gadgets.

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution written entirely from vanity license plates hangs in the Smithsonian museum.

Go take a picture with the inventor of the daguerreotype photographic process.

In 1958, an MIT fraternity pledge laid down on this bridge and instituted a new, unique unit of measurement.

"the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well . . . The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges."