Once one of the largest producers of pig iron in the world.

A 56-foot tall statue of the god of fire looks out over Birmingham, Alabama.

This funicular railway rumbles along for a mile up the nearly vertical face of Chattanooga’s Lookout Mountain.

Vintage steam trains that still run through a pre-Civil War tunnel

This historic train station has been converted to a locomotive themed hotel.

Abandoned Italianate architecture on the coast of Maine.

Its unique collection details the history of the state's svelte railroads.

An important Mayan religious and trading center dating back to 200 BC.

This historic Union Pacific Railroad depot is a stunning symbol of American post-Civil War progress.

For one month, the fields and skies of Gibbon, Nebraska, come alive with one of the largest gatherings of sandhill cranes in North America.

A fitting attraction for the corn capital of the world.

This amazingly preserved Gold Rush town is a historian's dream.

New fungal and bacterial species call this deadly lake home.

This public square capitalized on a single Eagles reference to bring some life back to an Arizona town.

Crafted in 1911, this steam locomotive spent its entire working life in Flagstaff.

This Arizona observatory is famous for investigations into Martian life, and as the place humans first spotted Pluto.

A planet-hunting astrograph built in the 1920s to seek out the so-called "Planet X" beyond Uranus.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

Rare and gorgeous birds abound in this protected wildlife sanctuary.

Around half a million years ago, these magnificent columnar basalt cliffs were formed from cooling lava.

The first declared National Monument in the United States.

The granddaddy of all tourist traps, built on ice water, jackalopes, and a giant dinosaur.

Hidden behind Lincoln's head is a chamber containing enamel plates documenting American history, sealed in a teakwood box in a titanium vault.