Once the tallest building in the world, this abandoned church is now a monument to the destruction of WWII.

Hamburg's first legal sex work is relegated to a gated street that still does not allow pedestrian women.

Cold war icon and onetime "hole" in the iron curtain.

The oldest U.S. Government building in California, and it's State Historic Landmark #1.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

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

Since 1973, this block has been home to the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco.

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

Nuclear waste dump site now an environmental sanctuary.

Depicting scenes of everyday life - and specific individuals - in Great Depression era San Francisco.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

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

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

A French chateau, failed utopian community, odd museum, and Stonehenge replica in rural Washington State.

Most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest.

On the outskirts of a reborn ghost town, a decaying post office remembers the bad old days.

Earth's tallest volcano is sacred to Native Hawaiians, and home to a dozen world-class observatories.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.