This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

Beautiful Gothic-inspired lighthouse stands out among the run-of-the-mill striped fare on Bodies Island.

Some North Carolina Cherokee have been keeping their history alive for decades with a single play.

Who needs fancy modern water slides when this giant North Carolina rock works just as well?

This was the first homestead registered after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law.

This erect, phallic geological spire wasn't always named so domestically.

A historic Civil War estate-turned-museum looks back on the Confederate States of America.

This museum honors an African-American renaissance man of the early 18th century.

A charming tour of the umbrella, tin-can, and drinking-straw capital of the world.

At the birthplace of American railroading, a world-class collection of historic trains.

This statue honors the author's groundbreaking family story.

FDR's Art Deco hospital tower was hopelessly inefficient.

This propitious plastic porcine has been petitioning park visitors to pick up after themselves for more than 50 years.

This rare triple-jurisdiction drawbridge passes through Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

A relic of FDR's brief foray into utopian urban planning.

One of the only memorials dedicated to journalists who died in combat.

This Asian-inspired tower in a lush urban park provides spectacular panoramic views of Baltimore.

The tallest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in the world soars above the Beltway.

A suburban museum tells the story of a historic transportation network and even provides rides in antique trolley cars.

The 72-foot giant escaped confinement in a large patch of mulch only to be reburied in the sandy shores of the Potomac River.

The world's oldest continuously operating airport was founded by the Wright Brothers.

A mammoth pair of Civil War artillery guns abandoned out in the forest.

The childhood home of the Sultan of Swat is just a line drive away from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

A star fort along the C&O Canal in western Maryland that protected America in three wars.