An open-air sewer system that was covered piece-by-piece over 300 years.

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel.

Enormous piles of historically significant stones, dumped by Congress in a forest, and abandoned for 60 years.

A little sculpture with a large wardrobe.

A comprehensive museum dedicated to Africa's oldest modern republic.

Empty since 1989, now falling into ruin.

Long-abandoned trolley tunnels just a mile away from the White House are turning into an art space.

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

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

At the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, a small sign basically begs for a high-five.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

International delicatessen has been owned and operated by the same family for more than 110 years.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

The newsstand that never closes its doors—well, almost never.

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

Check out a shovel along with your Shakespeare.

A private home built to resemble the shape of a microscopic creature.

A celebration of once forgotten materials.

The Laureates here get something even more coveted than a Nobel Prize: free parking for life.

A store that sells all manner of bones, insects, and animal curiosities.

Handmade treasures from around the world.

Worker-owned cooperative and resource for those looking to lighten their ecological footprint.