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

The monumental steeple on Amherst College's campus has no church attached to it.

The mighty room where the poet spent most of her life is available to rent for an hour or two.

Two mermen, eternally spitting into each other's mouths.

A beautiful multicolored mound formed by the mineral deposits of the Orenda Spring.

Walk into the 19th century without leaving Brooklyn.

A curious fountain that has no water and includes Satan, a crab, and 9 giraffes.

New York City's only radical feminist independent bookstore.

A Victorian cemetery in the heart of Brooklyn remains a popular mecca of morbid curiosity.

Lie in a hammock where George Washington stood.

This innocent-looking townhome is actually a subway exit.

This futuristic airport terminal was abandoned for decades before reopening as a hotel—with a vintage plane of its own parked out back.

The oldest bibliophilia club in America, with exhibitions on historic books and graphic arts.

The remnants of two World's Fairs are here, complete with a 12-story globe, a mini-Manhattan, and a UFO-shaped pavilion.

This Wall Street bar was once a hub of revolutionary activity where Washington famously bid farewell to his troops.

Behind a bodega is a small museum of relics and ephemera showcasing the history of New York.

Tucked in a nondescript downtown Brooklyn mall is a bar containing a remarkable turn of the century anatomical wax collection last seen in 1920s Berlin.

Mysterious 500-year-old tapestries depict a unicorn hunt.

This cemetery has graves dating back to the 17th century, including the city's oldest carved tombstone and an ominous cryptogram.

One of only two commuter aerial tramways in the United States.

Sniff the Titan Arum's rotting flesh.

The "Seinfeld" diner.

Ride the subways of yesteryear.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.