The world's largest fire hydrant is supposedly tornado-proof.

This titanic steel chain linking two buildings was installed without permission but instantly beloved.

Paths are maintained, but trees have taken over plots.

I-95's Tijuana-style celebration of kitsch at the Carolina border.

This psychedelic tromp l'oeil seems to be beckoning drivers to crash into a wall.

South Carolina's last remaining slavery auction house is now a museum devoted to its own tragic history.

This set of rickety spaceships are prepared to give alien travelers a place to relax and go to the bathroom.

This North Carolina museum is keeping the pinball craze alive, with a little Space Invaders on the side.

Art museum based around the collections accumulated over 58 years by one eccentric thrift store owner.

This high point in the Great Smoky Mountains is said to be home to the chief of all bears.

A psychological self-portrait in the form of a giant, segmented head.

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

A recreated sign from the movie Jumanji has become a makeshift tribute to the film's late star.

A former zoo turned public park, where visitors can hang out in the old animal cages.

Beautiful natural falls where Satan once ruined a pot of beans.

Even Henry David Thoreau found this glacial pothole irresistible.

Pink, packed sanctuary and home of the world's fullest-time Elvis fanatic.

Dogs, cats, horses, monkeys, frogs, and fish are laid to rest at the second-oldest pet cemetery in the U.S.

Giant acorn-shaped 19th century gazebo from which suburban Washingtonians gazed upon the original "silver" spring.

The longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere takes over three minutes to ride down.

A girls' boarding school inspired by the Chicago World's Fair, once abandoned, now restored to strange and scenic glory.

An astounding collection of medical specimens, including bits of President Lincoln.

This abandoned asylum was once a state of the art facility before devolving into one of the most deadly mental institutions in American history.

This tiny patch of arid sand sits in one of the greenest states in the United States.