When it comes to handsignals (and colonialism) rock always beats scissors.

A museum cafe showcases Native American dishes and indigenous ingredients from across the Western Hemisphere.

A dramatic, 360-degree recreation of Pickett's Charge in the Civil War.

A gorgeous mural outside a beloved D.C. restaurant pays homage to famous Black Americans.

A derelict bit of infrastructure from the canal that once ran through D.C. is landlocked in the heart of the city.

Home to items never before seen by the public.

The first purpose-built art gallery in the United States is once again open as a center of craft arts.

D.C. once had its own tiny rival to the New York Stock Exchange.

The only tennis court that falls under the jurisdiction of the central bank.

For 60 years, the academy had no permanent location until members voted Washington D.C. as its forever home.

The beloved statue at the National Academy of Sciences is oh so inviting to sit on.

This mysterious structure by the Washington Monument is a flood barrier designed to protect the White House against rising waters.

Daredevil repair workers can worm their way out the access hatch, loop ropes over the apex and rappel down the monument.

The monument's pointy aluminum tip has been melted down by repeated lightning strikes.

A tiny monument to the unsuccessful attempt by Thomas Jefferson to place the prime meridian in Washington.

At 207 feet, one of the world's longest continuous escalators.

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."

An overlooked memorial honoring the local Washington residents who died in World War I.

The word "Watergate" will forever be associated with the infamous scandal in 1972, but this fountain is famous in its own right.

The little-known, 300-year history of the area includes former lives as a bustling tobacco port, parking lot, and industrial dump.

Before Nixon, "watergate" meant canals.

The national park was once a plantation estate.

The site of the climactic scene from the classic horror film is now a historic landmark.

This seemingly out-of-place gas station by the Watergate hotel was once described as the most expensive gas station in the world.