An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

San Francisco's oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a "haunted" fourth floor.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

A monument to the love people have for their pets.

The restored and active Victorian-era final resting place of San Francisco.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

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

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Financial District stands a unique homage to the Mayan and Beaux Arts.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.