Places Ian Engweiler Wants to Go

At the top of the hour, this steam-powered clock's eight brass whistles play "Back Home Again in Indiana."

The largest historic preservation organization in the United States.

This library and museum is dedicated to the life and literature of the Indianapolis native author.

A former insane asylum despised by Nelly Bly and Charles Dickens is now fashionable apartments.

A sculptural commentary on capitalism pokes up from the East River.

On this island, you suck away your garbage via an elaborate pneumatic tube system.

Site of the first pathological and bacteriological research facility in the United States.

A crumbling hospital from the 1850s on Roosevelt Island.

The feral felines of Roosevelt Island have a small army of allies and an abandoned hospital all to themselves.

A drawbridge named for a potentially intersex Polish national who fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution, and an example of "Pulaski Red".

An exhibition space dedicated to American outsider art created between the 18th and 21st centuries.

Nondescript elevator doors open to reveal a stunning, surreal world.

The world’s largest collection of Tiffany glass sits in a warehouse in Queens.

A hidden "place of interment for gentlemen."

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

The best B-movies filmed on a shoestring budget were born here.

Holding the most bodies of any cemetery in the United States.

This mysterious marker puzzles pedestrians and infuriates geographers.

This Queens beer hall preserves a German culture and language that is all but lost.

A once crucial portion of the Long Island railroad still lays abandoned, waiting to be turned into an urban park.

This enormous Hindu temple in Queens serves incredible dosas in its basement canteen.

The crown jewel of the Queens Museum is a nearly 10,000-square-foot architectural model of the city originally built for the 1964 World's Fair.

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

A menagerie of concrete animals brought together from across New York City's parks.