A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

A playing field for a popular French past time can be found tucked away in a quiet corner of Golden Gate Park.

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

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

Standing in for the first ship to navigate the Northwest Passage.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

With the touch of a button, you can read a randomly selected short story.

This teeny-tiny park built by a San Francisco man in 1962 is mostly stairs.

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

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

This antique shop specializes in the history of print and design.

This sculpture of a fisherman spent six years at the bottom of the Schuylkill River.

Step into a pastel time capsule where candy is truly dandy.

Eccentric concrete mansion and museum designed and built by hand from the inside out.

There must be a pun in this haystack somewhere...

This outdoor gallery of graffiti-covered walls pays homage to the past, present, and possible future of street art.

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

You can still ride this 100-year-old work of art in Brooklyn's largest public park.

One of the most enjoyable bits of history at Coney Island and “the most romantic ride in the world.”

The original toys that inspired the beloved children's stories are on display at the New York Public Library.

This whimsical group of statues is a favorite of children who love to climb all over Lewis Carroll's beloved characters.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

Frank Lloyd Wright built this suburban synagogue late in life, but it stands among his most iconic masterpieces.