A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

A 1914 beaux arts auditorium that sat shuttered for 20 years, restored and reopened in 2026

An art collective teaching the more fiery, metal-y art forms.

The neighborhood church casts a breast-shaped shadow that locals have come to call the “two o’clock titty.”

One time home to turn of the century explosives, now hidden under the Bay Bridge.

Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

The last of Philadelphia's wood-paved streets is now a landmark of terrible engineering.

This charming colonial alleyway is one of the oldest continuously used residential streets in the U.S.

A tour de force of a fountain, memorializing a man who loved fountains more than anything else.

The sounds of the world's largest fully functioning pipe organ dazzle shoppers at a Philadelphia Macy's.

The first American department store, and home to the largest operating musical instrument in the world.

Dr Barnes' $25 billion private collection of art and arboretum.

The taxidermied remains of Charles Dickens' pet raven, which helped inspire one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poems.

America's most famous museum of medical oddities is home to the remains of Albert Einstein's brain.

The most confusing clock in New York.

This exemplar of modernist architecture is meant to captivate and inspire students of the Cooper Union.

A bit of retro transportation flair preserved in the world's largest department store.

An uber-secure, windowless tower of doom in the center of Manhattan is an NSA spyscraper.

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

Outposts of this restaurant chain were shaped like jaunty chapeaus.

Once strictly off-limits, this lower level housing curious and priceless vehicles of the Petersen Automotive Museum is now open to the public.

San Francisco's first World's Fair, dedicated to the wonders of California.