Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

A monument to the love people have for their pets.

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

A free, public museum dedicated to the fascinating science of sight.

This tall and trim architectural oddity is one of the skinniest buildings in San Francisco.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

The oldest alley in San Francisco is paved with a reminder of the city's original shoreline.

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

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

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

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Wander down a side street dedicated to one of the members of the Beat Generation.

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

The oldest dim sum restaurant in the United States is a nostalgic jewel.

In the basement of a San Francisco performing arts center, a small museum dedicated to the history of showgirls.

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

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.

A classic advertising icon immortalized in regal bronze.

A modern frieze of ancient Grecian mythological figures playing a national pastime.

The original place where water met land in the City by the Bay is outlined in brass.

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

A neon-illuminated statue of James Cook at the edge of a historical Auckland wharf makes for an unexpected discovery.