Chicago's North Park Village was once the largest municipal sanatorium in the country.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

Chicago was once a major hub of film production, but being silent film you don’t hear much about it.

The saga of the massive nut begins and ends in Texas.

One of the last functioning antique elevators in Chicago.

An enormous park-like oasis, full of famous Chicagoans’ graves.

Landmark Chicago building narrowly avoided destruction.

Huge abstract sculptures of the Puerto Rican Flag.

A haunting statue called "Eternal Silence" has quite the reputation among visitors with active imaginations.

This memorial plaque remembers a strangely shallow maritime disaster known as "Chicago's Titanic."

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

Chicago's largest cemetery is full of beautiful Victorian monuments and more than a few ghost stories.

Each of these gorgeous, intricately decorated rooms is painstakingly crafted to the scale of 1 inch: 1 foot.

Fragments of architectural wonders from around the globe are embedded in the newspaper building's walls.

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.

This mosaic dedicated to John Lennon was tended for years by a Beatles super-fan.

One of New York's best collections of pinball is hidden in a secret bar in the back of this laundromat.

This city park was once a lookout point for George Washington’s army during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776.

Wall Street has a new heroine, a bronze statue of a small but fierce girl.

This curved Manhattan building was built to house the opulence of John D. Rockefeller's oil empire.

Under a glass sidewalk lie the remains of some of Manhattan's oldest buildings.

Once at the center of U.S. finance, the historic Trading Room was meticulously recreated piece by piece and rebuilt in the Art Institute.

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.

"No writer ever gave more to a city and got back less.”