Places phildzielski Wants to Go

The "first cat," "first dog," and even a presidential pygmy hippo all get their due in this museum.

The semi-reclaimed ruins of this canal were once part of an ambitious plan to reroute the mighty potomac.

An alternate history park where the Union Army loses the war... to dinosaurs.

A quintet of history museums make this Virginia graveyard as much a resting place for funereal history as it is for people.

This pre-Revolutionary War grist mill ground corn and flour for soldiers in seven American wars.

Bubbling up from deep underground is the warm crystal clear water that fills the Warm Springs Pools, America's oldest spa.

America's first federal monument.

Giant busts of 42 U.S. presidents sit, crumbling in a field in Virginia.

This historic mansion was built as a symbol of love between a husband and wife.

A "hospital" where people went to be quarantined, die, and be buried in the yard.

This grave marks the passing of a historic Jane Doe whose identity remains a mystery to this day.

The only recreation of William Shakespeare's indoor playhouse.

Take an otherworldly journey in a school dedicated to out-of-body experiences.

At 207 feet, one of the world's longest continuous escalators.

This once-palatial plantation may have been the site where a draft of the Declaration of Independence was written.

The ruins of this Thomas-Jefferson-designed mansion have been left to crumble since the Christmas Day they burnt down.

The highest point in Virginia can only be reached by passing through ponies and flowers.

The final resting place of two (or three) presidents, one vampire, and 18,000 Confederate soldiers.

America's first public mental health facility.

A railroad tunnel that, upon its completion, was considered one of the engineering marvels of the modern world.

Nine of the very few concrete ships ever made in the U.S. are beautifully decaying off a Virginia pier.

The resting place of a Civil War celebrity's amputated limb.

Exact replica of the ancient monument, but much, much lighter.

This Virginia railway overpass is said to be haunted by a serial killer in a rabbit costume.