Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

There is no trying to fall in love with this Star Wars fountain, you just do or do not.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

Surprisingly aquamarine waters fill deep lakes formed at the end of the last ice age.

This Art Deco fortress in upstate New York gives Manhattan's vaunted examples of the style a run for their money.

A reversed traffic signal that was once violently misinterpreted as a statement on British-Irish relations.

Italian cave with exceptional acoustics and an unsavory history.

A dark patch of the ceiling at Grand Central Terminal which was not restored is still stained brown by tobacco.

One of the few remaining American elm trees in New York’s Tompkins Square Park was the birthplace of a new religion.

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

The most confusing clock in New York.

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

This historic address is home to the beloved ball and is an almost totally empty building among the most expensive real estate in the world.

The rough and tumble president's childhood home displays the shirt he was once shot in and the speech that saved him.

Whisper secrets in a busy station only to be heard on the other side of this acoustic arch.

A semi-scholarly approach to sex.