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

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

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

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

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

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

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

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

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

Pillars made of 700 pieces of luggage climb to the ceiling of Sacramento Airport's baggage claim.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

The scant remains of this flooded historic village can be explored in one of the most remote areas of the Great Smokies.

This 19th century train workshop is a treasure trove of railroad history.

A replica of the first public theater built in California.

I Street Bridge is the heaviest swinging center bridge in the United States.

The capitol city's oldest existing cemetery.

Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

Century-old shop, specializing in Occult products.

A daily replay of the experiment that proved the rotation of the Earth.

This elaborate towering structure was once famed for its revolutionary height.