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 sparse, solitary sequoia still stands as a living tribute to the famous conservationist who planted it—but it's dying.

A porcelain company's former dumping ground, completely covered in pieces of collectible ceramics.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

The oldest lighthouse on America's west coast no longer needs keepers, yet they maintain the site anyhow.

What was once supposed to be the symbol of a shining Afghan future is now a bombed-out ruin.

Home to more than 13,000 pieces of war memorabilia and military equipment.

A glass display case holds the document that ended the Second World War—which one person signed on the wrong line.

An ode to one of the first concerts broadcast via satellite.

Climbing this abandoned railway leads to breathtaking vistas of O‘ahu.

A tree grown from astronaut seeds which were exposed to cosmic rays.

This remarkably simple jail went over a century without an escape.

The twin towers in this Chicago fountain use 50 foot tall video screens to spit on people.

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

A shining, cold, black organ lies in San Francisco's financial district.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

A sculpture dedicated to Napa Valley's oldest mineral water company.

This massive statue of John Muir on the side of a California highway was carved from a redwood tree.

This small shack near the entrance to Sequoia National Park has been in almost continuous operation for the last century.

A water tower shaped like a giant coffee pot looms over a small Swedish village in Central California.

This cabin from the 1850s is one of the first structures built by Chinese immigrants in California.