A large boulder marks the place where the island of Manhattan was purportedly "sold" to the Dutch.

An eccentric playboy's astounding natural history collection.

The former estate of the Guggenheims, part of the opulent Gold Coast that inspired the Great Gatsby.

The home of aviation trailblazers, in a remote corner of the big city.

You can still ride this 100-year-old work of art in Brooklyn's largest public park.

This abandoned seaside fortress is now simply an imposing ruin being taken back by nature.

Now abandoned, the first public health hospital in the U.S. saw more than one million immigrants from around the world.

The longest continuous underwater road in North America was built at the insistence of Franklin Roosevelt.

This Wall Street bar was once a hub of revolutionary activity where Washington famously bid farewell to his troops.

Sniff the Titan Arum's rotting flesh.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

A grand New York post office that is home to mailman Santas, scraps of postal history, and a pneumatic mail system.

A bit of retro transportation flair preserved in the world's largest department store.

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

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.

A pedestrian island in the middle of world-famous Times Square emits a strange (and purposeful) humming noise.

This magnificent herd of stampeding elephants has been frozen in time for over a century.

One of the most dazzling dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History is also one of the oldest.

Here be dragons.

This impressive scene portrays the elusive forest giraffe of Central Africa.

This poignant display is now a memorial to these regionally extinct species.

Outstanding taxidermy dioramas showcase the grandeur of the continent's wildlife with spooky realism.

Creating this diorama spurred naturalist Carl Akeley to begin advocating to protect the apes.

Curious crustaceans support an obelisk from ancient Egypt that now stands in modern-day Central Park.