This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

A classic advertising icon immortalized in regal bronze.

Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

At the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, a small sign basically begs for a high-five.

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

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Where the alchemists dream of transmuting base metal into gold was actually achieved.

The Laureates here get something even more coveted than a Nobel Prize: free parking for life.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.

The only museum of sake in the United States is nestled in an unlikely California college town.

An amazing collection of fantastic reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and insects.

A 90-acre park on former landfill that hosts an annual kite festival.

A pier that used to act as a busy ferry dock is now a decaying favorite of local fisherman and urban artists.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

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

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

A living time capsule of the 1960s Richardson Bay water-front.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.