This symbolic piece of New Orleans architecture is also home to a few ghastly stories.

The beloved statue at the National Academy of Sciences is oh so inviting to sit on.

The bank that helped fund the Mexican-American War and the purchase of Alaska met its downfall after helping Augusto Pinochet launder money.

This taxidermy horse was a Civil War hero.

The 5.5-mile ring of steel posts around the Capitol Building is one of the largest (and most uniform) of its kind in the world.

A memorial to a shareholder activist feared by CEOs around the United States.

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution written entirely from vanity license plates hangs in the Smithsonian museum.

Corn-inthian columns with a uniquely American take on neoclassical architecture.

One critic described it as "middle Mussolini, early Ramses, and late Neiman-Marcus." Another called it an architectural "natural disaster."

Look closely and you’ll notice that the color changes a third of the way up the tower.

A derelict bit of infrastructure from the canal that once ran through D.C. is landlocked in the heart of the city.

An overlooked memorial honoring the local Washington residents who died in World War I.

One of the most influential presidents in U.S. history wanted only this plain, elegant monument as his lasting memorial.

While most wind tunnels test scale models, the "Cave of Winds" was large enough for actual airplanes.

The little-known, 300-year history of the area includes former lives as a bustling tobacco port, parking lot, and industrial dump.

Before founding the American Red Cross, Clara Barton had a tremendous humanitarian impact by locating thousands of missing soldiers.

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.

A bas relief commemorates the "Nuns of the Battlefield" who cared for soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Before Nixon, "watergate" meant canals.

A historic arena where the Beatles played their first concert in the U.S.

Those with a sharp eye can find the hidden image of a German Shepherd on the memorial's Mural Wall.

Washington's iconic carousel has a nice piece of Civil Rights history.

A heroic pigeon that, through a barrage of gunfire, delivered a message that saved over 100 lives in World War I.

Legend has it that President Grant’s frequent drinking in the lobby gave rise to the term “lobbyist.”