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

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

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

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

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

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

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

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.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The first all glass and steel residence in the United States.

Though the original building has been demolished, these massive bronze doors were saved.

This "synagogue" is not what it seems to be.

Hand-crafted tributes to a stray cat named "Room 8" now cover this LA elementary school.

The space-age building is home to one of the few remaining rotating restaurants in America, and the only one that inspired a 1980s sitcom.

Hollywood's oldest hotel is the site of the first Academy Awards, the birthplace of Marilyn Monroe's career, and the home of Montgomery Clift's ghost.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

The beautiful 1920 Pantages Theatre remains hidden just underneath the LA Downtown Jewelry Exchange.

One of the world's largest collections of rare and magnificent bird specimens.

The last of its kind in the country.

The programmatic glory of LA's giant whiskey barrel building has become an upscale reminder of the city's kitschy roadside past.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

This Los Angeles animation studio is keeping the wonder of stop motion puppetry alive.