A miniature view of the park, caught in time.

Once the site of speeding horses, now home to picnickers and public concerts.

27-room home built with the fortune of a sugar magnate.

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

An enormous artwork that colorfully celebrates over 150 years of US military achievements.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

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

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

Forgotten and then destroyed by fire, this was once one of the largest saltwater swimming pools in the world.

Furniture tries to escape an abandoned building in San Francisco.

The last moments of the ill-fated Pompeiians, frozen forever in plaster.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

The middle finger of modernity.

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.

The largest known Ancient Egyptian obelisk.

Ozymandias’ time-keeping temple.

Thanks to modern navigational tools we now know that the true prime meridian runs through a park next door.