Longtime headquarters of controversial boys' club for the world's wealthiest and most powerful.

A library built during San Francisco's pioneer times is a student's retreat, bibliophile's sanctuary, and chess player's delight.

A historic hotel that made a cameo in Hitchcock's classic film has no intention of letting guests forget its fame.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

Early prototype for Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim.

Home of modern dancer famously strangled by her own scarf.

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

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

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

A whimsical antique shop with a strong air of mystery, filled with items from ages, and what feels like worlds, past.

A free, public museum dedicated to the fascinating science of sight.

The only visible piece of San Francisco's most famous shipwreck.

Floating man-made island and upscale restaurant.

An unassuming grey box sitting on San Francisco's Pier 17 is a "sky diary" of the coastal city's temperamental weather.

Art from the latest counter-culture; kids who dye their hair blue and believe the future will be a post-apocalyptic water world.

These subterranean storage areas hold emergency water reserves.

This giant head is all that remains of a once proud statue that survived an earthquake but not a fall off of a wagon.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

Reclaimed by nature, the ruins of Doodletown, New York are remnants of a town consumed by a state park.

This disastrous New Jersey safari park saw animal attacks, escapes, and disease before being abandoned.

A layered tribute to the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar.

This hunter-gatherer architecture is believed to be the oldest religious complex known.

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

Whisper secrets in a busy station only to be heard on the other side of this acoustic arch.