Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

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

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

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.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

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

The palatial McDonald's that inspired Wesley Willis.

This abstract sculpture is rumored to cast a hammer-and-sickle shadow once a year.

Once at the center of U.S. finance, the historic Trading Room was meticulously recreated piece by piece and rebuilt in the Art Institute.

A 400-foot-tall tall map of Chicago makes this once-ignored building stand out.

Once called the "Polish Gold Coast" it is an icon of the neighborhood that bears its same name.

This bronze sculpture on a former squash court marks the secret origins of the Atomic Age.

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.

One of the last functioning antique elevators in Chicago.

Small and slightly hidden, the American Writers Museum is preserving the legacy of America's finest authors.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

The 606 is a decade in the making.

Fragments of architectural wonders from around the globe are embedded in the newspaper building's walls.

The unluckiest U-boat in the entire German fleet is now on display in a Chicago museum.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.

At Chicago's revered Field Museum, visitors are invited to learn about and literally explore DNA.

The twin towers in this Chicago fountain use 50 foot tall video screens to spit on people.

This $3 million model train takes you through Chicago, Seattle, and the thousands of miles in between.