The legendary building that needed ghostly approval before being built.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

A life-sized mammoth sculpture marks the spot where the remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered in 2005.

The headquarters of the semiconductor giant has a 10,000-square-foot museum.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

Inside this museum, the history of the Walt Disney Family empire is on full display.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

Tenacious mummies survived dental problems, eternal entombment, and more than their fair share of devastating fires.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

The stones that traveled from Spain to eventually become a holy place for San Francisco's nature worshippers.

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

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.

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

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

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

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.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

This sandstone mansion was the home of two of Oregon's most important pioneers.