A mysterious "wedding cake" castle in the middle of the urban desert.

Holding the most bodies of any cemetery in the United States.

Avoid gangster interaction while window-shopping.

The only home that Alexander Hamilton ever owned has a history almost as troubled as his own.

The oldest operating apothecary in the US has treated everyone from Thomas Edison to Mark Twain.

Just your average Marie Antoinette–themed speakeasy in an abandoned 19th-century subway tunnel.

A hip bar decorated with walls of golden skulls.

Order scoops of pandan, lychee, and black sesame at this family-run institution.

The one-stop shop for all of your superhero (or evil arch-nemesis) needs.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

Manhattan’s Battery Park has a whimsical carousel full of spinning, glowing fish.

The oldest family-run luncheonette in New York, last renovated in 1948, still serves food and drinks the old-fashioned way.

Amid the bustle and noise of the Financial District hides a secluded garden oasis above the city streets.

A crumbling hospital from the 1850s on Roosevelt Island.

A terrific purveyor of natural history objects and curios.

Sip coffee and talk politics at this landmark cafe in Astoria's Little Egypt, a contender for the title of America's first hookah bar.

One of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the city, it is now overgrown with an urban forest.

Read between the lines of the subway map to find the hidden abandoned Civil War fort.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

This quiet chapel was central to a community of settlers who reclaimed an abandoned fort.

At this 1940s-era neighborhood favorite, you can still drink a cherry phosphate.

Home to one of the world’s largest collections of model yachts.

This grinning pup statue is all that's left of what was once a ubiquitous Bay Area diner chain.

One of the last remnants of the city's Chinese nightclub scene is now a dive bar selling killer mai tais.