An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

A line of blue paint marks the route of the inaugural parade.

The unique traffic pattern named for an influential urban planner is also known as the Pedestrian Scramble.

The most accurate timepiece in the world.

One critic described it as "middle Mussolini, early Ramses, and late Neiman-Marcus." Another called it an architectural "natural disaster."

This mysterious structure by the Washington Monument is a flood barrier designed to protect the White House against rising waters.

The bank that helped fund the Mexican-American War and the purchase of Alaska met its downfall after helping Augusto Pinochet launder money.

This seemingly out-of-place gas station by the Watergate hotel was once described as the most expensive gas station in the world.

This poor little statue is the most vandalized memorial in Washington.

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."

This sandwich shop has a century-old elevator behind a sheet of plexiglass.

Fittingly, America's museum of architecture is itself a magnificently designed old building.

A much-maligned monument to teetotalism.

The first purpose-built art gallery in the United States is once again open as a center of craft arts.

One of the dwarven trees dates back to 1625 and survived the Hiroshima bombing.

The site of the climactic scene from the classic horror film is now a historic landmark.

The United States Capitol's former columns still stand.

A cluttered and astounding collection of antiquities and curiosities.