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

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

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

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

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

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

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

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

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

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

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

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.