The middle finger of modernity.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

The only completed wing of Utah's first capitol is filled with artifacts and odd stories about its past.

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

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.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

A giant Troll lurks under one of Seattle's oldest bridges.

From a neon Rapunzel to a bike traffic meter to a street fair color scheme, the most opened drawbridge in the US is a veritable art gallery.

This former coal gasification plant found a curious second life as a popular public park.

A sliver of nostalgia in Seattle's Viretta Park.

A rotting tree in the middle of Seattle doubles as an elaborately-controlled art piece.

A museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction.

A wall of chewing gum moonlights as collective art.

A walk through the historic city center, under the streets of Seattle.

This working class sculpture pounds his hammer all the livelong day.

Once one of the world's great cities, Cahokia was a place of religious worship, trade and mass human sacrifice before being mysteriously abandoned.

A late sculptor's last project was to turn this abandoned cement factory into a castle-themed amusement park.

Less a museum than a bizarre fantasy world created by artists and engineers.

An urban forest overtakes what was the greatest failure of utopic urban housing.

The first rural cemetery west of the Mississippi is home to the elaborate tombs of St. Louis' local beer barons.

A historic house in St. Louis was plagued by a series of suicides committed by family members involved in a successful brewery.