This artsy public restroom is shaped like a giant john.

Self-built house and sculpture park where the creator can still be seen in a glass coffin.

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

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

Her final resting place was intended to be modest and private, but the power of her popularity continues to draw visitors.

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

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

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.

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

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

A museum devoted to bringing to light forgotten or neglected histories through exhibitions, education and public programming.

Michael Jackson got Bad and Crocodile Dundee walked on heads in this iconic Brooklyn subway station.

An oasis of calm amid the chaos of the boardwalk, the museum traces the heritage of this beloved beachside amusement park.

This outdoor gallery of graffiti-covered walls pays homage to the past, present, and possible future of street art.

One of the most enjoyable bits of history at Coney Island and “the most romantic ride in the world.”

A curious friendship between two inanimate ladies.

Tucked in a nondescript downtown Brooklyn mall is a bar containing a remarkable turn of the century anatomical wax collection last seen in 1920s Berlin.

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

A Victorian cemetery in the heart of Brooklyn remains a popular mecca of morbid curiosity.

A big shiny gin and whiskey distillery in Sunset Park.