This enormous monument is one of the most iconic structures in Tokyo, rudely nicknamed "The Golden Turd."

This playground sculpture of an icon from the past is dedicated to the children of the future.

This memorial plaque remembers a strangely shallow maritime disaster known as "Chicago's Titanic."

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

The abandoned zoo enclosures offer a perfect place to experience the other side of the bars.

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

World's largest collection of serial killer artwork and other macabre exhibits.

Space program, pneumatics and more, bits and pieces, for movie sets or the common man.

A French chateau, failed utopian community, odd museum, and Stonehenge replica in rural Washington State.

The longest continuous lava tube in the continental U.S. offers 2.5 miles of dark explorations for the adventurous.

A rare tour of a commercial jet assembly plant, held inside one of the largest buildings in the world.

Four abandoned towers hidden above the Douglas fir forest in Washington.

An exercise in patience and imagination, where Mother Earth turned common stuff into precious hidden treasures.

This metallic stampede sits frozen on a Washington ridge yet the artist's vision is still incomplete.

Perhaps the world's only gas station inspired by a political scandal.

An obscure waterfall that looks like something out of a fantasy novel.

This inanimate goat created by the "welding nun" has been helping to clean up the city of Spokane for more than 40 years.

New fungal and bacterial species call this deadly lake home.

Home to the deepest rift anywhere on Earth.

A miraculous natural phenomenon known as "the spring that breathes."

A museum dedicated to the history and art of staying clean.

Yo, Adrian!

Commercial airplanes land mere feet over the heads of sunbathing beachgoers on this tiny island.