Cold War intelligence agents monitored communist embassies from an attic in a former pigeon coop.

Franciscan monks created a facsimile of the Holy Land for North Americans who couldn’t afford the trip overseas.

Once home to seven different roller coasters, Glen Echo has undergone many transformations since its founding in 1891.

The ruins of this long-abandoned unsuccessful gold mine can still be found.

An intricately designed junk art house with four extravagant junk art cars hidden in the suburbs.

An FDR-era tuberculosis sanatorium has stood abandoned in the suburbs of the U.S. capital for over 30 years.

A cave on the Maryland border where civilians took refuge during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

A benevolent, 16-foot-tall river dragon lives on a suburban lawn.

This ruined quarry once produced the distinctive red sandstone used for construction projects in Washington, D.C.

A lawn full of retired spacecraft on display at one of NASA's first research labs.

This former asylum for Black Americans is haunted by its history of violence and racism.

The Forest Service's surprisingly sophisticated collection of wildfire prevention art features America's most beloved bear.

The shelves in the back of this thrift store are devoted to saving, not selling, retro tech.

This dig site outside D.C. is known for its exceptionally high density of baby dinosaur fossils and dinosaur eggs.

Tiny observatory made big contributions to the study of the Earth's motion.

This abandoned asylum was once a state of the art facility before devolving into one of the most deadly mental institutions in American history.

Hundreds of antiquated typewriters and office machinery show the technological evolution of business.

A remote horde of architectural treasures fit for Indiana Jones.

A priceless collection of the Nation's cryptologic history.

This recreation of a 19th-century dime museum is full of oddities.

A local farm's collection of unusual structures from a now defunct storybook amusement park.

Electronic inventions that resulted in products and systems we use every day are on display in this labor-of-love museum.

An eerie, abandoned military base engulfed by nature and graffiti is now home to a local park.

The haunting "Hell House Altar" is one of the few remnants of an abandoned college that has been a magnet for local legends.