Legend has it that President Grant’s frequent drinking in the lobby gave rise to the term “lobbyist.”

The bank that helped fund the Mexican-American War and the purchase of Alaska met its downfall after helping Augusto Pinochet launder money.

Look closely and you’ll notice that the color changes a third of the way up the tower.

The romance of early commercial flight still fills this Art Deco destination.

This lovely picnic spot featuring thunderous jet landings is an aircraft spotter’s dream.

A celebrity from the late Cretaceous period.

An overlooked memorial honoring the local Washington residents who died in World War I.

A tribute to the pop culture icon overlooks this Washington D.C. intersection.

The beloved statue at the National Academy of Sciences is oh so inviting to sit on.

A cavernous three-story, 43,800-square-foot basement that was forgotten about for 60 years.

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."

This seemingly out-of-place gas station by the Watergate hotel was once described as the most expensive gas station in the world.

The national park was once a plantation estate.

The little-known, 300-year history of the area includes former lives as a bustling tobacco port, parking lot, and industrial dump.

The site of the climactic scene from the classic horror film is now a historic landmark.

Located at the former Lorton Prison the Lucy Burns Museum tells the story of the 91 year history of the prison including the dark chapter of its involvement in the women's suffrage movement.

This pun was simply waiting to come to life, and one defense contractor made it so.

A double agent hid information for the Soviet Union beneath this bridge for more than 20 years.

These unusual rooms on wheels are holdovers from the 1960s.

This Virginia railway overpass is said to be haunted by a serial killer in a rabbit costume.

At Washington's Dulles Airport is a satellite museum (no pun intended) with three quarters of a million square feet of aircraft history.

A statue honoring 44 continuous years of greeting passing ships.

An early-19th-century hotel with a past that is steeped in the Civil War.

This kitschy tavern is also home to rare early editions of "Treasure Island."