A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

Non-profit time travel mart sells goods you would need for a trip through the fourth dimension.

This statue of the "father of television" stands prominently in the United States Capitol.

The 5.5-mile ring of steel posts around the Capitol Building is one of the largest (and most uniform) of its kind in the world.

This unique museum cafeteria showcases the history and regional diversity of African American cuisine.

The grand marble structure next to the White House is Andrew Carnegie's temple to Pan-American diplomacy.

One critic described it as "middle Mussolini, early Ramses, and late Neiman-Marcus." Another called it an architectural "natural disaster."

Corn-inthian columns with a uniquely American take on neoclassical architecture.

A line of blue paint marks the route of the inaugural parade.

A 1,100-ton train fell through the floor in 1953. Workers got it patched up in just 72 hours.

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution written entirely from vanity license plates hangs in the Smithsonian museum.

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

A derelict bit of infrastructure from the canal that once ran through D.C. is landlocked in the heart of the city.

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

Was there a small "backpack nuke" hidden in the attic? JFK apparently thought so.

A muscular Art Deco monument represents the struggle between regulators and unbridled markets.

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

A museum cafe showcases Native American dishes and indigenous ingredients from across the Western Hemisphere.

Behind an abandoned storefront is an example of pioneering 1930s gas station architecture.

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

When it comes to handsignals (and colonialism) rock always beats scissors.

There just so happens to be a court even higher than the U.S Supreme Court: a basketball court in the building itself.

A tiny monument to the unsuccessful attempt by Thomas Jefferson to place the prime meridian in Washington.

This unacceptably tall building was the real reason for Washington, D.C.'s skyscraper ban.