The site where Charles Dickens gave his first public reading of "A Christmas Carol" in the US.

The site of one of the strangest disasters in history—a wave of deadly molasses traveling at 35 mph.

Beautiful steampunk ghosts of early Massachusetts.

How a century-old glass factory in Queens became a concert venue and arts center.

A collection of playbills, photographs, and other memorabilia from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Amid skyscrapers and traffic exists this unique aquatic ecosystem.

The highest rapid transit station in the world.

Devotional offerings and pleas for intercession are left at this Depression-era shrine inside a nature preserve.

This outdoor gallery of sculptures along the East River was once a landfill.

Stunningly detailed mosaics in a New York subway station bring life to the Weimaraners of artist William Wegman's work—and to thousands of commutes.

This eclectic sculpture garden in Brooklyn, home to a bizarre collection of art, was once a run-down junkyard.

The mysterious image is believed to show Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, in a beautiful blue dress.

This elaborate tunnel is the first structure composed of cast concrete in the United States.

Even for Egyptian royalty, the afterlife was bring-your-own-beef.

Residents of this Brooklyn neighborhood may be unaware their houses sit atop a buried trolley graveyard.

The pioneering photographer's prints are immortalized inside her childhood home.

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

New York's southernmost subway station is whimsically wavy.

This striking arch, one of the first architectural elements constructed in Prospect Park, was recently restored to its original glory.

The gilded vestiges of a sterling department store can still be found in a Brooklyn shopping center.

The origins of midtown Manhattan's anachronistic wooden farmhouse remain a mystery.

This Manhattan museum houses one of the largest collections of Spanish art and manuscripts outside of Spain.

Church in Manhattan holds the bloody sock of Padre Pio, among with many other unusual relics.

Pulled from the rubble of one of the worst modern tragedies, a steel crossbeam became a symbol of hope for New Yorkers.