Granting the right of way to ships over surface traffic since 1917.

This working class sculpture pounds his hammer all the livelong day.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

A dwindling menagerie of anthropomorphic oil derrick animals still dot the barren California landscape.

The World's First 24 Hour Coin-Operated Art Gallery!! Plastic, Styrofoam, and Elvis--If you can't get rid of it, you might as well worship it!!

Decommissioned experimental solar facilities that pioneered solar energy technology.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

A faux European lane smack dab in downtown L.A.

Giant Redwood-themed cafeteria operates under the golden rule, "Dine Free Unless Delighted."

The short oil boom of Venice Beach, and its swift removal from the tourism-laden landscape.

An increasingly eccentric apartment building, topped with winged beasties.

"The only replacement for a DC-3 is another DC-3."

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

A visionary, futuristic sculpture in Los Angeles that never met its extraterrestrial potential.

Brightly colored 30-foot-tall totems light up the desert sky just outside Las Vegas.

This incredible collection of vintage pinball machines can be played at 25 cents a pop.

Sister store to the Echo Park Time Travel Store.

This former coal gasification plant found a curious second life as a popular public park.

The world’s largest concentrated solar plant generates as many problems as megawatts.

A lonely Gondola stuck on a traffic circle sits in a spot where it once would have floated down the Grand Canal.

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.

Originally the home of chewing gum mogul William Wrigely Jr, it is now the official offices of the Tournament of Roses.