This residential door allows San Francisco muggles a glimpse at the wizarding world.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

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

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

A wealth of local folk art, antiques, and curios, without ever leaving your car.

This railroad and oil tycoon's lavish estate now stands as a time capsule of the Gilded Age.

The walls of America's oldest masonry fort famously "swallowed" cannonballs.

Electrical pylon in the shape of Disney's beloved mouse.

The museum chronicling a treasure hunter's dream, fulfilled.

A small poultry graveyard in the courtyard of a popular Key West watering hole.

St. Augustine's record-setting narrow street was designed to protect against pirates.

One of the only Florida forts to remain in the hands of the Union all through the Civil War still stands as a historic stronghold.

It's a pretty creepy lock-up.

Former villa and estate of James Deering developed to preserve native tropical forests.

A monument celebrating the idea of reaching inaccessible places.

A tribute to Ponce de Leon's supposed quest for eternal youth.

A luxurious 1880s hotel with its fair share of Tiffany stained glass, Edison electricity, and of course, ghosts.

Arrr! The most authentic collection of pirate artifacts in the world... matey.