This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

This North Carolina store preserves a historic moment in America's movement for racial equality.

Art museum based around the collections accumulated over 58 years by one eccentric thrift store owner.

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

A historic hotel that made a cameo in Hitchcock's classic film has no intention of letting guests forget its fame.

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

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

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

For 60 years, the academy had no permanent location until members voted Washington D.C. as its forever home.

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

The U.S. Navy’s preposterously detailed mini battleship took 77,000 hours to complete.

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

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

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

While most wind tunnels test scale models, the "Cave of Winds" was large enough for actual airplanes.

A much-maligned monument to teetotalism.

A little marble compass above George Washington's (empty) tomb in the Capitol marks where D.C.'s four quadrants intersect.

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.

The oldest building in the District of Columbia was preserved because of a mistaken connection to George Washington.

The "lovely red Vega" of the legendary record-settling pilot.

A super-sized promotional trick that is now a D.C. landmark.

The actual model from the original "Star Trek" series is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

The first purpose-built art gallery in the United States is once again open as a center of craft arts.