A lovely aquatic park built by a one-armed Civil War veteran who made a fortune from lotuses.

A hidden gem on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

A wondrous old library overlooking the nation's capital.

One of the dwarven trees dates back to 1625 and survived the Hiroshima bombing.

This grand gothic brewery has been pumping out suds for over a hundred years.

The site of the climactic scene from the classic horror film is now a historic landmark.

The United States Capitol's former columns still stand.

The tunnel under the Capitol Building where Congress takes out its trash.

This taxidermy horse was a Civil War hero.

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.

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

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

An ear-piercing buzzer calls lawmakers to a vote with a series of long and short rings to form coded messages.

A promising candidate for the lost rock laid by George Washington was unearthed, but the hunt is still on.

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

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

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.

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

During Prohibition, the U.S. Congress had an "official" bootlegger, with his own Capitol Hill office.

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

One of the most influential presidents in U.S. history wanted only this plain, elegant monument as his lasting memorial.