There’s a hidden military meme engraved on the World War II Memorial.

A derelict bit of infrastructure from the canal that once ran through D.C. is landlocked in the heart of the city.

This mysterious structure by the Washington Monument is a flood barrier designed to protect the White House against rising waters.

A tiny monument to the unsuccessful attempt by Thomas Jefferson to place the prime meridian in Washington.

The monument's pointy aluminum tip has been melted down by repeated lightning strikes.

Daredevil repair workers can worm their way out the access hatch, loop ropes over the apex and rappel down the monument.

There's a 12-foot-tall replica of the Washington Monument hidden under a manhole nearby.

A bas relief commemorates the "Nuns of the Battlefield" who cared for soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Home to items never before seen by the public.

A school-themed restaurant where gastronomy is the core curriculum.

A view-altering observatory at the University of Texas.

A gorgeous garden oasis with winding paths, stone bridges, and a troubling history.

Turning night into day in Victorian-era Austin to thwart a serial killer.

The world's largest squirrel statue clutches a pecan bigger than your head.

Housed in a century-old building, this museum's dedicated not just to soft drinks, but to the free enterprise system.

Visitors can walk over the largest concentration of Columbian mammoths to have died from one event.

A 24-hour vending machine restocked daily with homemade full-sized pecan pies.

An emerald-green grotto just a short trip from Austin.

Home to the largest urban bat colony in North America, estimated at 1.5 million bats.

Free public park and gardens filled with peacocks and peahens.

A grove of colossal man-made flowers built to collect the sun's rays.

Hundreds of glow-in-the-dark objects light up a museum in a historic zinc mine.

This rare polygonal meeting house is rumored to be built in a circle so that the devil has nowhere to hide.

The sweetest graveyard in the world is filled with headstones for dearly de-pinted ice cream flavors.