An invitation-only museum of items natural and bizarre, arcane and exotic.

An enormous artwork that colorfully celebrates over 150 years of US military achievements.

A masterpiece in Golden Gate Park by virtue of the artist’s debt.

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

Forgotten and then destroyed by fire, this was once one of the largest saltwater swimming pools in the world.

The grand, column-fronted, sculpture-adorned home of the ambitious digital library.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

A library built during San Francisco's pioneer times is a student's retreat, bibliophile's sanctuary, and chess player's delight.

The stones that traveled from Spain to eventually become a holy place for San Francisco's nature worshippers.

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

A 300-ship graveyard, with a few still visible at low tide.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

Creek water that starts here has a 50/50 chance of ending up in the Atlantic or the Pacific.

The first "Hall of Fame" in America was designed by legendary Gilded Age architect Stanford White for what was then the NYU uptown campus.

Rummage through this sunken ship, but leave your scuba gear at home.

Commemorating the spot where the famous scientist fed his pigeons.

This historic address is home to the beloved ball and is an almost totally empty building among the most expensive real estate in the world.

The famous author's cottage hideaway.

A curious fountain that has no water and includes Satan, a crab, and 9 giraffes.

Everyone from Mark Twain to Teddy Roosevelt has a pipe hanging from the walls of this historic chophouse.