An artist's cute bronze subway sculptures belie his violent artistic past.

"the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well . . . The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges."

Granting the right of way to ships over surface traffic since 1917.

This Cold War siren is one off the last of its kind still standing with its immensely powerful original horn.

The first park built over a freeway is a brutalist masterwork.

Activists are fighting to preserve these unfinished highway ramps as a tribute to the citizen revolt that halted their construction decades ago.

Spanning an elevation of 160 feet and containing 388 steps, this is Seattle's longest staircase.

An old-timey peepshow allows visitors to gawk at some of the world's most freakishly large footwear.

This semi-secret garden in south Seattle emulates a traditional Japanese garden using the plants of the Pacific Northwest.

One of only two commuter aerial tramways in the United States.

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

The first declared National Monument in the United States.

A six-ton, 12-foot-tall concrete prairie dog is touted as the largest in the world.

"Dark Sky Park" is heaven on Earth for astronomers, one of the rare U.S. locations with no artificial light pollution.

A crumbling hospital from the 1850s on Roosevelt Island.

The rough and tumble president's childhood home displays the shirt he was once shot in and the speech that saved him.

A young botanist's horticultural vision realized through a lifetime of planting, tending, and collecting seeds.

Allowing humans and fish alike to migrate from freshwater to saltwater and back again.

A military museum and library dedicated to the citizen soldier.

While only two of the ancient buildings at this site are actually churches this was one of the earliest Irish pilgrimage sites ever.

An Iron Age fort on the edge of a seaside cliff offers a glimpse into an ancient, mystical world.

This single room has survived the centuries with almost no deterioration.

This ancient Irish tower could easily have stood in for Rapunzel's prison.

Daily jousts and dancing barrel makers in Munich's mechanical clock.