Wednesdaybasil's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Port Royal, Virginia

Assassin's End

The Virginia farm where John Wilkes Booth met his grisly end is now largely forgotten.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Eastern State Penitentiary

World's first "penitentiary," meant to be humane, drove men insane.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Swann Memorial Fountain

A tour de force of a fountain, memorializing a man who loved fountains more than anything else.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia City Hall

This elaborate towering structure was once famed for its revolutionary height.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Foucault Pendulum at the Franklin Institute

A daily replay of the experiment that proved the rotation of the Earth.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Giant Ants

Ant sculptures march up the side of what used to be an iconic spot in punk rock lore.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mütter Museum

America's most famous museum of medical oddities is home to the remains of Albert Einstein's brain.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

A layered tribute to the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mummers Museum

A museum dedicated to the strange and extravagant costumes and memorabilia of the mummers, a tradition older than Philadelphia itself.
Fort Washington, Maryland

Woodrow Wilson Bridge

This rare triple-jurisdiction drawbridge passes through Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
Arlington, Virginia

Ronald Reagan National Airport's Historic Terminal A

The romance of early commercial flight still fills this Art Deco destination.
Kensington, Maryland

Washington, D.C. Temple

The tallest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in the world soars above the Beltway.
Washington, D.C.

The Brewmaster's Castle

This grand gothic brewery has been pumping out suds for over a hundred years.
Washington, D.C.

The Lockkeeper's House

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

Washington Monument Marble Stripe

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

Willard Hotel

Legend has it that President Grant’s frequent drinking in the lobby gave rise to the term “lobbyist.”
Washington, D.C.

Bare-Chested George Washington

Perhaps the most scandalous statue of America's first president.
Washington, D.C.

Carousel on the National Mall

Washington's iconic carousel has a nice piece of Civil Rights history.
Washington, D.C.

International Spy Museum

Home to items never before seen by the public.
Washington, D.C.

NASA Full Scale Wind Tunnel Propeller

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

The Preamble in License Plates

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

Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega

The "lovely red Vega" of the legendary record-settling pilot.
Washington, D.C.

Chinatown Barnes Dance

The unique traffic pattern named for an influential urban planner is also known as the Pedestrian Scramble.
Washington, D.C.

The National Gallery's Art Materials Collection

The institution is sitting on a goldmine of 21,000 paints, varnishes, pigments, and primers preserved for posterity.