An uber-secure, windowless tower of doom in the center of Manhattan is an NSA spyscraper.

The world’s oldest and biggest bookstore stocking only mystery, crime fiction, espionage, and thrillers.

A dark patch of the ceiling at Grand Central Terminal which was not restored is still stained brown by tobacco.

Two large-scale sculptures of Adam and Eve greet visitors in the nude at the Time Warner Center in NYC.

This mosaic dedicated to John Lennon was tended for years by a Beatles super-fan.

The name of this tiny pocket park tucked between two buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side is Latin for its location: "seventy-one."

Once a flowing stream and where the USS Monitor, the world's first ironclad, was built and launched.

Where the Monitor was launched and ushered in the age of the "ironclads."

“Wagon Jobber" turned smokehouse magnate's family-owned business is still going strong 100 years later.

A gift from Japan, 17th-century lantern stands among the cherry trees at D.C.'s Tidal Basin.

This statue honors the author's groundbreaking family story.

Home of the physician who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln assassination.

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

During the Industrial Revolution this “Temple of Invention” was full of intricate miniature machines and gadgets.

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

This Wall Street bar was once a hub of revolutionary activity where Washington famously bid farewell to his troops.

Light bulbs, scrap wood, and tinfoil comprise this homemade throne of the gods.

Go take a picture with the inventor of the daguerreotype photographic process.

This Masonic lodge was the first major private building to be constructed in Washington, D.C. after the Civil War.

Over the last century, this elegant columned facade has been home to the headquarters of a bank, several nightclubs, and a restaurant.

Though his role as the inventor of baseball may be up for debate, fans still festoon Doubleday's grave with baseballs.

Soldiers were buried next to Lee's house in the center of Arlington Cemetery to dissuade the general from reclaiming his property after the war.

An oft-overlooked, magically musical monolith that stands majestically between Arlington Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Right next to departures—how convenient!