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

Behind an abandoned storefront is an example of pioneering 1930s gas station architecture.

A building shaped like the Army Corps of Engineers logo, because why not?

Before Nixon, "watergate" meant canals.

The discovery site of the "Capitalsaurus," the official dinosaur of Washington, D.C.

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

The towering figures were created from the cemetery's fallen old-growth trees.

The span is crooked and made from two older recycled bridges.

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

A little marble compass above George Washington's (empty) tomb in the Capitol marks where D.C.'s four quadrants intersect.

Once the supplier for noteworthy projects like the National Cathedral, this old brickworks now lies abandoned.

An overlooked oasis of quiet on the grounds of Washington's monumental basilica.

This lovely pocket park is one of the most under appreciated in D.C.

Members of Congress have traveled between the buildings on Capitol Hill for a century hidden from tourists, press, and storm clouds.

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."

A brass plaque dedicated to a convicted cannibal hangs in the National Press Club, and that's not even the craziest part of the story.

These recently uncovered walls are all that's left of Washington, D.C's first defense contractor.

Obscure Freemasons still live in D.C.’s largest private residence.

The hidden offices underneath Memorial Bridge have been locked up since 1976.

A celebrity from the late Cretaceous period.

Cold War intelligence agents monitored communist embassies from an attic in a former pigeon coop.

A super-sized promotional trick that is now a D.C. landmark.

An Industrial Revolution-era public work that purified water using nothing but sand.

The famous abolitionist’s preserved estate is one of Washington's finest monuments to its great Black citizens.