1

Forestiere Underground Gardens

Image: Francesco Ungaro

Baldassare Forestiere, a Scicilan immigrant built a series of subterranean structures over a period of 40 years in Fresno, California.

Initially created as a small cellar to escape the summer heat, Baldassare carved a series of attached rooms, with underground trees , creating an incredible structure that can be visited today.

2

Swaminarayan Akshardham

Image: Usha Kiran

A structure that most people would associate with a very different part of the world was built between 2015 and 2023 in Robbinsville, New Jersey: a large Hindu temple . It is the largest building of this kind in the United States and the second largest in the world.

3

Cathedral of Learning

Image: henry perks

A 42-story skyscraper that looks like an Art Deco cathedral, the Cathedral of Learning is part of the University of Pittsburgh’s main campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Standing at 535 feet, this Late Gothic Revival structure is the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere and the second-tallest university building in the world. It is also the second-tallest gothic-style building in the world, after the Woolworth Building in Manhattan.

4

Hammond Castle

Image: Ted Gracz

An impressive feature of the Atlantic coast in the Magnolia area of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the Hammond Castle was the home, laboratory, and museum of John Hays Hammond Jr., an inventor and pioneer in the study of remote control .

The building is composed of modern and 15th-, 16th-, and 18th-century architectural elements, and operates as the Hammond Castle Museum, displaying Hammond's collection of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts as well as exhibits about his life and inventions.

5

San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden

Image: Annie Spratt

Imagine a Japanese Tea Garden set in an abandoned limestone rock quarry, and you will be picturing the San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden, or Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park, San Antonio, Texas.

After several years working as a quarry, the area was redeveloped as the tea garden that it is today, with walkways, stone arch bridges, an island, a Japanese pagoda, and, of course, a tea room .

6

Ashbel Smith Building

Image: Mario La Pergola

The huge Romanesque Revival building in Galveston, Texas, familiarly known as Old Red, was built in 1891 with red brick and sandstone . The Ashbel Smith Building, as it is officially named, was the first University of Texas Medical Branch edifice.

7

Mission San Xavier del Bac

Image: Sean Benesh

The oldest European structure in Arizona is the Mission San Xavier del Balc. This historical Spanish Catholic mission is 10 miles south of Tucson and was founded in 1692. It is an outstanding example of Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States and it is a well-known pilgrimage site, with thousands visiting each year on foot and on horseback, some among ceremonial cavalcades or cabalgatas.

8

New River Gorge Bridge

Image: Ashley Knedler

The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge 3,030 feet long over the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains. With an arch 1,700 feet long, the New River Gorge Bridge was t he world's longest single-span arch bridge when completed in 1977.

9

National Park Seminary

Image: Charles Marleau

National Park Seminary was a private girls' school open from 1894 to 1942 , located in Forest Glen Park, Maryland. Its name refers to the nearby Rock Creek Park. The historic campus boasts a massive building dating from the late 1800s.

10

Mercer Museum

Image: Camila Credidio

The incredible Mercer Museum is a poured-in-place concrete structure built by the museum's founder, archeologist Henry Chapman Mercer, originally meant as his private residence. It is located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

11

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Image: Charles Marleau

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, United States, was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, and completed in 1961.

Created according to traditional Byzantine architectural forms , but reinterpreted by Wright to suit the modern context, this building offers a striking view to its visitors.

1

The spacesuit satellite

Image: Sieuwert Otterloo

Shoving an astronaut suit out of an airlock and into space might seem like a scene from a movie, but it really happened. In 2003, an empty spacesuit was thrown into space , nicknamed Ivan Ivanovitch (or Mr. Smith), stuffed with old clothes and a radio transmitter .

The idea was that old spacesuits could be used as satellites. SuitSat-1, as it was named, went on to spend several months in silent orbit before entering Earth's atmosphere and burning up on September 7, 2006.

2

The "invisible" gorilla

Image: Mike Arney

In this strange psychological experiment, researchers asked participants to watch a video of people passing a basketball and count how many passes were made. The catch was that, during the video, a person in a gorilla suit walked into the frame, stopped to pound its chest, and then walked out.

The study revealed a curious phenomenon known as "inattentional blindness": people were so focused on counting the passes that they failed to notice the gorilla .

3

Space spiders

Image: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

In 2011, scientists sent two golden silk orb-weaver spiders on a 45-day trip aboard the ISS. They were kept in an adequate habitat, and both spiders adapted beautifully, continuing to spin their webs and hunt for food.

But not everything was normal. In microgravity, the spiders spun their webs differently —flatter and rounder—compared to the more three-dimensional, asymmetrical structures that orb-weavers spin on Earth.

4

Bitter fingernails

Image: Nick Karvounis

In 1942, a professor conducted an experiment with boys who had been diagnosed as chronic nail-biters. He used a phonograph with the recorded message " My fingernails taste bitter ," playing it over and over at night in the room where the boys slept.

At the end of the summer, the professor examined the boys' nails and concluded that 40% of them had kicked the habit.

5

Syrup swimming

Image: Arwin Neil Baichoo

In 2004, sixteen people with varying swimming skills swam in both a regular pool and a pool of guar syrup , which is twice as thick as water, for an experiment conducted by the University of Minnesota. The differences in their recorded times were negligible.

6

Bearcats and popcorn

Image: Corina Rainer

People encountering bearcats have noted that these animals smell like movie theater popcorn. A non-profit organization tested the bearcat's urine , and the results showed the presence of a chemical compound called 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline.

As it turns out, this is the same compound that gives popcorn its signature smell .

7

The 28-hour day

Image: Ocean Ng

Hoping to find out whether the 24-hour sleep-wake human rhythm was merely a habit, two scientists spent 32 days in a cave to avoid any external reference to day and night.

They tried out a 28-hour day, sleeping for 9 hours, working for 10 hours, and having 9 hours of leisure time . The younger scientist adapted within the first week, while the older one failed to adapt.

8

The fake doctor

Image: Hunters Race

A fake doctor delivered a lecture in 1970 to a crowd of assembled experts titled "Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education." His performance impressed the audience so much that nobody noticed he was an actor who didn’t know anything about game theory.

The researchers behind the experiment wanted to find out if a great delivery technique could fool a group of experts—and it did.

9

The electric kite

Image: Brett Wharton

The most famous experiment on our list is also one of the strangest. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning .

While many believe otherwise, no lightning hit the kite. Instead, ambient electrical charge moved through the hemp wire, and when Franklin touched the key attached to the wire, he felt a spark, thus proving the existence of such electricity.

10

Moon trees

Image: David Dibert

As we've learned, Americans like taking things to outer space and then bringing them right back. The Apollo 14 mission carried hundreds of tree seeds into space . These "moon trees" were then planted across the country by the US Forest Service.

Unsurprisingly, the trees grew just like any other tree of the same species.

1

Appalachian Trail, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Image: Wes Hicks

Yes, the entire Appalachian Trail is extremely long. Actually, it is over 2,190 miles long. But, the Shenandoah National Park, 75 miles from Washington, D.C., has over 500 miles of hiking trails, including more than 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail ; You can tackle a small section in a day’s hike.

The park is the perfect place to explore the great outdoors in Virginia and it consists of 200,000 acres of protected land that are home to animals like deer and songbirds.

2

Burroughs Mountain Trail, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Image: Scott Longerbeam

More than 260 miles of maintained trails lead visitors through peaceful old-growth forests, river valleys, and subalpine meadows on the Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state.

The park is home to one of the most iconic mountains in the world: Mount Rainier rises 14,410 feet above sea level straight into the clouds. Check out the Burroughs Mountain Trail for stunning views of mountain peaks and the alpine landscape.

3

Rim Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Image: Tim Golder

Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah is home to the largest collection of odd-shaped pillars of rock left standing from the forces of erosion, known as hoodoos. Many of them can be viewed from the 5.5-mile Rim Trail .

The park also offers hikes for all levels, including backcountry options for those looking for a little added adventure and guided Full Moon Hikes for night-owl explorers.

4

Upper Emerald Pools Trail, Zion National Park, Utah

Image: Jamie Hagan

A park filled with hiking trails for all experience levels, Zion National Park, Utah's first national park , is famous for its massive cream, pink, and red sandstone cliffs, and freestanding arches.

Hikers should attempt to visit at sunrise and sunset to enjoy the breathtaking views of sunlight splashing off the cliffs and into the rivers below. And if it is an approachable trail they’re looking for, the Upper Emerald Pools Trail is an easy hike leading to sparkling waterfalls.

5

Grinnell Glacier Trail, Glacier National Park, Montana

Image: Aaron Clinard

Over 700 miles of hiking trails, including more than a dozen options around the Many Glacier area , like the popular Grinnell Glacier Trail , can be found at the Glacier National Park.

Lucky visitors can spot some of the park's varied wildlife, including 71 species of mammals, from the tiny pygmy shrew to one of the largest remaining grizzly bear populations in the country.

6

Charlies Bunion Hike, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina

Image: Leslie Cross

The Great Smoky Mountains are world-renowned for its animal and plant life diversity, as well as for its miles of official and backcountry trails with views of waterfalls and old-growth forests.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park spreads across two states and offers plenty of activities for hikers. For a particularly breathtaking vista, hike to Charlies Bunion, a popular outcropping along the Appalachian Trail.

7

Billy Goat Trail, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Maryland

Image: Eduardo Gutierrez

Considered a moderate-difficulty trail, Maryland's Billy Goat Trail has three sections totaling eight miles, though portions are strenuous and challenging . Outdoor enthusiasts can experience the raging Potomac River and the rocky crags of Great Falls. The hike is very popular, so early hours are advisable to beat the crowds.

8

Chautauqua Trail, Chautauqua Park, Colorado

Image: Leslie Cross

An old park, Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado, has been around since 1898. The 80-acre park has miles of hiking, much of which are uphill . But there are less strenuous hikes, too, like the Chautauqua Trail, which offers views of the Flatiron mountains and Boulder.

9

Canyon to Rim Loop, Smith Rock State Park, Oregon

Image: Alex Diaz

Hikers of every level can find an appropriate trail at Smith Rock State Park, in Oregon. These vary in length and difficulty, but they all offer beautiful views of the Central Oregon landscape**.**

The park offers hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails, and visitors may spot golden eagles, prairie falcons, river otters, and beavers throughout the day.

10

Petroglyph Wall Trail, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada

Image: Kristin Melville

As visitors to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area can testify, not all short-distance hikes are the same. Many are labeled difficult, and it can take four to five hours to complete a five-mile hike.

Along the different routes, desert wildlife can be spotted, including lizards, toads, and hawks. One of the park's most beginner-friendly hikes is the 0.2-mile Petroglyph Wall Trail , where centuries-old rock art can be appreciated.