The Castle on Central Park West Built for Cancer Patients
The New York Cancer Hospital looked like a French chateau because treating cancer in the 1880s required medicine, money, architecture, and persuasion.
History
The Alamo Is Fighting to Recover the Battlefield Around It
The Alamo's famous church survived, but much of the battlefield disappeared under downtown San Antonio. The current restoration is trying to tell the full site again.
The Useless Lighthouse That Children Saved From Scrap
The Little Red Lighthouse lost its job when the George Washington Bridge opened above it, but a children's book gave it a second life.
The Battery Memorial Where a Sailor Drowns With the Tide
The American Merchant Mariners' Memorial turns a lost World War II photograph into a sculpture that disappears and returns with New York Harbor.
How Cleopatra's Needle Was Dragged Into Central Park
New York's ancient Egyptian obelisk survived thousands of years, but getting it from Alexandria to Central Park was its own engineering epic.
The USS Intrepid Survived War, Then Got Stuck in Hudson River Mud
The aircraft carrier Intrepid survived kamikaze attacks, a torpedo strike, Vietnam service, and NASA recovery missions. In 2006, its hardest opponent was 17 feet of Hudson River mud.
The Tiny Sidewalk Triangle That Refused to Become Public Property
The Hess Triangle is only about 500 square inches, but the mosaic in the West Village preserves a century-old fight over eminent domain and Seventh Avenue.
The Room Where Millions of Americans Began
Ellis Island's Registry Room was built for hope, fear, and speed: a place where doctors and inspectors processed thousands of new arrivals a day.
How New Yorkers Crowdfunded the Statue of Liberty's Pedestal
France paid for the statue, but America nearly failed to build the pedestal until Joseph Pulitzer turned small donations into a public campaign.
The Manhattan Project Left Radioactive Footprints in New York
Before Oak Ridge and Los Alamos became famous, the atomic bomb project had offices, warehouses, and university labs hidden in New York City.
The Iron Boot Scrapers Left From New York's Horse Era
Before cars filled New York's streets, horses created a sanitation problem so ordinary that it shaped stoops, sidewalks, and front doors.
Monopoly Was Built From Atlantic City and Stolen From a Critic of Monopoly
The board looks like capitalism's favorite game, but its roots run through Atlantic City, Quaker game nights, and Elizabeth Magie's anti-monopoly warning.