Construction of the New York & Erie Railroad had been underway, off and on, for 14 years when it faced a compound problem in 1846. The railroad's charter from New York State required the road to be built as far as Binghamton by December 31, 1848. To get there, the track needed to traverse a deep valley a couple of miles south of the New York-Pennsylvania...

These sand dunes are a spectacular site across the coast of St. Anne's in northwest England. A lush wildlife habitat, it is an important natural sea defense along the Fylde Coast and because the stretch of St. Anne's beach is so vast when the tide is out, it makes the landscape look like you're in the Sahara desert. Blackpudlians are nicknamed "Sandgrownians,"...

The first floor of C-Boys Heart & Soul is awash in red velvet upholstery and vintage furnishings. A heart-shaped neon light glows behind the bar, and live music fills the venue seven days a week. In name and spirit, the venue is an homage to Louis Charles “C-Boy” Parks, the manager of the legendary Austin blues club the Rome Inn. In the 70s,...

If you find yourself sitting in traffic on 1-35 in South Austin, you might find your eye drawn to Whip In's vintage neon sign. For almost 40 years, this fusion eatery has been a touchstone of the city's craft beer scene. In 1986, Amrit and Chandan Topiwala bought a convenience store in the Travis Heights neighborhood. At first, the unassuming building...

In the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand stands a massive, high-density housing complex sometimes described as a "palace," known for its postmodern architecture often associated with dystopian aesthetics. Named Espaces d’Abraxas after the Gnostic deity, it was designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, who sought to create an unusually palatial low-income...

Each week, Atlas Obscura is providing a new short excerpt from our upcoming book, Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders (September 17, 2024). In the early twentieth century, some prairie dog towns stretched for hundreds of miles. Cowboys and naturalists passing through described acres of sociable rodents, who would pop...