The world is healing, and soon you'll be able to travel the globe again, making up for lost time. As you check destinations off your list, make sure you know a little something about each of them. There are lots of facts about them you'd never expect.
1. Times Square
That big building in the middle of Times Square -- it's such a prime location, you'd think it must be one of the hottest properties in the world. Actually, it's vacant. The owner makes millions selling ad space on the facade, but inside, there's nothing.
2. Lincoln's Birthplace
Go to Hodgenville, Kentucky, and you can visit Lincoln's cabin, a preserved historical site. Except, Abraham Lincoln never actually lived here. The cabin's fake -- and through a wacky mix-up, it might be made of the wood from Jefferson Davis' cabin.
3. The Golden Gate Bridge
The original plan for the Golden Gate Bridge was to paint it using dazzle camouflage, which meant a series of alternating stripes. The Army favored red and white, like a candy cane, while the Navy suggested yellow and black, like a bee.
4. The Eiffel Tower
When the Nazis controlled France, they turned the tower into a dystopian beacon, complete with a Nazi flag. Though, the French first cut the elevator cables, forcing the Nazis to climb by hand and giving them a lot of trouble when the first flag they hung blew away.
5. The Colosseum
The wear and tear on the Colosseum didn't just come with time. Popes ripped the arena apart, using it as a source of stone. The floor of St. Peter's is made from rose porphyry taken from the Colosseum.
6. The Leaning Tower Of Pisa
7. Disney World
Disney World has a whole other island you don't know about. It was called Discovery Island and was used as a wildlife observatory at one point, but then Disney's Animal Kingdom left it redundant, so they abandoned it.
8. Four Corners Monument
The Four Corners Monument -- marking the spot where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico join -- is not actually in the spot where these states meet at all. Which renders it 100% pointless.
9. Mount Rushmore
Like something out of National Treasure, Mount Rushmore has a secret room containing a titanium vault and a 1,200-pound capstone. The original goal was to store America's most prized documents here.
10. The Kremlin
So many depictions of the Kremlin show an onion-domed church. That's Saint Basil's Cathedral, which is near the Kremlin but has nothing to do with it. The Kremlin is a walled complex with a 700-room palace and even several cathedrals … cathedrals that aren't St. Basil's.
11. Washington, D.C.
D.C. is one of the flattest major cities in the U.S., with the tallest commercial building measuring only 12 stories. This'll surprise you if you've seen any of the many movies set in D.C. filled with skyscrapers.
12. Berlin's Holocaust Memorial
Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe consists of 2,711 plinths of concrete of varying heights. It's a very popular location for the background of Grindr profile photos.
13. The Hollywood Sign
14. The Brooklyn Bridge
When the bridge first opened, it was so huge that people mistrusted it. Someone yelled that the structure was collapsing, and 12 died in the resulting stampede.
15. Stonehenge
Stonehenge seems like a cool place for druids to hang out. Let's just not forget the time hippies actually did hang out there in 1985, and 1,300 British cops showed up to beat sense into them. The cops also killed seven dogs.
16. More On Stonehenge
Stonehenge was a tourist attraction even in the 1700s when visitors would routinely break off bits of the stones as souvenirs. This wasn't vandalism: The site's owners handed out chisels.