View from down the road

SAN SIMEON, Calif.--There aren't many buildings in America that are as interwoven into our culture as Hearst Castle. The longtime palace-away-from-home of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, this central California mega-mansion played host to the power elite from Hollywood to Washington, D.C. for years, and was fictionalized in Orson Welles' classic film "Citizen Kane."

This 165-room estate, built by esteemed California architect Julia Morgan on 250,000 stunning acres, features four main buildings with a total of 58 bedrooms and two giant pools with a total of 550,000 gallons of water.

Hearst Castle is famous for its -- and Hearst's -- monumental collection of original and replica art spanning centuries and a diverse range of styles. Each year more than 630,000 people drive hours to visit, and since it opened for public tours in 1958, more than 38 million people have spent time there. And that's not including some of the 20th century's most rich and famous, from Winston Churchill to John Paul Getty to Charlie Chaplin and Gary Cooper.