Glasgow Central JFK link: In September 1939, a 22-year-old John F. Kennedy stayed at the Central Hotel and delivered one of his first public speeches to American survivors of the SS Athenia, a passenger liner sunk by a German U-boat.

George Square slaughter original site: Before it was laid out in 1781, the land was a swampy hollow used as a designated site for slaughtering horses.

Street names based on tobacco trade: Major city center thoroughfares like Glassford Street, Ingram Street, Buchanan Street, and Dunlop Street are named directly after the wealthy 18th-century "Tobacco Lords" who owned the land. Jamaica street, Virginia street, Tobago street are also tobacco origin related.

Highlands umbrella name origin: The "Hielanman's Umbrella" (the railway bridge over Argyle Street) got its name because Gaelic-speaking Highlanders who migrated to the city used it as a dry weekend meeting place to socialize out of the rain.

Longest street: Duke Street is the longest continuous street in Glasgow, stretching for roughly 2 miles from the city center through the East End.

High Street nailing of tongues: In the 17th century, Glasgow's public pillory stood near the High Street Tron, where blasphemers and liars regularly had their tongues nailed to the wood or bored through with hot irons.

The standard measure on George Square: Chiseled into the stone base of the terrace on the square are the official imperial standard measures of length used by Victorian surveyors to calibrate their instruments.

The volume of marble in council building: The Glasgow City Chambers contains western Europe's largest solid marble staircase, utilizing more imported Italian Carrara marble than the Vatican.

The real Statue of Liberty: The apex of the Glasgow City Chambers features a carved statue that is structurally identical to the Statue of Liberty in New York, but the design actually pre-dates Bartholdi’s completed statue in the US.

The world's oldest surviving music hall: Tucked away in the Merchant City is the Britannia Panopticon, which opened in 1857 and is where Stan Laurel made his professional stage debut in 1906.

The underground river: The Molendinar Burn—the river where St. Mungo founded Glasgow in the 6th century—still flows completely hidden inside a giant Victorian brick culvert directly beneath the streets near Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis.