This program on the rise of the great American cities begins with the remarkable assembly of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. The gift from France intended to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence was a massive job in putting together 350 enormous parts. The funding was raised by Joseph Pulitzer, owner of "The New York World" newspaper. 121,000 donations came in from American citizens.
The program does a splendid job in simulating the assembly of Liberty, whose face was modeled on that of the mother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. After six months of work, it was complete. Twenty-five years later, the original bronze had oxydized into the green color of today. Until the year 1902, the statue functioned as a lighthouse. The 1883 Emma Lazarus poem "The New Colossus" is at the base of the statue.
Andrew Carnegie oversaw the revolution in steel that led to the skyscrapers. In 1872, Carnegie had the vision to see the future of steel. Weathering a stock market crash, he risked his fortune on the mass production of steel after learning the secret of the Bessemer system of processing.
The Flatiron building in Chicago is an emblem of the Gilded Age. With new "verticalty" permitted by steel, the megacity now has a skyline of magnificent buildings.
The menacing figure of Thomas Byrnes fights crime in the modern age. His "rogues gallery" makes use of photography in order to track hardened criminals through mug shots. Byrnes' s system of the "third degree" involved brutal questioning through physical and psychological "stress."
Jacob Riis uses photography, including the new invention of a flash attachment to capture images in the dark, to convey "how the other half lives." His moving lectures and slide shows (magic lantern) raise consciousness of crowding in the squalid tenements and the inhumane living conditions of over twenty-eight million souls.
Filth in the cities is addressed by Colonel George Waring, who comes to be known as the "Apostle of Cleanliness." Waring becomes sanitation commissioner of New York City. His vision was no less than that of an eco-warrior with his efficient team of the "White Ducks" who cleaned and recycled the waste of New York. By 1907, a massive sewer system had been implemented.
In the urban landscape, Thomas Alva Edison labored in the discovery of a filament in a vacuum that would provide the final piece of the puzzle in sparking his electric light bulb. He finally found it in carbonized cardboard. On New Year's Even in 1879, Edison reveals his discovery that would change people's lives forever. And then: Let there be light!
The program closes with the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on the eighth floor of the New York clothing factory that took the lives of 146 people, primarily young women. The tragedy eventually led to the Life Safety Code that made protecting workers' lives the business of the government.
The program does a splendid job in simulating the assembly of Liberty, whose face was modeled on that of the mother of the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. After six months of work, it was complete. Twenty-five years later, the original bronze had oxydized into the green color of today. Until the year 1902, the statue functioned as a lighthouse. The 1883 Emma Lazarus poem "The New Colossus" is at the base of the statue.
Andrew Carnegie oversaw the revolution in steel that led to the skyscrapers. In 1872, Carnegie had the vision to see the future of steel. Weathering a stock market crash, he risked his fortune on the mass production of steel after learning the secret of the Bessemer system of processing.
The Flatiron building in Chicago is an emblem of the Gilded Age. With new "verticalty" permitted by steel, the megacity now has a skyline of magnificent buildings.
The menacing figure of Thomas Byrnes fights crime in the modern age. His "rogues gallery" makes use of photography in order to track hardened criminals through mug shots. Byrnes' s system of the "third degree" involved brutal questioning through physical and psychological "stress."
Jacob Riis uses photography, including the new invention of a flash attachment to capture images in the dark, to convey "how the other half lives." His moving lectures and slide shows (magic lantern) raise consciousness of crowding in the squalid tenements and the inhumane living conditions of over twenty-eight million souls.
Filth in the cities is addressed by Colonel George Waring, who comes to be known as the "Apostle of Cleanliness." Waring becomes sanitation commissioner of New York City. His vision was no less than that of an eco-warrior with his efficient team of the "White Ducks" who cleaned and recycled the waste of New York. By 1907, a massive sewer system had been implemented.
In the urban landscape, Thomas Alva Edison labored in the discovery of a filament in a vacuum that would provide the final piece of the puzzle in sparking his electric light bulb. He finally found it in carbonized cardboard. On New Year's Even in 1879, Edison reveals his discovery that would change people's lives forever. And then: Let there be light!
The program closes with the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on the eighth floor of the New York clothing factory that took the lives of 146 people, primarily young women. The tragedy eventually led to the Life Safety Code that made protecting workers' lives the business of the government.
