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[ Music ]

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>> [Background Music] A new generation on
a wild new frontier rising into the sky,

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gleaming towers of steel,
a bold new urban landscape

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and maybe America's greatest
invention, the modern vertical city.

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We are pioneers and trailblazers,
we fight for freedom.

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We transform our dreams into the truth,
our struggles will become a nation.

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America, land of invention, hot-dogs,
jazz, the elevator, skyscrapers.

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This is the story of the greatest
innovation of all, the modern vertical city.

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One world famous icon has come to symbolize it.

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Amazingly, we very nearly didn't have it.

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It's 1885 and New York City has a big problem.

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A magnificent gift but with
some assembly required.

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Scattered across Bedloe's Island
in New York harbor in 214 crates.

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They contain the largest
statue in the Western world.

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It's been donated by the people of
France to celebrate the centenary

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of the Declaration of Independence.

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Built in Paris, broken down
into 350 massive pieces

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for the journey to America, that's the problem.

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The cost of reassembling
it would be astronomical.

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Money, New York does not have.

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At least 6 other US cities are
jockeying to give it a home.

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New York City is in danger of
losing the Statue of Liberty.

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Not if this man can help it.

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Joseph Pulitzer, tenacious newspaper
magnate, immigrant, a self-made man.

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He owns the biggest paper in
the US, The New York World.

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And he's determined to keep
Liberty in New York harbor.

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Through his chain of newspapers,

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Pulitzer launches the biggest fund-raising
campaign ever seen in North America.

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>> It would be an irrevocable disgrace to
New York City and the American republic

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to have France send us this splendid
gift without our having provided even

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so much as a landing place for it.

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>> We must raise the money.

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>> More than a million people
read Pulitzer's papers every day.

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>> Enclosed please find 25
cents, is my contribution to--

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>> One dollar the content of our my
little savings bank which we treasure--

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>> -- resolved to send you the
contents of the first jackpot,

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you will find enclosed four dollars.

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>> The money we saved to go to the circus with.

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>> Donations flood in from all across the
country, rich and poor, East and West,

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pennies and nickels, five's and
ten's even thousands of dollars.

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In all, a staggering 121,000 donations,

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more than enough to keep this
iconic statue in New York.

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>> I think a statue is not just a statue.

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I think symbols really matter, I
think they signify, in a big way.

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In fact, maybe they do more than reams and reams
and reams of legislation and paper and print.

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>> Now, the real work begins.

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To hold a statue 150 feet high the pedestal will
be the biggest concrete structure in the world.

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Over 200 men work through a
grueling winter to complete it.

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As the last of the cement dries, workers toss
in their own silver dollars for good luck.

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] Next,
Liberty's enormous iron skeleton.

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It's designed by Gustave Eiffel, who
will build famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.

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The skeleton is 151 feet
tall and with the pedestal,

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it's the height of a 30-story office block.

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] Now, for the outer layer.

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Wrapping around the skeleton are
60,000 pounds of hand-sculpted copper.

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The sandal is 32 times bigger than a human
foot the equivalent of the size of 879 shoes.

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It's all on the job training
often at 300 feet in the air.

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It's as difficult as it is dangerous

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] They need to
fix 300 pieces of copper shell

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to the framework with more than 300,000 rivets.

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Her robes have over 4,000
square yards of copper.

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Her outstretched arm is 42 feet long.

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A finger nail weighs three and a half pounds.

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The scale of Liberty is unimaginable.

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] After 6 months of
hazardous construction there are no fatalities,

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the Liberties 17-feet face is
finally winched into position.

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It's bigger than Lincoln's on Mount Rushmore.

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It's said the sculptor Frederic Auguste
Bartholdi modeled the face on his own mother.

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] It takes 25 years
for Liberty to oxidize and turn green,

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a functioning lighthouse until 1902.

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The statue's official name is
"Liberty, Enlightening the World."

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At first, the symbol of the alliance
and friendships between France

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and the 13 colonies in the American Revolution.

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It will come to represent much more.

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At the entrance to New York Harbor,
The Statue of Liberty becomes a beacon

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to the world and a welcome to millions.

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Later, a poem by Emma Lazarus in her base
celebrates America as a land of refugees.

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>> Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.

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The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

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I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

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[ Music ]

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>> [Background Music] Over the next two decades,
more than 12 million immigrants pass the statue

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of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island,
the first stop for most new Americans.

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>> Imagine what it took for someone to leave
eastern Poland or Lithuania or some village

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in the mountains of Northern Italy and come
all the way to this strange place with nothing.

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>> Today, more than 100 million
Americans can trace their roots back

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to ancestors who came through Ellis Island.

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>> If you go back only 150 years in our 200--

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and almost 50 years history 95
percent of the people were not here.

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They are no roots, they all
came from someplace else.

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So, to me, America represents
the best of the human sprit.

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>> A guidebook prepares arrivals
for a new life in a new world.

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>> "Forget your customs and ideals.

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Select a goal and pursue it with all your might.

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You will experience bad time but sooner
or later, you will achieve your goal.

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Don't take a moment's rest.

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Run."

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>> And from Ellis Island, they
spread out across the continent.

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For the most part, Irish, Russians
and Italians to big cities,

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Germans to the Midwest, Scandinavians
to farmland.

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At the dawn of the 20th century eventually,

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there will be more Italians
in New York than in Rome.

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From 1880 to 1930 nearly 24 million
new immigrants arrive in the US.

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A new era in US history is about to begin.

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By the early 20th century, new urban megacities
around America are bursting to the seams

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and look to expand in a new direction.

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Up. But building these great towers demands a
critical ingredient that's much too expensive,

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steel.

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One man will change all that
and with it the face of America.

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He'll risk everything, and almost lose it all.

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Its 1872, and Andrew Carnegie,

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A 5 foot 3 Scottish immigrant iron
millionaire is in Sheffield, England.

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He's looking at the future, a
revolutionary way to make steel.

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Steel has been around for
thousands of years but so expensive

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to produce, it's always been a luxury item.

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2,000 years ago it's used in Oriental swords.

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It's even used in designer jewelry.

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But, America stands at the brink of a new age.

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To build it, they need steel and lots of it.

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It's the only material strong enough
for the towers that will touch the sky.

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] An English bullet
maker is showing Carnegie a new

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but simple method of producing steel.

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He's stunned.

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Blast hot air through molten iron.

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Carbon impurities burn off.

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You get the wonder material, steel.

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For the first time, it can be
produced quickly and inexpensively.

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If Carnegie can use this Bessemer process
to mass-produce it, he'll own the future.

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Carnegie returns to the states to Pittsburgh,

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to start building the biggest
steel plant in the world.

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It'll be larger than 80 football fields.

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It's a massive gamble.

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Carnegie risks everything
he's got on the new plant.

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But only months into construction, disaster,
a catastrophic stock market collapse.

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The economy is in free fall.

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He has to borrow even more money
and barely scrapes through.

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August 1875, against all odds Carnegie's
giant furnaces are ready to test.

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Steel production is phenomenally dangerous.

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Inside, 5 tons of molten metal, 3,000 degrees
hot enough to vaporize a man in seconds.

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If it works, it will make Carnegie one of the
richest men in the world but there's a lot more

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at stake skyscrapers, cars, washing
machines, airplanes, even space travel.

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None of it can happen if
steel can't be mass-produced.

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[ Noise ]

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[ Music ]

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[Background Music] It's a success.

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[ Music]

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[Background Music] Carnegie is the
first ever to mass-produce steel.

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Prices plummet by over 80 percent.

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Output rockets from a few thousand
tons in 1860 to 11 million by 1900.

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>> So many American stories of
success are diligence, perseverance

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but there's an awful lot of luck involved too.

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>> His timing couldn't have been better.

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It was steel that built American cities.

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It was steel that built American railroads.

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It was steel that built American shipping.

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By the beginning of the 20th century, he
was one of the wealthiest men in America.

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>> [Background Music] Pittsburgh
transforms from a sleepy town

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to the industrial heart of the nation.

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Its Population triples.

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Driven by a new steel railroad millions of
tons of steel are transported across America,

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the raw material to build the modern city.

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And the grandest of all is New York.

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It's an era of obscene opulence.

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New York is a playground for super
rich industrialists and financiers.

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Widely extravagant, they smoke
cigars rolled in 100 dollar bills.

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Their wives hats studded with diamonds.

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This is the Gilded Age.

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Land values are the highest in the world.

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There's only one place to go, up.

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By 1902, 65 skyscrapers are
being constructed in Manhattan.

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This is one of them.

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[ Noise ]

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It's called "Walking the Steel."

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This man is 30 stories above the street.

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His first time at this height.

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No harness or safety rope.

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One slip and he's dead.

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Veterans are called "Fixers."

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The novices are "Snakes" because
working with them can be deadly.

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The old hand know just how dangerous it can be.

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>> The thing I hate worse than poison is
to take a new man when we're near the top.

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They all get used to it or get killed.

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[ Noise ]

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>> No hard hats, just a 280-foot drop.

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A sudden gust of wind and it's all over.

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[ Noise ]

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They're up here 8 hours a day.

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Meals when they can.

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No bath room breaks

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[ Noise ]

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They're called "Roughnecks" European
immigrants and Mohawk Indians.

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Many were sailors and bridge
workers so they're used to heights.

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[ Noise ]

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>> The guys balancing on the beams.

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I think it took a lot of bravery, I think
it took a lot of skill, a lot of, you know,

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physically-- physically challenging but
also thinking, you had to be a little crazy

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>> [Background Music] The
stakes couldn't be higher.

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It's a risk they're willing to take.

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The pay is 4 dollars a day, twice
the going rate for manual labor.

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Foreman William Starrett
sums up his dangerous job.

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>> Building skyscrapers is the
nearest peacetime equivalent of war.

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Even to the occasional grim reality
of an accident or a maimed body.

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Even death, remind us that we are fighting a war
of construction against the forces of nature.

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>> He makes it, many aren't so lucky.

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Two roughnecks out of five die
or are disabled on the job.

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>> Whether it's a builder or an architect or
whatever whoever had the imagination to design

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and build some of the great
structures of New York I'm inspired by.

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>> [Background Music] In 1902, in New York,

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this is what the future looks
like, the Flatiron Building.

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Its triangular footprint determined by the
intersection of three streets, not two.

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The steel frame means the outside can be
hung in sections like a suit of clothes.

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Now, the walls don't take
the weight, the steel does.

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[ Music ]

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It's so radical, when people first see it
they think it will blow over and kill them.

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A lawsuit is filed claiming, "Winds focused

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by the Flatiron's extreme
shape damage a nearby shop."

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Today, it's one of our best loved buildings.

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Inside, the other breakthrough that lets
towers rise into the clouds, the elevator.

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Before it, the tallest buildings stop
mostly at five floors no more walking

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up stairs now, so the sky is the limit.

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For the first time, the higher
the floor, the higher the rent.

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>> You think it's a fairly humble invention

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but when Otis invented the first really
safe elevator it enabled the growth

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of the modern city where people could
come in, build much taller buildings,

231
00:23:23,906 --> 00:23:25,306
get a much higher density of people.

232
00:23:26,646 --> 00:23:32,336
>> And sure enough, by the end of the 19th
century the urban population has increased 87

233
00:23:32,416 --> 00:23:33,036
times over.

234
00:23:34,456 --> 00:23:39,826
In Chicago alone, in just 10 years,
they built 50 steel-frame buildings.

235
00:23:39,826 --> 00:23:45,886
And in 20 years, it's population more
than doubles to almost 1.7 million.

236
00:23:45,886 --> 00:23:48,976
American cities are exploding.

237
00:23:49,516 --> 00:23:53,526
[ Music ]

238
00:23:54,026 --> 00:23:56,746
[Background Music] But for
many, living in the shadow

239
00:23:56,746 --> 00:24:01,196
of these new towers will prove
even harder than building them.

240
00:24:01,196 --> 00:24:05,826
In America in 1890, crime and
poverty are rife on the streets.

241
00:24:08,506 --> 00:24:11,976
But these mavericks are about
to make a difference.

242
00:24:12,516 --> 00:24:15,546
[ Noise ]

243
00:24:16,046 --> 00:24:21,396
Gangsters, murders, thieves
and fear are on the streets.

244
00:24:22,226 --> 00:24:26,696
New tabloid newspapers splash
crime all over the front pages.

245
00:24:27,416 --> 00:24:30,626
In Chicago, you can rent a gun by the hour.

246
00:24:32,016 --> 00:24:35,866
In the Sears Catalog, you
can buy one for 12 dollars.

247
00:24:36,886 --> 00:24:43,356
In New York, a policeman finds a list on a
murdered gangster, his rate card, punches:

248
00:24:43,356 --> 00:24:48,416
2 dollars, nose and jaw broke:
10 dollars, ear chewed off:

249
00:24:49,036 --> 00:24:53,976
15 dollars, the big job: 100 bucks and up.

250
00:24:54,516 --> 00:24:57,516
[ Noise ]

251
00:24:58,016 --> 00:25:02,000
[ Music ]

252
00:25:02,946 --> 00:25:07,976
[Background Music] Detective Bureau Chief Thomas
Byrnes, a man who follows his own set of rules.

253
00:25:09,516 --> 00:25:12,626
[ Noise and Music ]

254
00:25:13,126 --> 00:25:13,636
He's shrewd.

255
00:25:14,426 --> 00:25:17,996
And he's very tough.

256
00:25:20,136 --> 00:25:24,826
Among his methods is a technique his
detectives call "The third degree."

257
00:25:26,386 --> 00:25:28,306
First degree, persuasion.

258
00:25:29,026 --> 00:25:31,786
Second degree, intimidation.

259
00:25:33,036 --> 00:25:34,806
Third degree, pain.

260
00:25:35,516 --> 00:25:44,636
[ Music ]

261
00:25:45,136 --> 00:25:49,866
In 4 years, Byrnes claims
he's arrested 3300 criminals.

262
00:25:50,856 --> 00:25:56,656
He solved the biggest heist of the 19th
century nearly a 3 million dollar Manhattan

263
00:25:56,656 --> 00:25:57,286
bank robbery.

264
00:25:58,066 --> 00:26:01,256
Reporters called him the greatest
crime buster in the history

265
00:26:01,256 --> 00:26:02,976
of the New York City Police Force.

266
00:26:03,516 --> 00:26:06,976
[ Music ]

267
00:26:07,476 --> 00:26:10,996
>> [Background Music] His
very manner, the size of him,

268
00:26:11,846 --> 00:26:15,746
his menacing shoulders and
arms, the bark of his voice.

269
00:26:16,296 --> 00:26:21,186
>> Pickpockets, forgers whoever
cracked the safe, unscrupulous rogues.

270
00:26:21,946 --> 00:26:23,956
>> Crooks are now afraid of their shadows.

271
00:26:24,286 --> 00:26:25,546
>> They lead double lives.

272
00:26:27,116 --> 00:26:29,326
>> But tracking down criminals isn't easy.

273
00:26:29,916 --> 00:26:35,746
There's no official ID, no birth
certificates or driver's licenses.

274
00:26:35,746 --> 00:26:38,876
If a criminal is known in one
town, he just moves to the next.

275
00:26:39,856 --> 00:26:41,686
Criminals are anonymous.

276
00:26:42,606 --> 00:26:50,026
Byrnes is tackling this problem head on
and bringing police work into a new age.

277
00:26:50,396 --> 00:26:56,146
This is his rogues gallery mug
shots of 7,000 known lawbreakers.

278
00:26:57,656 --> 00:27:02,496
Using photography to identify criminals
will change detective work forever

279
00:27:03,886 --> 00:27:09,876
>> Annie Reilly, Alias Middle
Annie, deceitful servant.

280
00:27:10,626 --> 00:27:14,266
>> The mug shots are distributed to
police departments around the country.

281
00:27:14,946 --> 00:27:17,286
But these are more than just pictures.

282
00:27:18,176 --> 00:27:22,236
Byrnes is also building psychological
profiles of criminals.

283
00:27:22,236 --> 00:27:26,226
>> Rufus Minor, he comes
from a very good family.

284
00:27:26,516 --> 00:27:28,326
It's a pity he's a thief.

285
00:27:29,016 --> 00:27:32,886
>> This is the first attempt to
create a national crime register.

286
00:27:33,956 --> 00:27:38,096
>> A city as diverse as ours is going

287
00:27:38,096 --> 00:27:42,696
to have a significant crime problem
that you've got to be on top of.

288
00:27:44,156 --> 00:27:47,576
>> [Background Music] Even today,
mug shot still catch criminals.

289
00:27:51,166 --> 00:27:53,896
12 million are taken every year nation wide.

290
00:27:55,136 --> 00:27:57,996
That's more than the entire population of Ohio.

291
00:27:59,296 --> 00:28:03,766
And it all began with the rogue's
gallery over 120 years ago.

292
00:28:04,516 --> 00:28:07,456
[ Noise ]

293
00:28:07,956 --> 00:28:09,316
>> Any questions?

294
00:28:10,066 --> 00:28:15,916
>> But crime isn't the only
problem plaguing urban streets.

295
00:28:18,226 --> 00:28:21,896
In many cities, slums are
reaching epidemic proportions.

296
00:28:22,976 --> 00:28:26,296
Multiple families crammed into one small room.

297
00:28:27,906 --> 00:28:35,216
Human waste pours into the
streets, alleys and open courtyards.

298
00:28:35,216 --> 00:28:37,846
>> People were crowded in,
there were windowless tenements.

299
00:28:37,896 --> 00:28:43,066
Sometimes you had no internal plumbing just
provides in the basement, in the backyard

300
00:28:43,266 --> 00:28:45,246
and the lower east side during these years

301
00:28:45,246 --> 00:28:49,096
with the single most crowded
place in the entire world.

302
00:28:51,456 --> 00:28:56,826
>> Jacob Riis, Danish immigrant,
crime reporter, photographer.

303
00:28:58,856 --> 00:29:01,946
He gets leads for stories
from Chief Inspector Byrnes.

304
00:29:04,196 --> 00:29:08,266
Now, he's about to expose the hell of tenements.

305
00:29:10,316 --> 00:29:12,816
Jacob Riis knows what it's like to be poor.

306
00:29:14,136 --> 00:29:17,866
15 years ago, he lost his
job in a stock market crash.

307
00:29:20,346 --> 00:29:24,866
It's midnight, but Riis has a new technology
that will change the public perception

308
00:29:24,866 --> 00:29:32,346
of poverty forever, an explosive powder that
produces enough light to photograph in the dark.

309
00:29:33,516 --> 00:29:41,886
[ Music ]

310
00:29:42,386 --> 00:29:45,976
[Background Music] This is one of the
first-ever photographs of slum life.

311
00:29:46,106 --> 00:29:46,206
>> Go.

312
00:29:47,516 --> 00:29:52,766
[ Noise ]

313
00:29:53,266 --> 00:29:54,576
>> It shocks millions.

314
00:29:54,576 --> 00:30:00,086
>> Ladies and gentlemen,
my name is Jacob A. Riis.

315
00:30:00,086 --> 00:30:04,806
And this is how the other half
live and die in New York City.

316
00:30:05,046 --> 00:30:08,506
>> Magazines refuse to print his work.

317
00:30:08,506 --> 00:30:11,116
So, Riis puts on his own "Magic lantern" shows.

318
00:30:11,176 --> 00:30:17,546
His mission, to show the nation's wealthy
something they've never seen before,

319
00:30:18,216 --> 00:30:20,886
filth and desperation on their doorstep.

320
00:30:23,256 --> 00:30:29,306
>> In this block, nine dead were
carried out this year alone.

321
00:30:29,526 --> 00:30:31,736
Five in baby coffins.

322
00:30:31,736 --> 00:30:40,266
>> What he demonstrated was that
there is another reality that all

323
00:30:40,266 --> 00:30:44,286
that prosperity didn't trickle
down all the way to the bottom

324
00:30:44,286 --> 00:30:47,736
and there was some deplorable living conditions.

325
00:30:47,736 --> 00:30:52,216
And this country was not just
forced to confront those conditions

326
00:30:52,656 --> 00:30:54,776
but then was moved to begin to deal all of them.

327
00:30:55,806 --> 00:31:00,656
>> Riis publishes his pictures in a
book called "How the Other Half Lives."

328
00:31:01,606 --> 00:31:04,416
It will sell more than 28 million copies.

329
00:31:07,036 --> 00:31:10,776
Within 2 decades, the worst of
New York's slums are torn down.

330
00:31:12,346 --> 00:31:15,006
Tenements sell at auction
for as a little as a dollar.

331
00:31:16,996 --> 00:31:22,876
Riis' campaigning forces all New York
schools to build playgrounds and landlords

332
00:31:23,166 --> 00:31:26,086
to install toilets inside
apartments, not outside.

333
00:31:28,126 --> 00:31:30,936
It is the first step in tackling the slums.

334
00:31:33,016 --> 00:31:37,376
But as cities keep on growing and
even bigger challenge remains.

335
00:31:37,376 --> 00:31:49,916
In New York alone, nearly 40,000 die in one
year from diseases because of this, filth.

336
00:31:51,796 --> 00:31:56,396
But one clean crusader is
about to change everything.

337
00:31:56,846 --> 00:32:04,186
1895, our major cities are drowning in filth.

338
00:32:04,186 --> 00:32:12,336
120,000 horses dump half a million pounds of
manure into the New York streets every day.

339
00:32:12,436 --> 00:32:17,446
Wagons are blocked by 3 foot-high
piles of human and animal waste.

340
00:32:17,556 --> 00:32:21,716
Into this world steps a man on a white horse.

341
00:32:22,646 --> 00:32:27,056
Colonel George Waring, Civil War veteran,

342
00:32:27,056 --> 00:32:34,726
legendary sewer engineer,
"Apostle of Cleanliness."

343
00:32:34,946 --> 00:32:39,236
He's the Head of New York Sanitation Department

344
00:32:39,236 --> 00:32:43,376
>> The city's stinks with the
emanations of putrefying organic matter.

345
00:32:45,016 --> 00:32:48,266
Black rottenness is seen
and smelled on every hand.

346
00:32:49,866 --> 00:32:53,876
The crowded streets are a veritable hell.

347
00:32:56,866 --> 00:33:01,386
>> Wearing recruits an army of 2,000
sanitation workers in white uniforms.

348
00:33:04,406 --> 00:33:07,156
Some dismiss him as a crank.

349
00:33:07,656 --> 00:33:12,446
They called his men "White
Ducks" but Waring means business.

350
00:33:14,306 --> 00:33:18,126
Tons of garbage, normally dumped
into the river is recycled.

351
00:33:19,156 --> 00:33:21,476
Ash becomes land fill on Rikers Island.

352
00:33:22,406 --> 00:33:25,506
Organic waste boiled into oil and grease.

353
00:33:26,206 --> 00:33:29,336
Waring is America's first "Eco-warrior."

354
00:33:30,196 --> 00:33:33,296
His men clean 433 miles of street.

355
00:33:35,176 --> 00:33:38,316
Death rates decline, water quality improves.

356
00:33:39,036 --> 00:33:42,056
Waring save the lives of thousands.

357
00:33:43,796 --> 00:33:45,716
[Background Music] The measure
spread across America.

358
00:33:46,706 --> 00:33:49,376
Just 16 years after Colonel Waring, half

359
00:33:49,606 --> 00:33:53,786
of all cities have waste
collection, and it's not just waste.

360
00:33:55,606 --> 00:34:00,556
By 1907, every large city
in the nation has sewers.

361
00:34:01,086 --> 00:34:05,756
By 1909, there are 42,040
miles of sewers in America.

362
00:34:08,456 --> 00:34:12,235
The battle against filth,
crime and poverty has begun.

363
00:34:13,746 --> 00:34:17,116
But one of the city's greatest
innovations is still in its infancy.

364
00:34:19,106 --> 00:34:22,235
One man will change the urban landscape forever.

365
00:34:26,716 --> 00:34:31,045
Menlo Park, New Jersey, 1879.

366
00:34:31,926 --> 00:34:36,286
Thomas Edison, inventor, entrepreneur, showman.

367
00:34:38,775 --> 00:34:44,096
He was taken out of school as a boy but
that won't stop him from becoming synonymous

368
00:34:44,376 --> 00:34:46,856
with inventions that define the modern era.

369
00:34:48,315 --> 00:34:54,815
He pushes his team hard, 24/7 in
one of the world's first R&D labs.

370
00:34:55,856 --> 00:34:58,286
It will generate more than 1,000 patents.

371
00:35:02,476 --> 00:35:07,866
America still lights the night in the
dangerous flicker of candles, gas and kerosene.

372
00:35:09,126 --> 00:35:11,196
Edison thinks he has a better idea.

373
00:35:12,116 --> 00:35:21,206
If he can get a filament to burn slowly
in a vacuum, the electric light bulb.

374
00:35:21,656 --> 00:35:22,546
>> Platinum.

375
00:35:23,516 --> 00:35:34,916
[ Music ]

376
00:35:35,416 --> 00:35:39,016
>> Edison locks himself in his
lab, doesn't sleep for days.

377
00:35:40,516 --> 00:35:43,706
[ Noise ]

378
00:35:44,206 --> 00:35:45,036
The stakes are high.

379
00:35:46,936 --> 00:35:55,166
His backers have sunk 130,000 dollars into
his research, millions in today's money.

380
00:35:55,166 --> 00:36:00,246
>> He claimed to have gone through 6,000
materials from the plant world alone

381
00:36:00,246 --> 00:36:05,636
in his search for the perfect filament.

382
00:36:05,636 --> 00:36:06,976
>> Toward the lamp, Jack.

383
00:36:07,516 --> 00:36:16,096
[ Noise ]

384
00:36:16,596 --> 00:36:28,796
[Background Music] Spruce, beard, fish line,
thread, teak, boxwood, celluloid, parchment.

385
00:36:29,516 --> 00:36:40,696
[ Noise ]

386
00:36:41,196 --> 00:36:43,976
>> Then something extraordinary happens.

387
00:36:44,516 --> 00:36:49,616
[ Noise ]

388
00:36:50,116 --> 00:36:50,756
>> Cardboard.

389
00:36:51,516 --> 00:36:59,436
[ Noise and Music ]

390
00:36:59,936 --> 00:37:03,936
>> [Background Music] A piece of
carbonized cardboard burns for 300 hours.

391
00:37:07,336 --> 00:37:09,986
It's going to change the
way people live forever.

392
00:37:12,386 --> 00:37:17,266
>> What Edison does is nothing
less than to banish the darkness.

393
00:37:17,456 --> 00:37:21,146
Now, think of the meaning of that.

394
00:37:21,326 --> 00:37:22,956
Think of what that means to daily life.

395
00:37:25,486 --> 00:37:31,606
>> New Year's Eve 1879, Edison
shows off his new invention.

396
00:37:31,606 --> 00:37:35,316
Thousands of people flock to his
lab to see the future take shape.

397
00:37:36,626 --> 00:37:42,506
The Pennsylvania Railroad arranges
special trains to accommodate the crowds.

398
00:37:43,866 --> 00:37:50,866
>> When Thomas Edison invented that
light bulb, that electric light bulb.

399
00:37:50,866 --> 00:37:56,506
What a-- how magical that must have been, you
know, to sit there and just all of a sudden

400
00:37:56,506 --> 00:38:03,216
like without a match, without kerosene
or gas and just flip a switch and light.

401
00:38:04,656 --> 00:38:10,466
>> In just 2 years, Edison builds more than
5,000 power plants generating electricity

402
00:38:10,466 --> 00:38:17,336
for cities like New York, Boston, Chicago,
Detroit, St. Louis and New Orleans.

403
00:38:18,306 --> 00:38:22,496
Over the next 5 years, he
builds over 127,000 more.

404
00:38:23,346 --> 00:38:30,086
By 1902, 18 million light bulbs are in use.

405
00:38:30,206 --> 00:38:32,586
The impact is massive.

406
00:38:32,586 --> 00:38:39,166
Sports, entertainment, factories,
stores, all can now operate at night.

407
00:38:40,516 --> 00:38:46,576
[ Noise ]

408
00:38:47,076 --> 00:38:52,066
[Background Music] And as electricity comes to
the cities more and more people arrive with it.

409
00:38:52,816 --> 00:38:56,816
By 1900, nearly four million
women are working in US cities.

410
00:38:58,326 --> 00:39:02,586
In just 40 years, that figure
has more than quadrupled.

411
00:39:03,616 --> 00:39:08,776
Urban factories are pounding out 75
percent of all consumer products in the US.

412
00:39:10,516 --> 00:39:15,986
Places like this, modern steel-frame buildings
equipped with all the latest technology,

413
00:39:16,916 --> 00:39:22,146
Otis electric elevators, Bell
telephones, Singer sewing machines.

414
00:39:26,586 --> 00:39:31,916
But packing so many people into tall
buildings is a disaster waiting to happen.

415
00:39:32,516 --> 00:39:37,346
[ Noise ]

416
00:39:37,846 --> 00:39:42,896
The United States is hurtling
into the modern age symbolized

417
00:39:42,936 --> 00:39:45,666
by megacities rising up all
across the continent.

418
00:39:47,456 --> 00:39:53,456
By 1909, Americans are spending nearly 23
Billion dollars a year on ready-made clothes.

419
00:39:54,936 --> 00:39:59,986
This factory is producing 12,000
garments a week known as shirtwaists,

420
00:39:59,986 --> 00:40:02,766
they're the latest fashion
for the working woman.

421
00:40:03,516 --> 00:40:07,546
[ Noise ]

422
00:40:08,046 --> 00:40:21,266
New York City, March 25, 1911, 4:45 p.m.
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 8th floor,

423
00:40:21,266 --> 00:40:25,876
260 girls work here, most of them teenagers.

424
00:40:26,516 --> 00:40:32,756
[ Noise ]

425
00:40:33,256 --> 00:40:38,956
Someone, we don't know who tosses a match
or maybe a cigarette into the scrap bin.

426
00:40:39,516 --> 00:40:43,626
[ Noise ]

427
00:40:44,126 --> 00:40:47,856
Eva Harris, a seamstress, smells burning.

428
00:40:52,166 --> 00:40:53,836
>> Fire. There's a fire, Mr. Bernstein.

429
00:40:55,386 --> 00:41:00,116
>> Production manager Samuel Bernstein
grabs one of the three fire pails.

430
00:41:02,676 --> 00:41:08,676
But the fire is already spreading.

431
00:41:09,966 --> 00:41:15,246
[Background Music] There's a mad dash
for the exit, but it is too narrow.

432
00:41:15,246 --> 00:41:17,986
Only one at a time can pass through.

433
00:41:18,146 --> 00:41:22,436
It's been designed that way so their
bags can be checked for stolen fabric.

434
00:41:23,156 --> 00:41:29,256
There's a fire hose but it's not working.

435
00:41:29,306 --> 00:41:31,136
>> No water!

436
00:41:33,316 --> 00:41:35,656
>> The only way to warn the floors above is

437
00:41:35,656 --> 00:41:42,046
through the switchboard two
floors up on the 10th floor.

438
00:41:42,116 --> 00:41:45,106
>> Hello, switchboard?

439
00:41:45,946 --> 00:41:46,656
>> 10th floor.

440
00:41:47,456 --> 00:41:49,056
>> Fire, there is a fire.

441
00:41:49,856 --> 00:41:53,086
>> Put me through to the 9th floor.

442
00:41:53,086 --> 00:41:54,916
>> She drops the phone and runs to get help.

443
00:41:57,276 --> 00:42:00,386
The message never reaches the 9th floor.

444
00:42:01,296 --> 00:42:06,456
Samuel Bernstein races up the main stairs
to help the 160 workers trapped there.

445
00:42:07,986 --> 00:42:11,776
But blocking the front door,
there's a barrel of motor oil.

446
00:42:12,516 --> 00:42:18,276
[ Noise ]

447
00:42:18,776 --> 00:42:22,826
On the 9th floor, flames are already
shooting through the walls and windows.

448
00:42:23,516 --> 00:42:28,476
[ Noise & Music ]

449
00:42:28,976 --> 00:42:32,196
[Background Music] The girls on 9th rush
to the fire escape, but it's locked.

450
00:42:34,726 --> 00:42:41,286
Only 2 escape routes are left on the 9th
floor, the elevator and the metal fire escape.

451
00:42:44,236 --> 00:42:47,896
Kate Weiner makes it to the elevator
door but she's lost her sister.

452
00:42:49,326 --> 00:42:53,156
>> Everyone was knocking and
crying for the elevator to come up.

453
00:42:53,216 --> 00:42:59,776
Suddenly the elevator came and the
girls rushed in I was searching

454
00:42:59,776 --> 00:43:02,916
for my sister, Rose, but I couldn't find her.

455
00:43:03,516 --> 00:43:06,506
[ Noise ]

456
00:43:07,006 --> 00:43:10,156
The flames were coming toward
me and I was being left behind.

457
00:43:10,746 --> 00:43:16,106
I felt the elevator was leaving
the 9th floor for the last time.

458
00:43:16,606 --> 00:43:19,306
>> She's the last person to
get to the last elevator.

459
00:43:20,516 --> 00:43:29,376
[ Noise ]

460
00:43:29,876 --> 00:43:33,156
More than 100 girls are left behind to die.

461
00:43:36,276 --> 00:43:41,186
The only escape route left is the
metal fire escape but it collapses.

462
00:43:45,236 --> 00:43:53,806
Firemen arrived with the biggest ladder in
New York City but its 30 feet too short.

463
00:43:54,516 --> 00:43:58,446
[ Music ]

464
00:43:58,946 --> 00:44:04,946
[Background Music] 4:58 p.m., the girls
trapped on the 9th floor are out of options.

465
00:44:05,516 --> 00:44:14,566
[ Noise ]

466
00:44:15,066 --> 00:44:19,626
In desperation, they jump.

467
00:44:20,516 --> 00:44:28,656
[ Noise ]

468
00:44:29,156 --> 00:44:39,486
5.15 p.m., the entire blaze is
over in less than half an hour.

469
00:44:39,486 --> 00:44:43,896
146 people die in the Triangle
Shirtwaist factory fire.

470
00:44:44,036 --> 00:44:49,006
There's trial but the owners walk free.

471
00:44:52,306 --> 00:45:00,876
It remains the deadliest workplace disaster in
New York City history until September 11, 2001.

472
00:45:00,876 --> 00:45:03,476
But some good does come out of it.

473
00:45:04,276 --> 00:45:07,536
>> This dramatic tragedy
sparks a wave of reform.

474
00:45:07,536 --> 00:45:13,546
So, you begin to get new restrictions
and a new conversation about what to do

475
00:45:13,546 --> 00:45:16,196
to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening.

476
00:45:16,476 --> 00:45:19,976
But it did not stop of course
that tragedy itself.

477
00:45:20,516 --> 00:45:22,526
[ Bell ringing ]

478
00:45:23,026 --> 00:45:24,936
>> [Background Music] Unions force management

479
00:45:25,046 --> 00:45:27,396
to take responsibility for
the lives of their workers.

480
00:45:28,986 --> 00:45:34,536
The Life Safety Code now used in all 50
States is a direct result of this fire.

481
00:45:35,046 --> 00:45:41,076
It's why doors now open outwards in public
buildings why automatic sprinkler systems

482
00:45:41,516 --> 00:45:43,736
or multiple exits are now the law.

483
00:45:48,026 --> 00:45:54,726
The US and the modern city grew up together
typically new, enormous and fast paced.

484
00:45:55,536 --> 00:45:59,456
The megacity is one of America's
greatest inventions.

485
00:46:00,516 --> 00:46:04,840
[ Music ]