Modern Marvels: Season 10

Episode 1: Trans-Siberian Railroad 2003-01-01 | 44 min It’s the longest, most expensive and complicated railroad ever built. Ordered by the Czar in an effort to save his empire and unify his country at the twilight of the 19th century, the Trans-Siberian Railroad nearly tore Russia apart. Intended in part for defense, the railroad provoked a war, crossed great lengths over treacherous terrain, and encountered logistical and economic failures. Ironically, “enemies of the state” built the railroad–men sentenced to hard labor in Siberian prisons.

Episode 2: Castles & Dungeons 2003-01-07 | 44 min Some of the most imposing structures ever built, medieval castles withstood both bloody assaults and the test of time. Designed like machines with nearly every architectural detail devoted to defense, castles represented the perfect fusion of form and function. Journey back to that unruly era as we examine the complexity of their construction and the multipurpose they served–homes to kings and nobles, economic centers, courthouses, treasuries, prisons, and torture chambers.

Episode 3: Ice Road Truckers 2003-01-30 | 44 min Based on the book Denison’s Ice Road by Edith Iglauer, the episode detailed the treacherous job of driving trucks over frozen lakes, also known as ice roads, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. After 2000, reruns of the documentary were aired as an episode of the series Modern Marvels instead of Suicide Missions/Dangerous Missions.

Episode 4: Winter Warriors 2003-01-31 | 44 min Traces the story of the U.S. Army’s legendary 10th Mountain Division. They were formed after WWII began, specifically to fight in high, rugged mountain conditions. After training in the Colorado Rockies, they were sent to Italy’s Apennines to take on well-entrenched Germans. Using a combination of mountain skills and raw courage, they drove the Germans back, and helped win the war in Italy. Later, former members of the 10th helped create many of the country’s ski resorts, including Aspen and Vail.

Episode 5: Booby Traps 2003-02-04 | 44 min All it takes to set off a booby trap is an unsuspecting victim lifting, moving, or disturbing a harmless-looking object. Booby traps continue to worry law enforcement; made from easily acquired items, information detailing their construction and needed materials are accessible through the mail–anonymously! And unlike a land mine, they can be anywhere. We detail the history of booby traps–from the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Greek, and Romans to the Middle Eastern crisis and the War on Terrorism.

Episode 6: The Alcan Highway 2003-02-11 | 44 min Today, vacationers travel from British Columbia north through the Yukon Pass on their way to Fairbanks, Alaska, thanks to one 2-lane roadway, the 1,522-mile long Alaska Highway. A bit treacherous in spots and best driven in the few summer months the region provides, it's an unrivaled engineering feat that took 11,000 soldiers, nearly 4,000 of them black, only eight months to build! Travel back to 1942 as they bulldoze their way into history while connecting the Lower 48 to the Alaskan Territory.

Episode 7: Twin Towers of the East 2003-03-04 | 44 min Rising almost 1,500 feet high, the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia were named the world’s tallest in 1996 by the Council on Tall Buildings. Connecticut architect Cesar Pelli blended traditional Islamic motifs with the modern skyscraper to create a beacon to the new Asia. Join us as we tour this gateway to the East, an engineering marvel involving experts from around the globe and the determination of Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad to transform his country into a 21st-century power.

Episode 8: The Mackinac Bridge 2003-03-05 | 44 min Until recently, the Mackinac Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. One of the top engineering marvels of the 20th century, the bridge spans the 4-mile wide straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Huron and Michigan come together. The Mighty Mac connects the pastoral northern mainland of Michigan with the state's heavily forested Upper Peninsula and stands as a testament to the dreams, determination, and hard work of a small few who created a true masterpiece of modern engineering.

Episode 9: Bullet Trains 2003-03-11 | 44 min Traveling between 135 and 190 miles per hour with an astonishingly high safety record, bullet trains can be found throughout Europe, Japan, and on the US eastern seaboard. How high-speed trains are propelled is rooted in fundamentals that haven't changed since the first electric trolleys appeared in the 19th century. We see how scientists are looking at new alternatives to electricity, including magnetic levitation that can move passenger trains 345 miles per hour and beyond!

Episode 10: Non-Lethal Weapons 2003-03-13 | 44 min They stun, debilitate, immobilize–providing police and peacekeepers with options other than shouting or shooting. From the ancient caltrop–a multi-pointed contraption hurled by foot soldiers into a horseman’s path–to sting-ball grenades, electrical shock devices, and sound, light, and energy weapons, we examine non-lethal weapons that disperse crowds and take down criminals. And in a whiff of the future, we see why the government thinks stink bombs might prove useful in the war against terror.

Episode 11: Space Stations 2003-03-14 | 44 min

Episode 12: Army Corps of Engineers 2003-03-18 | 44 min Made up of soldiers and civilians, scientists and specialists in an enormous variety of fields, the US Army Corps of Engineers was created over 200 years ago by Congressional mandate to respond, in peace and war, to the nation's engineering needs. The world's premier engineering and research and development agency, the Corps has blown up, excavated, grated, dredged, and remolded the shape of our continent as we pushed to expand the nation and harness the forces of nature!

Episode 13: Black Hawk: Night Stalker 2003-03-26 | 44 min For over 20 years, the Black Hawk has been the U.S. Army’s front-line utility helicopter for air assault, air cavalry, and medical evacuation. The Black Hawk remains today the world’s most advanced twin-turbine military helicopter and flies wherever duty calls, from hot deserts to the icy Arctic. This is the dramatic story of how post-Vietnam, in the 1970s, the U.S. designed and built a new generation of sophisticated helicopters.

Episode 14: Japanese Guns of WWII 2003-03-26 | 44 min As Japan bombed its way into the Pacific during WWII, Imperial soldiers carried pride, a sense of invincibility, and an arsenal of clumsy and outdated weapons. Convinced that the tactics and tools that led to victory over colonial enemies would be just as effective against the Allies, Japan would see its weaponry lead to defeat.

Episode 15: Titanic Tech 2003-04-01 | 44 min Welcome aboard the luxury liner Titanic, the world’s largest ship and pride of the White Star Line. Watertight compartments and a steel-plated hull render it all but unsinkable. Nearly every technological breakthrough of the previous 50 years is employed onboard, providing comfort and safety for passengers and crew. But none of this will matter on April 15, 1912, when the ship bears down on an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sinking within hours with more than 1,500 lives lost. Learn the details of her construction and how the achievements of technology may have masked her vulnerabilities.

Episode 16: Coal Mines 2003-04-02 | 44 min Coal–the fuel responsible for more than half the electricity used daily. We unearth the amazing technological advances that have led to today’s extremely efficient methods–from ancient techniques to the simplistic bell-pit method, from drift mining, surface mining, and strip mining to modern longwall mining, when a massive machine extracts an entire wall of coal in seconds. We go underground with miners in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, and also address environmental concerns.

Episode 17: Secrets of the Acropolis 2003-04-10 | 44 min With a thrilling combination of dramatic reconstructions and 3-D animation, we step back in time to the Golden Age of Greece and the birth of democracy, to an era of unparalleled human creativity that produced the magnificent architecture on the Acropolis. Powerfully evoking the pagan rituals that made the Acropolis the heart of Athenian life, we explore all four key buildings: the Propylaia, the Erectheion, Athena Nike, and the Parthenon–the most influential building in Western civilization.

Episode 18: Machine Guns 2003-04-30 | 44 min

Episode 19: Ball Turret Gunners 2003-05-01 | 44 min In war, certain missions demand the most and constitute much of the legends of bravery. Journey back to the Second World War when fearless airmen manned the B-17′s belly guns–glass bubbles that at any moment could become their coffin. The ball turret gunners called their work “flying the ball”, others called it crazy!

Episode 20: U.S. Guns of World War II 2003-05-08 | 44 min

Episode 21: MiG 15 2003-05-10 | 44 min After World War I, Russia began building its most prolific aircraft, the MiG line. MiG pilots fought with distinction in WWII, but the MiG heyday hit with the design of the MiG-15, a copy of a Nazi experimental jet. During the Korean War, MiG-15s dueled with U.S.A.F. F-86s over Korea. Later, the MiG-21 contested the skies over North Vietnam as they duked it out with American Air Force and Navy jets.

Episode 22: T-34: Russian Victory 2003-05-10 | 44 min Born out of a desperate need to defend the Motherland, Stalin enlisted the ideas of an American engineer, J. Walter Christie, to develop in total secrecy one of the most formidable tanks in history. In 1941, straining under Operation Barbarossa, Stalin ordered his new weapon into the fray and changed the course of WWII. Using detailed reenactments and interviews, we reveal what life was like inside Russia’s “secret” weapon, the T-34, and the horrifying reality of combat on the Eastern Front.

Episode 23: Tank Crews 2003-05-15 | 44 min During WWII, American tank crews duked it out with Nazi Panzers in a high-explosive duel to the death. The German tanks had thicker armor and better guns than the mainstay of the U.S. armored forces, the M-4 Sherman. For many crewmen, the Sherman lived up to its nickname as a steel coffin. But what the tanks lacked in firepower and protection, the crews made up for in guts and good old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity. We’ll meet some of these armored warriors from WWII.

Episode 24: Harley-Davidson 2003-05-21 | 44 min From humble beginnings in the Davidson family garage to one of the world's most famous companies and a marketing juggernaut, Harley-Davidson is known for one thing American built motorcycles. This program explores the company's history, technological advances, and the culture behind a American original.

Episode 25: Torture Devices 2003-05-22 | 44 min For more than 3,000 years, emperors and generals, dictators and police, criminals, clerics, and even medical doctors have created and used a vast array of torture devices–everything from the ancient Greeks' Brazen Bull, which slowly barbecued the victim, to the elaborate mechanical apparatuses of the Spanish Inquisition. A medical doctor who specializes in victims of torture reveals how the human body responds to their use–from the earliest excruciating contrivances to the more modern.

Episode 26: Cosmodrome 2003-05-26 | 44 min The story of Russia’s “Crown Jewels”, the finest rocket engines in the world, built under conditions of absolute secrecy to land a man on the moon. Learn how, at the height of Cold War rivalry, the engineers of the Soviet Union’s elite Design Bureau developed what have become the most admired rocket engines money can buy, and how in the current climate, driven by commerce not conflict, those engines have found their way into American rockets.

Episode 27: Exterminator 2003-06-03 | 44 min In a raging war for control of Earth, occupying forces buzz and skitter, with some out to draw blood! Termites, mosquitoes, rats, mice, ants, and cockroaches have spread damage, disease, and death for millions of years. As we trace pest control from humble ancient beginnings to medieval Black Plague, from billion-dollar pesticide business to holistic Integrated Pest Management, we meet the foot soldier in the battle between man and bug–today’s high-tech and ecologically aware exterminator

Episode 28: Million Dollar Guns 2003-06-07 | 44 min They are the treasures of a select few. Each holds a story of human triumph…epic pagentry or desperate tragedy…cast forever in iron, steel, and wood. Some command price tags well over one hundred thousand dollars. A few are so prized and historic that their values have soared to monumental heights. “Million Dollar Guns” will give viewers a rare glimpse into the private gun collections of millionaires across the United States

Episode 29: High Voltage 2003-06-24 | 44 min Look closely at those tall metal towers that span the country and you might see tiny specks climbing up the soaring steel like spiders on an enormous web. Meet the courageous linemen who erect, string, and repair 250-foot high electrical transmission towers, working with energized power lines that can carry up to 765,000 volts!

Episode 30: 4x4 2003-06-22 | 44 min In this full immersion journey through the world of maximum off-roading, learn what it’s like to blow the carbon out of your system as we trace the history of the four-wheel drive vehicle. From the annual Baja 1000-mile race to the Paris-to-Dakar rally, off-roading has become an international sport for motorized thrill seekers. Drive along in your Jeep, dune buggy, Hummer, or SUV for this high-adrenaline, fun-filled romp as we see why 4x4s go where no one has gone before!

Episode 31: Dangerous Cargo 2003-06-25 | 44 min Toxic traffic is everywhere! An average of 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials hit our highways and railways daily. From Wild West wooden crates filled with explosives to HAZMAT containers of nuclear waste, we shadow dangerous cargo. We ride shotgun on a hazardous material shipment that's tracked by satellites; hunt down the hush-hush "ghost fleet"–trucks carrying classified government materials; and board a Con-Air flight moving another kind of nasty stuff–dangerous felons!

Episode 32: Gunslingers 2003-06-26 | 44 min

Episode 33: More Engineering Disasters 2003-07-02 | 44 min

Episode 34: Engineering Disasters 4 2003-07-02 | 44 min Engineering disasters can result in personal tragedy, national humiliation, and economic ruin. But buried within their wreckage lie lessons that point the way to a safer future. The fire at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel, the collapse of Seattle’s Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge, the car that spurred creation of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and the flaw that grounded the first commercial jet are among the engineering disasters that led to improvements in design and safety.

Episode 35: Nature Tech: Tsunamis 2003-07-08 | 44 min Among the most mysterious disasters, tsunamis–Japanese for “harbor waves”–claimed over 50,000 lives in the 20th century! Generated by offshore earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides, these giant water walls result from large-scale displacement of seabed sediment. Rolling rapidly over the ocean floor, a tsunami rises to rapturous heights when it hits land. Scientists in Japan, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and California show the latest technology used to predict these killer waves.

Episode 36: Logging Tech 2003-07-09 | 44 min When Paul Bunyan cried "Timber!", he never foresaw today's cutting-edge, controversial industry that feeds a ravenous, lumber-crazy world–a world striving to protect nature while devouring it. Come into the woods to see how he-men and hi-tech combine forces to topple 4-billion trees annually; journey to 19th-century America, when lumberjacks cut a legend as large as the timber they felled; and travel with a tree from stump to sawmill and learn its non-wood uses–from aspirin to film to toothpaste!

Episode 37: Breaking the Sound Barrier 2003-07-16 | 44 min For decades, the sound barrier loomed as an impenetrable wall against manned flight that buffeted planes with shock waves as they approached the speed of sound. Scientists thought the barrier couldn’t be breached–until the development of jet technology and rocket fuel at the end of WWII. This is the dramatic story, told through the eyes of many who were there, of the work leading up to October 10, 1947, when 24-year-old test pilot Chuck Yeager smashed through the sound barrier in a Bell EM XS-1 /EM aircraft.

Episode 38: Car Crashes 2003-07-23 | 44 min In the mid-1960s, the US lost an average of 55,000 people yearly to car crashes. Since then, the number of cars on the road has doubled, but fatalities have decreased by nearly a third. The dramatic reduction is the culmination of research and development that led to safer roads and cars and quicker emergency response. But car-crash technology’s future involves removal of its biggest threat–human drivers! Find out if computers and radar can prevent everything from fender-benders to pile-ups.

Episode 39: Sandhogs 2003-07-23 | 44 min Sandhogs work hundreds of feet down, where it is dark, damp, and dangerous, challenging nature’s awesome forces to drive tunnels through solid rock and sinking mud. They drill and blast, bore, mine, and muck. The painstaking process continues for days and yards, months and miles. Tragically, many sandhogs have been killed or injured in the process, but ultimately theirs is a story of triumph and survival. Join us as we review their impressive achievements and history.

Episode 40: Convertibles 2003-07-24 | 44 min Topless, unobstructed–the convertible completely transforms the driving experience and unlike any other car, sets the driver free. During this face-paced hour, experts highlight the history of the world’s most dynamic car design and the essential quality that makes it so unique. From the very first convertible design in 1915 to modern-day marvels of retractable hardtops, we peer under the hoods to see why the convertible remains the car that everybody wants, but only a few are bold enough to own.

Episode 41: Loading Docks 2003-07-30 | 44 min Each day ships, trains, trucks, and planes haul supplies that keep store shelves full and factories moving. At every stop there’s a loading dock–an interface where shipping and storage hook up. You may not think much about a loading dock, but to the transportation industry it’s the very heart of their business. From ancient times to tomorrow’s lights-out facility, where computers and machines will store, sort, retrieve, and load stock without human interaction, we deliver the goods on loading docks.

Episode 42: Terror Tech: Military 2003-08-05 | 44 min The chance of enemy confrontation by sea, tank, or air battle is small, but terrorist networks operating in the shadows will likely challenge the U.S again. Instead of waiting to react, the military’s new mission is to detect, deter, and defend America from terrorist attack. We examine cutting-edge technology that leads the fight in this new battle landscape, including Smart Bombs, Tactical Ballistic-Missile Systems, GPS-driven technology, Electro-Optical Systems, and the pilotless drone Predator.

Episode 43: Nature Tech: Tornadoes 2003-08-05 | 44 min How does technology grasp nature’s most violent, chaotic storm? For half a century, U.S. meteorologists have been building a countrywide system of Doppler Radar, widespread automated data-gathering stations, geostationary satellites, and sophisticated computers to track and study tornadoes. Even with this massive scientific effort, forecasters can only begin to understand why tornadoes form and how to predict them. We’ll look at cutting-edge systems that attempt to measure the unmeasurable.

Episode 44: Military Movers 2003-08-06 | 44 min The challenge: Move millions of soldiers and tons of cargo halfway around the world and into the thick of action. How? Use the biggest ships, the widest planes, and the strongest trucks. Today, military planners move men and equipment further and faster than ever. The United States Transportation Command, answering to the Department of Defense, runs military transport like an efficient private shipping and travel agency. From the Civil War to US Transcom, we track the development of military logistics.

Episode 45: Police Guns 2003-08-07 | 44 min

Episode 46: Terror Tech: Defending the Highrise 2003-08-12 | 44 min

Episode 47: Bullets 2003-08-13 | 44 min From "safe" bullets that stop hijackers but leave aircraft unscathed to bullets that chain-saw through steel and "smart" bullets computer-programmed to hit a target, this explosive hour examines the evolution of bullets from origin in the 1300s–stones and round lead balls shot from iron and bamboo tubes. Lead balls ruled until 1841 when a conical-shaped bullet changed ammo forever. We learn how to construct a modern cartridge, and at pistol and rifle ranges view demonstrations of modern firepower.

Episode 48: Aircraft Carrier 2003-08-15 | 44 min From the earliest experiments in WWI to the technological wonders that ruled the sea and sky of the Middle East, George C. Scott chronicles the history of one of today’s most versatile and powerful vessels afloat.

Episode 49: The Gunboats of Vietnam 2003-08-18 | 44 min It takes brave sailors to steer their gunboats into waters where larger ships cannot go. In this historic documentary, relive the dramatic rescue of General MacArthur by a squadron of PT boats in WWII.

Episode 50: Metal 2003-08-19 | 44 min They constitute the very essence of the modern world; the cadence of our progress sounds in the measured ring of the blacksmith’s hammer. From soaring skyscrapers and sturdy bridges to jet planes and rockets, metals play a key role. Our journey begins before the Bronze Age and takes us into the shiny future when new metal structures–engineered at a molecular level to be stronger, lighter, and cheaper–shape human progress, as they have since man first thrust copper into a fire and forged a tool.