10 Modern Marvels That Changed America

It’s a show about arrogant builders who’ve scoffed at the laws of nature. They’ve defied the naysayers - and sometimes even gravity - by undertaking these amazing feats of engineering. Each story in this episode includes a fun physics lesson and a tale of human folly. We begin at the Erie Canal, a 363-mile long man-made waterway that was built in the 19th century by thousands of labourers using primitive hand tools. Then we’ll show how professional engineers connected a growing America by building magnificent bridges, intricate rail networks and a continent-wide system of freeways. And we’ll discover the extreme measures that engineers have taken to deliver water from distant rivers to kitchen sinks. It’s easy to take these modern marvels for granted. After all, we usually access roads, bridges and drinking water effortlessly. But behind many of our daily conveniences is a clever engineer, and a remarkable story.