Running the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) required the most powerful electrical plant in the world. The central powerhouse generated alternating current, which could be sent over long distances. Rotary converters were then built to change the alternating current into direct current needed to run the trains. These rotary converters were placed in substations scattered throughout the city.

One of the most dangerous sections on the Interborough Rapid Transit's route was assigned to a subcontractor, Ira Shaler, who was also a friend of chief engineer, William Parsons. On June 17th, 1902, Parsons inspected Shaler's work in the east tunnel. During the inspection, a boulder fell on Shaler. He died a few days later, bringing work in the east tunnel to a halt.

Construction on New York's Interborough Rapid Transit, or IRT, began in 1900. William Parsons, the project’s chief engineer, used a variety of techniques for underwater digging. Sometimes hydraulic shields were used; other times methods were improvised, like digging a trench in the riverbed, then sinking the tunnel roof down on top of it. At least 7,700 men would be needed to build the IRT.

In order to get congestion and filth off the streets of New York, Alfred Ely Beach had an idea for a pneumatic subway, pulled by a rope of air. A giant fan would drive a train through a tunnel, as fast as 10 miles per hour. After gaining the legislature’s approval for an experimental pneumatic tube for packages, Beach began working on a real subway.

Construction on New York's underground rail system began in 1900 with William Barclay Parsons as the project’s chief engineer. The city's topography presented a special engineering challenge for Parsons and his team. With many dips, valleys, patches of quicksand and above-ground infrastructure to take into account, digging underneath Manhattan became a monumental task.

The first effort to build an experimental subway dates back to the 1850s when inventor Alfred Ely Beach argued that a horse-drawn subway, under Broadway, would put an end to congestion and the filth of New York City’s streets. By the 1860s, Beach had a different idea: a pneumatic subway, pulled by a rope of air. A giant fan would drive a train through a tunnel, as fast as 10 miles per hour.

Engineer William Parsons wrote, "Of all human activities, engineering is the one that enters most into our lives." Parsons was the Interborough Rapid Transit’s chief engineer. His 21-mile route for the IRT ran up the east side of Manhattan to Grand Central Station, then continued across 42nd Street and proceeded north, dividing into two branches heading under the river into the Bronx.

By the mid-1800s New York City was one of the most crowded places on earth. Each year tens of thousands of new immigrants were arriving, spilling out into the streets and competing with established city dwellers for space. The congested streets and pokey transportation system were a source of constant complaint.

Andrew Carnegie's life seemed touched by magic. He embodied the American dream: the immigrant who went from rags to riches, the self-made man who became a captain of industry, the king of steel. Yet "Carnegie is still, right throughout his life, the little boy in the fairy story, for whom everything has to be all right," says Owen Dudley Edwards, historian at the University of Edinburgh.

Malcolm X called for an aggressive plan for black Americans to gain political power, and move toward total control of their communities. He started a voter registration drive and advocated black nationalism as an economic philosophy.

Malcolm X talks about his experience on a pilgrimage to Mecca, comparing white Muslims to white Americans, and suggesting that studying Islam might help white men to think of all races as human.

This clip highlights the dramatic shift Malcolm X, and the Nation of Islam, brought to the struggle for rights, by advocating separation and rejecting non-violence in the face of white oppression and brutality.

Malcolm X explains how the Ku Klux Klan targeted his family, burning their home in two different cities, and killing his father.

Award winning filmmaker David Grubin profiles one of the most controversial U.S. presidents, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of power, only to suffer disillusionment and defeat. Witness the events that brought LBJ from Texas to Washington, the White House, and a landslide election in 1964.