American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

52m 54s

Clearing the Way

1m 9s

To clear a path for the road, a lead bulldozer, flanked by two others, tore into the dirt and knocked down trees to create a 60 to 90-foot swath. Behind these front units, the bulk of the regiment widened, straightened, and graded the road, and using the timber at hand, built culverts and bridges.

Arctic Challenges

2m 53s

By September of 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers building the Alaska Highway had struck permafrost—ground that had been frozen for two or more years. After removing the covering vegetation, the frozen ground began to thaw, creating mud. Permafrost wasn’t the only challenge the engineers faced. In October, temperatures began to drop, signaling the start of one of the coldest winters on record.

Cuba Newsreels: Castro Visits the U.S.S.R., 1972

53s

In 1959, Fidel Castro created the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Culture (Spanish acronym: I.C.A.I.C.), the agency in charge of film production and distribution. The institute owned and controlled cinemas, oversaw all Cuban film productions and monitored imported films. View an excerpt from an I.C.A.I.C. newsreel of Castro's visit to the U.S.S.R. in 1972.

Cuba Newsreels: Queue of Asylum-Seekers, 1980

2m 27s

In 1959, Fidel Castro created the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Culture (Spanish acronym: I.C.A.I.C.), the agency in charge of film production and distribution. The institute owned and controlled cinemas, oversaw all Cuban film productions and monitored imported films. View an excerpt from an I.C.A.I.C. newsreel on the queue of asylum-seekers in 1980.

Building the Alaska Highway Promo

30s

In May of 1942, across the rugged sub-Arctic wilderness of Alaska, British Columbia, and Yukon Territory, thousands of American soldiers began one of the biggest and most difficult construction projects ever undertaken -- the building of the Alaska Highway.

World Trade Center Construction Footage

18m 3s

How did they do it? Find out in this eighteen-minute film, Building the World Trade Center, produced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1983 with original footage of the towers under construction.

Carol Willis, Architectural Historian

6m 57s

Architectural historian Carol Willis discusses the opposition to the World Trade Center, the public's opinion of skyscrapers, and rebuilding at Ground Zero. Willis was interviewed during the making of Ric Burns' New York: The Center of the World.

Leslie Robertson, Engineer

10m 57s

Engineer for the World Trade Center, Leslie Robertson discusses architectural aspects of the buildings, including the sculptural quality, close columns and narrow windows, the skin structure, and the comparison to the Empire State Building.

Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist

6m 27s

High wire artist Philippe Petit electrified New York City -- and the world -- with his early morning walk between the twin towers on August 7, 1974. Here he discusses his preparation for the walk and the high wire journey itself.

Building a Bridge in the Ocean

57s

The south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge was built over a thousand feet into open ocean. To build the tower, workers would have to erect a pier more than 1100 feet out in the middle of the Gate -- the first bridge support ever constructed in the open ocean. Divers guided beams, panels, blasting tubes and 40-ton steel forms into position and secured them, striving to avoid being swept away.

Spinning the Cables

2m 54s

Cable spinning began in October 1935. To create the cables, Roebling developed a method called parallel wire construction. The innovative technique enabled a cable of any length and thickness to be formed by binding together thin wires. Hundreds of wires, each roughly the diameter of a pencil, were bound together into strands. Hydraulic jacks then bundled and compressed 61 strands to make a cable.

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