This content explores the transformative innovations that shaped the modern American city, from iconic symbols like the Statue of Liberty to the industrial and technological advancements that enabled unprecedented urban growth and the subsequent challenges and reforms.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
[Applause]
sky gleaming towers of
Steel a bold new Urban landscape and
maybe America's greatest invention the
City we are pioneers and
Trailblazers We Fight For
Freedom we transform our dreams into the
[Applause] nation
nation
America land of
invention hot dogs jazz the elevator
skyscrapers this is the story of the
greatest innovation of all the modern vertical
vertical
City one world famous icon has come to symbolize
symbolize
it it's
a magnificent gift but with some assembly
required scattered across bed's Island
in New York Harbor in 214
crates they contain the largest statue
in the western
world it's been donated by the people of
France to celebrate the Centenary of the
Declaration of
Independence built in Paris broken down
into 350 massive pieces for the journey to
to
America that's the
problem the cost of reassembling it will be
be
astronomical money New York does not
have at least six other US cities are
home New York city is in danger of
Liberty not if this man can help
Joseph Pitzer tenacious newspaper
magnate immigrant self-made man he owns
the biggest paper in the US the New York
world and he's determined to keep
Liberty in New York
Harbor through his chain of newspapers
Pitzer launches the biggest fundraising
America it would be an irrevocable
disgrace to New York City and the
American ameran Republic to have France
send us this Splendid gift without our
having provided even so much as a
landing place for
money more than a million people read
pitzer's papers every day enclosed
please find 25 cents is my cont the
contents of our little Savings Bank which
which
weer resolved to send you the contents
of the first jackpot you will find and
clothes $4 the money we save to go to
the circus with donations flood in from
all across the country rich and poor
East and West pennies and nickels fives
and tens even thousands of
dollars in all a staggering 121,000
donations more than enough to keep this
iconic statue in New
York I think a statue is not just a
statue I think symbols really matter I
think they signify in a big way in fact
maybe they do more than Reams and Reams
and reams of legislation and paper and
print now the real work
begins to hold a statue 150 ft High the
pedestal will be the biggest concrete
structure in the
world over 200 men work through a ruling
it as the last of the cement dries
workers toss in their own silver dollars
luck next Liberty's enormous iron skeleton
it's designed by Gustav Eiffel who build
the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris the
skeleton is 151 ft tall and with the
pedestal it's the height of a 30-story
[Music]
now for the outer
layer wrapping around the skeleton are
60,000 lb of hand sculpted copper
the sandal is 32 times bigger than a
human foot the equivalent of a size 879
shoe it's on the job training often at
300 ft in the air it's as difficult as
it is dangerous [Music]
[Music]
they need to fix 300 pieces of copper
shell to the framework with more than 300,000
300,000
rivets her robes have over 4,000 square
yards of
copper her outstretched arm is 42 ft
long a fingernail weighs 3 1/2
[Music] [Applause]
after 6 months of hazardous construction
there are no fatalities and Liberty's 17
foot face is finally winched into position
Rushmore it said the sculptor Frederick
August boldi modeled the face on his own mother
mother [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
it takes 25 years for Liberty to oxidize
and turn
green a functioning Lighthouse until
1902 the statue's official name is
Liberty enlightening the
world at first a symbol of the alliance
and friendship between France and the 13
colonies in the American Revolution it
will come to represent much more at the
entrance to New York Harbor the Statue
of Liberty becomes a beacon to the world
and a welcome to
Millions later a poem by Emma Lazarus in
her base celebrates America as a land of
refugees give me your tired your poor
your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free The Wretched refu of your teeming
Shore send these the homeless temp
tossed to me I lift my lamp beside the golden
door over the next two decades more than
12 million immigrants passed the Statue
of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island
the first stop for most new
Americans imagine what it took for
someone to leave Eastern Poland or
Lithuania or some Village in the
mountains of Northern Italy and come all
nothing today more than 100 million
Americans can trace their Roots back to
ancestors who came through Ellis
Island if you go back only 150 years in
our 20 almost 50 year history
history
95% of the people were not here uh there
there are no roots they all came from
someplace else so to me uh America
represents the the best of the human
Spirit a guide book prepares arrivals
for a new life in a new
world forget your customs and ideals
select a goal and pursue it with all
your might you will experience a bad
time but sooner or later you will
achieve your goal
run and from Ellis Island they spread
out across the continent for the most
part Irish Russians and Italians to big
cities Germans to the Midwest
Scandinavians to
Farmland at the dawn of the 20th century
eventually there will be more Italians
in New York than in
Rome from 18 80 to 1930 nearly 24
million new immigrants arrive in the
begin by the early 20th century new
Urban mega cities around America are
bursting to the seams and look to expand
in a New Direction
Direction
up but building these great Towers
Demands a critical ingredient that's is
expensive
steel one man will change all that and
with it the face of America he'll risk
all it's 1872 and Andrew
Carnegie a 5'3 Scottish immigrant iron
future a revolutionary way to make steel
steel has been around for thousands of
years but so expensive to produce it's
always been a luxury
item 2,000 years ago it's used in
Oriental swords is even used in designer
jewelry but a America stands at the
brink of a new age to build it they need
steel and lots of it it's the only
material strong enough for the towers
sky an English bullet maker is showing
Carnegie a new but simple method of producing
producing
stunned blast hot air through molten
iron carbon impurities burn
off you get the Wonder material
material
steel for the first time it can be
produced quickly and
inexpensively if Carnegie can use this
besser process to mass-produce
it he'll own the
future Carnegie returns to the states to
Pittsburgh to start building the biggest
steel plant in the world it'll be larger
than 80 football fields it's a massive
gamble Carnegie risks everything he's
got on the new
plant but only months into construction
construction
collapse the economy is in
freefall he has to borrow even more money
money
1875 Against All Odds Carnegie's giant
test steel production is phenomenally
seconds if it works it will make
world but there's a lot more at stake
skyscrapers cars washing machines
airanes even space travel none of it can
it's a success [Music]
Carnegie is the first ever to mass-produce
mass-produce
steel prices plummet by over
80% output Rockets from a few thousand
tons in 1860 to 11 million by [Music]
[Music]
1900 so many American stories of
success uh are diligence uh
uh
perseverance but there's an awful lot of
luck involved too his timing couldn't
have been better it was steel that built
American cities it was steel that built
American railroads it was steel that
built American
shipping by the beginning of the 20th
century he was one of the wealthiest men in
America Pittsburgh transforms from a
sleepy town the industrial Heart Of The
Nation its population triples
driven by a new Steel Railroad millions
of tons of steel are transported Across
America the raw material to build the modern
city and the grandest of all is New [Music]
[Music]
York it's an era of obscene
opulence New York is a playground for
Super Rich industrialists and
financiers wildly extravagant they smoke
cigars rolled in $100 bills their wives
diamonds this is the Gilded Age land
values are the highest in the world
there's only one place to go
up by 1902 65 skyscrapers are being
constructed in
it's called Walking the
steel this man is 30 stories above the
street his first time at this
height no harness or safety
rope one
slip and he's
dead veterans are called fixers the
novices are
snakes because working with them can be deadly
deadly
the old hands know just how dangerous it can
can
be thing I hate worse than poison is to
take on a new man when we're near the
killed no hard hats just a 280 ft
drop a sudden gust of wind and it's all over
they're up here 8 hours a day meals when they
they
breaks they're called rough necks
European immigrants and Mohawk
Indians many were Sailors and Bridge
the guy's balancing on the beams I think
it took a lot of Bravery I think it took
a lot of skill a lot of you know
physically um physically challenging but
I also think it you had to be a little
crazy the stakes couldn't be higher it's
a risk they are willing to take the pay
is $4 a day twice the going rate for
manual labor Foreman William starit sums
up his dangerous
job building skyscrapers is the nearest
peacetime equivalent of War even to the
occasional Grim reality of an accident
where named body even death remind us
that we are fighting a war of
construction against the forces of nature
nature
he makes it many aren't so lucky two
rough necks out of five die or are
job whether it's a builder or an
architect or whatever whoever had the
imagination to design and build some of
the great structures of New York I'm inspired
inspired
by In 1902 in New York this is what the
future looks like
the flat iron building its triangular
footprint determined by the intersection
two the steel frame means the outside
can be hung in sections like a suit of
clothes now the walls don't take the
[Music]
does it's so radical when people first
see it they think it will blow over and kill
them a lawsuit is filed claiming winds
focused by the Flat Iron's extreme shape
buildings inside the other breakthrough
that lets Towers rise into the clouds the
the
elevator before it the tallest buildings
sto mostly at five floors no more
walking upstairs now so the sky is the
limit for the first time the higher the
floor the higher the rent you think it's
a fairly humble invention but uh when
Otis invented the first really safe
elevator it enabled the growth of the
modern city where people could come in
build much taller buildings get a much
higher density of people and sure enough
by the end of the 19th century the urban
population has increased 87 times
over in Chicago alone in just 10 years
they build 50 steel frame buildings and
in 20 years its population more than
doubles to almost 1.7 million American
exploding but for many living in the
shadow of these new Towers will prove
even harder than building them in
America in 1890 crime and poverty are
streets but these Mavericks are about to
difference gangsters murderers thieves
and fear are on the streets new tabloid
newspapers Splash crime all over the front
front
pages in Chicago you can rent a gun by
the hour in the Sears catalog you can
buy one for
$12 in New York a policeman finds a list
on a murdered gangster his rate card
punches $2 Nos and jaw broke $10 ear
chewed off
detective bureau chief Thomas Burns a
rude and he's very
tough among his methods is a technique
his detectives call the third
degree first degree persuasion second
degree intimidation
pain in four years Burns claims he's
arrested 3,300
criminals he solved the biggest Heist of
the 19th
century nearly a $3 million Manhattan
bank robbery reporters call him the
greatest crime Buster in the history of
Force his very
manner size of him his menacing
shoulders and arms the bark of his voice
Pick Pockets forgers whoever cracked a
safe unscrupulous Rogues crooks are now
afraid of their Shadows they lead double
lives but tracking down criminals isn't
easy there's no official ID no birth
certificates or driver's licenses if a
criminal is known in one town he just
moves to the next criminals are
Anonymous Burns is tackling this problem
headon and bringing police work into a new
new
age this is his Rogues Gallery mug shots
of 7,000 known law
Breakers using photography to identify
criminals will change detective work
forever Annie royy
Alias Little Annie deceitful servant the
mug shots are distributed to police
departments around the country but these
are more than just pictures Burns is
also building psychological profiles of
criminals Rufus Miner he comes from a
very good family it's a pity he's a
thief this is the first attempt to
create a National Crime
register a city as diverse as ours is
going to have a significant crime
problem that you've got to be on top of
criminals 12 million are taken every year
year
Nationwide that's more than the entire
population of
Ohio and it all began with the Rogues
any [Music]
[Music]
questions but crime isn't the only
problem plaguing Urban
streets in many cities slums are
reaching epidemic
proportions multiple families crammed
into one small
room human waste pours into the streets
alleys and open
courtyards people were crowded in they
were windowless tenaments sometimes you
had no internal Plumbing just privies in
the basement in the backyard and the
Lower East Side during these years was
the single most crowded place in the entire
entire
world Jacob Reese Danish immigrant crime reporter
reporter
photographer he gets leads for stories
from Chief Inspector
Burns now he's about to expose the hell
of tenements
Jacob ree knows what it's like to be
poor 15 years ago he lost his job in a
stock market
crash it's midnight but Reese has a new
technology that will change the public
perception of poverty
forever an explosive powder that
produces enough light to photograph in
this is one of the first ever
life it shocks
Millions ladies and gentlemen my name is
Jacob a Reese and this is how the other
half Live and Die in New York City
magazines refus to print his work so
Reese puts on his own Magic Lantern shows
shows
his mission to show the nation's wealthy
something they've never seen before
filth and Desperation on their
doorstep at this block Nine Dead were
carried out this year
coffins what he demonstrated was that
there is another reality um that all
that Prosperity didn't trickle down all
the way to the bottom and there were
some deplorable living conditions and
this country was not just forced to
confront those conditions but then was
moved to begin to deal with them ree
publishes his pictures in a book called
How the Other Half Lives it will sell
copies within two decades the worst of
New York's slums are torn
down tenaments sell at auction for as
little as a dollar
Reese's campaigning forces all New York
schools to build playgrounds and
landlords to install toilets inside
Apartments not
outside it is the first step in tackling the
the
slums but as cities keep on growing an
remains in New York alone nearly 40,000
die in one year from diseases
because of this
this
filth but one clean Crusader is about to change
change everything
everything
1895 our major cities are drowning in
filth 120,000 horses dump half a million
pounds of manure into the New York
streets every
day wagons are blocked by 3T High piles
of human and animal waste
into this world steps a man on a white
horse Colonel George
wearing Civil War veteran legendary
cleanliness he's the head of New York sanitation
department the city stinks with the
emanations of putrifying organic
matter black rottenness is seen and
smelled on every hand
hell wearing recruits an army of 2,000
uniforms some dismiss him as a
crank they call his men white ducks but
wearing means
business tons of garbage normally dumped
into the river is
recycled Ash becomes landfill on Riker's
Island organic waste boiled into oil and
grease wearing is America's first Eco
Warrior his men clean 433 Mi of
Street death rates decline water quality
improves wearing saves the lives of
thousands the measures spread across
America just 16 years after kernel
wearing half of all cities have waste
ction and it is not just
waste by 1907 every large city in the
nation has sewers by 1909 there are
42,4 Mi of sewers in
America the battle against filth crime
and poverty has
begun but one of the city's greatest
Innovations is still in its
infancy one man will change the urban
1879 Thomas Edison inventor entrepreneur
showman he was taken out of school as a
boy but that won't stop him from
becoming synonymous with inventions that
Define the modern
era he pushes his team hard
247 in one of the world's first first
R&D Labs it will generate more than a thousand
patents America still lights the knif in
the dangerous flicker of candles gas and
kerosene Edison thinks he has a better
idea if he can get a filament to burn
Edison locks himself in his lab doesn't
days the stakes are
high his backers have sunk
$130,000 into his research millions in today's
today's
money he claimed to have gone through
6,000 materials from uh the plant world
alone in his search for the the perfect
beard fish
line thread
teak boxwood s ly [Music]
a piece of carbonized cardboard Burns
hours it's going to change the way
people live
forever what Edison
does is nothing less than to banish the
darkness now think of the meaning of
that think of what that means to daily
life New Year's Eve
1879 Edison shows off his new invention
thousands of people flock to his lab to
see the future take shape the
Pennsylvania Railroad arranges special
crowds when Thomas
Addison invented that light bulb that
electric light bulb what a how magical
that must have been you know to sit
there and just all of a sudden like
without a match without kerosene or gas
light in Just 2 years Edison builds more
than 5,000 power plants generating
electricity for cities like New York
Boston Chicago Detroit St Louis and New
Orleans over the next 5 years he builds over
over
127,000 more by 1902 18 million light
bulbs are in
use the impact is massive
Sports entertainment factories stores
night and as electricity comes to the
cities more and more people arrive with
it by 1900 nearly 4 million women are
working in US
cities in just 40 years that figure has
more than
quadrupled Urban factories are pounding
out 75% of all consumer products in the
US places like this modern steel frame
buildings equipped with all the latest
technology otus electric elevators Bell
machines but packing so many people into
tll buildings is a disaster waiting to happen
happen [Music]
[Music]
the United States is hurtling into the
Modern Age symbolized by mega cities
rising up all across the
continent by 1909 Americans are spending
nearly $23 billion a year on ready-made
clothes this Factory is producing 12,000
garments a week known as shirt waste
they're the latest fashion for the
New York City March 25th
1911 4:45 p.m. the Triangle shirt waist
Factory 8th
teenagers someone we don't know who
tosses a match or maybe a cigarette into
burning there's a fire Mr
barstein production manager Samuel
pales but the fire is already spreading [Music]
[Music]
there's a Mad Dash for the exit but it
is too narrow only one at a time can
pass through it's been designed that way
so their bags can be checked for stolen
fabric come
on there's a fire
hose but it's not
working there's no
water the only way to warn the floors
above is through the switchboard two
switchboard 10th floor fire there's a
fire put me through to the ninth
floor she drops the phone and runs to get
get
help the message never reaches the ninth
floor Samuel Bernstein races up the main
stairs to help the60 workers trapped
there but blocking the front door
oil on the ninth floor Flames are
windows the girls on nine rush to the
fire escape but it's
locked only two Escape Routes are left
on the ninth
floor the elevator and the metal fire escape
Kate weiner makes it to the elevator
door but she's lost her
sister everyone was knocking him crying
for the elevator to come up Suddenly the
in I was searching for my sister Rose
her the Flames were coming toward me and
I was being left behind I felt the
elevator was leaving the ninth floor for
the last
time she's the last person to get to the last
elevator more than 100 girls are left
Die the only Escape Route left is the
firemen arrived with the biggest ladder
Short 4:58 p.m. the girls trapped on the
in
jump 5:15
p.m. the entire Blaze is over in less
than half an [Music]
[Music]
hour 146 people die in the Triangle
shirt waist factory
free it Remains the deadliest workplace
disaster in New York City history until
September 11th
2001 but some good does come out of
it this dramatic tragedy Sparks a wave
of Reform so you begin to get new
restrictions uh and a new conversation
about uh what to do to prevent this kind
of tragedy from happening but uh it did
itself unions Force management to take
responsibility for the lives of their
workers the Life Safety Code now used in
all 50 states is a direct result of this
fire it's why doors now open outwards in public
public
buildings why automatic sprinkler
systems or multiple exits are now the [Music]
[Music]
law the US and the modern city grew up
together typically new enormous and
fast-paced the mega city is one of
America's greatest inventions [Music]
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
