Aerial.America.S02E10.New.York
Aerial.America.S02E10.New.York
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00New York, a state rich with the stories of a nation that began long before European explorers discovered its mighty rivers.
00:14A land of stunning peaks and colorful valleys, home to writers, presidents, and prisoners.
00:23It was here where a crafty inventor first brought photography to millions.
00:30And innovation harnessed a raging river to power America's first city of light.
00:36On New York soil, revolutionary soldiers fought to forge America's independence.
00:42And an elite corps of cadets still learns how to defend the country's freedom.
00:49It's here where one of America's greatest fortunes was built on the ferries that ply these waters.
00:56And daring workers keep Manhattan moving.
01:02Aerial New York tells the stories of the city's tallest spires and the hallowed ground of its fallen towers.
01:19This is the Empire State.
01:26This is the Empire State.
01:28This is the Empire State.
01:30This is the Empire State.
01:32This is the Empire State.
01:34This is the Empire State.
01:36This is the Empire State.
01:38This is the Empire State.
01:40This is the Empire State.
01:42This is the Empire State.
01:44This is the Empire State.
01:46This is the Empire State.
01:48This is the Empire State.
01:50This is the Empire State.
01:52This is the Empire State.
01:55The story of New York State begins with an incredible gift of nature.
02:01More than 10,000 years ago, a torrent of melting glacial ice carved through upstate New York and created Niagara Falls.
02:15Every second, 3,000 tons of water surge over the falls, making them the most powerful in North America.
02:30Water has played a defining role in New York State ever since the beginning.
02:36From the breathtaking power of the Niagara, to the waterways where America's Empire State began.
02:50Long before its skyscrapers, a Native American tribe called the Lenape used to hunt and fish on the island and shores of Manhattan.
03:00They called it Manahatta, meaning the Island of Many Hills.
03:07It was also an island of meadows, ancient forests, black bears, and bald eagles.
03:16In 1624, the Lenape agreed to share their island with the Dutch for an exchange of goods worth 60 guilders, or what would have been about $24 at the time.
03:28But the Dutch considered it a sale and soon took control of the island.
03:34Some of the Lenape's ancient footpaths have become New York City streets, and 843 acres of their former land is now one of New York City's treasures.
03:51Created in 1858, Central Park covers 6% of Manhattan.
03:57It was the first landscaped park in America.
04:02But creating it wasn't easy.
04:05Some say that it took more gunpowder to blast and create Central Park's lakes, hills, and meadows than was used in the Battle of Gettysburg.
04:16A unique feature of its design was its separate pathways for horse-drawn carriages to help people quietly enjoy the park.
04:25Now, bicycle rickshaws share these old carriage routes with New York City taxis.
04:32The design of the park was originally inspired by 19th century landscape paintings, but ever since, it's been an inspiration for artists themselves.
04:45Today, a work of art is rising on the roof of one of the greatest museums in the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
04:54Two artists, helped by a team of rock climbers, are assembling thousands of pieces of bamboo to create a 50-foot-high sculpture called Big Bamboo.
05:05It's designed to look like a cresting wave perched above Central Park's treetops.
05:12This urban oasis draws 25 million visitors a year, but only the lucky ones get to enjoy views of it from their windows every day.
05:22The city's first luxury apartment building lies on the park's west side.
05:29The Dakota has been the home of famous artists for decades, including dancer Rudolf Nureyev, actress Lauren Bacall, and John Lennon.
05:41When it was built in 1884, the Dakota was surrounded by undeveloped land.
05:47Now, it's flanked by taller towers, with even more spectacular views of Central Park and the city.
05:56Building higher and higher is nothing new in Manhattan, but trying to build the highest has always been a risky proposition.
06:04Many of New York's tallest skyscrapers today were built during a period of fierce competition between developers in the early 20th century.
06:1440 Wall Street, with its distinctive copper roof, was once the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1930.
06:22A title it held for only a few weeks.
06:25That's because Walter Kreisler was already building his own now-famous skyscraper uptown at 405 Lexington Avenue.
06:34After 40 Wall Street opened its doors, Kreisler hoisted a secretly built spire onto the top of his building's Art Deco crown, topping out 40 Wall Street by 120 feet.
06:47But Kreisler's achievement was short-lived, too.
06:50Less than a year later, the new, even higher Empire State Building was completed after just 14 months of construction.
07:00The Empire State Building hasn't always been the tallest structure in Manhattan.
07:05But it is again today, after what many have called the greatest tragedy in American history.
07:20These are the footprints of the Twin Towers.
07:28On September 11th, 2001, clouds of ash engulfed lower Manhattan after terrorist attacks brought down the city's tallest buildings, the towers of the World Trade Center.
07:42It happened here, at Ground Zero.
07:51Nearly 3,000 people died in the attack, including 343 firefighters.
08:00Now, the footprints of the World Trade Center are being turned into reflecting pools, memorials to those who perished.
08:14And New York City's skyline is about to change again.
08:20A new tower is rising above Ground Zero.
08:24More than a thousand workers are building America's tallest skyscraper.
08:30It's the largest construction site in the country.
08:34One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, will rise a symbolic 1,776 feet.
08:46This city has been reinventing itself ever since it was founded.
08:50In the 1960s, the earth excavated during the construction of the original Twin Towers was used as landfill to extend lower Manhattan and its shores.
09:01Today, New York City has more than 600 miles of coastline and includes land on dozens of islands of all shapes and sizes.
09:11One is the historic Ellis Island.
09:15Only part of it actually lies in New York State.
09:18From 1892 to 1954, this tiny island was the gateway to America for a staggering 12 million immigrants.
09:29It's believed that 40% of Americans can trace their roots to at least one ancestor who passed through Ellis Island.
09:37Inside the famous Great Hall, new arrivals from Europe and beyond lined up to be inspected and processed.
09:46In the island's single busiest year, 1907, more than a million immigrants arrived here.
09:55Now, three million people from around the world visit the Great Hall every year as tourists.
10:03But not all of New York City's islands are places most would want to come.
10:09This is the only way for convicts to get in and out of the city's largest prison.
10:16Rikers Island is practically a borough of its own, complete with schools, a tailor shop, ball fields, and chapels.
10:27On some days, the prison population at Rikers can swell to nearly 20,000.
10:32But that's nothing compared to Manhattan.
10:38Even though it's the most densely populated county in America, 70% of its workers, or nearly a million and a half people, still live somewhere else.
10:51Most get to work via the eight bridges that connect Manhattan with the boroughs and beyond.
10:57The Brooklyn Bridge may be more famous, but its neighbor, the Manhattan Bridge, is one of the busiest.
11:04It links Brooklyn with Manhattan's Chinatown.
11:07This double-decker suspension bridge dates from 1909 and carries cars and trucks on both levels, as well as four New York City subway tracks.
11:18Maintaining the city's bridges can be a dangerous job.
11:21One misstep, and you could end up in freefall.
11:28But without its bridges and tunnels, Manhattan would only be accessible by air and water, just as it was more than 400 years ago.
11:40That's when a European explorer appeared on the horizon and set the world on fire.
11:47That's when a European explorer appeared on the horizon and set the stage for New York to be born.
12:01New York City's Verrazzano Narrows Bridge.
12:05It spans the mouth of New York Bay and links the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn.
12:11The bridge is named for Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano, the first known European to chart these waters.
12:20In 1524, Verrazzano arrived at the mouth of the bay, but didn't sail very far inside.
12:29Eighty-five years later, in 1609, it was an English explorer who did.
12:35Henry Hudson was mapping new trade routes for the Dutch when he discovered the Native American island of Manahatta.
12:45Hearing of the area's rich resources, Dutch traders quickly followed and called their new settlement New Amsterdam.
12:53But in 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed New Amsterdam New York.
13:05New Amsterdam
13:09When a group of Dutch settlers arrived in 1624, they landed on this island.
13:16They were hoping to trade for beaver pelts with the Native American tribes that lived upriver.
13:22The Dutch called the place Island of Nuts because of its plentiful chestnut trees, but the British later renamed it Governor's Island.
13:32Remains of the earliest settlements here are long gone, but forts have survived.
13:39The oldest one is the star-shaped Fort J, which lies on the site of earthwork fortifications that were built to defend New York against the British during the American Revolution.
13:51But those fortifications were a miserable defense, and the British took control of the island after the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776.
13:59One of the largest battles of the war.
14:03In the early 1900s, Governor's Island was enlarged by more than a hundred acres, with landfill from the construction of New York City's subway system.
14:14After mapping Manahatta and the surrounding shores, Henry Hudson set out up this mighty waterway, which would later bear his name.
14:24Just ten miles north of the city, he arrived here, at one of the widest points on the river.
14:31It's called Tappan Zee.
14:34Tappan was the name of a nearby Native American village. Zee is Dutch for sea.
14:42When Henry Hudson saw that the river widened, he was convinced that he had found a new passage to Asia.
14:49But then, the waters narrowed again just a few miles north, and Hudson's search continued.
14:59Today, a 3.1-mile-long bridge crosses Tappan Zee, linking communities on the West Bank with Tarrytown to the east.
15:09It's the site of famous tales, of a headless horseman, and a man who slept for a hundred years.
15:17Writer Washington Irving lived out the last years of his life here in Tarrytown, after having created the famous characters Ichabod Crane and Rip Van Winkle.
15:30In honor of Irving's tale, the village of North Tarrytown renamed itself Sleepy Hollow in 1996.
15:38The headless horseman bridge is gone, but this one leads to the old Dutch church, where Ichabod Crane was chased by the ghost in Irving's tale.
15:51Irving is buried in this cemetery.
15:55It's also the resting ground of major American industrialists Andrew Carnegie, Walter P. Kreisler, and William Rockefeller, who all chose the banks of the Hudson River as their final resting place.
16:14But not everyone on the Hudson is here by choice.
16:18Just six miles north of Tarrytown lies the notorious Sing Sing Prison.
16:25It's home to more than 1,500 convicts.
16:28Its name comes from Sing Sing, a Native American phrase that means a place of small stones.
16:35Convict laborers built the prison's original cellblock in 1825.
16:40Since then, serial killers, Russian spies, and Charles Lucky Luciano, who some called the father of organized crime, have all done time here.
16:53But Sing Sing itself has a checkered past, too.
16:57Early prisoners were forced to live and labor in absolute silence, and those who broke the rules were brutally punished.
17:05It also used to be home to the state's notorious electric chair.
17:10In the 1938 film Angels with Dirty Faces, James Cagney's character, Rocky Sullivan, was executed at Sing Sing.
17:19The last real criminal to be put to death here was a 34-year-old convict named Eddie Mays in 1963.
17:29Since then, New York became one of only 16 states to ban capital punishment.
17:35Though Sing Sing's reputation still inspires fear.
17:43When Henry Hudson first discovered this river, he called it the River of Mountains.
17:49Just 100 miles north of New York City lies one of the most beautiful landscapes in North America.
17:57A stunning range of peaks speckled with forests, rivers, and lakes.
18:03These are the Catskill Mountains.
18:09And they literally keep New York City alive.
18:15100% of the city's drinking water comes from watersheds like this one.
18:21And to ensure its continued supply, the city has purchased more than 100,000 acres of land upstate, making it one of the largest landowners here.
18:33Water from lakes and streams feed into underground aqueducts that carry fresh drinking water down to the city.
18:44Many locals don't even know where these giant underground pipes lie.
18:50To the east, the Hudson River is a lifeline for ships and barges carrying cargo from New York City to Albany.
19:00But its seemingly quiet waters hold hidden dangers.
19:06Mudflats can ground a vessel and its million-dollar cargo in seconds.
19:12But one obstacle in the river is a welcome sight to pilots.
19:15The Esopus Meadows Light.
19:19There's been a lighthouse on this spot since 1839.
19:24The light was later closed after ice flows damaged its foundation.
19:29But citizens banded together to save this historic site.
19:35Today, the Esopus Meadows Light is the only surviving clabbered lighthouse in New York City.
19:41The Esopus Meadows Light is the only surviving clabbered lighthouse on the Hudson.
19:50A bald eagle at the river's shore searches for prey.
19:54Once on the verge of extinction, America's national bird has made a comeback.
20:00But the fish they catch in the Hudson could be more of a threat than food.
20:06For 30 years, until 1977, the General Electric Company pumped as much as 1.3 million pounds of toxic compounds called PCBs directly into the river from its manufacturing plants upstream.
20:23Luckily, New York City's watershed in the nearby Catskills wasn't affected.
20:29But fish, birds, and other species along the Hudson have been found to contain dangerous levels of toxins that could cause cancer in people, too.
20:39It's why the state banned fishing on huge stretches of the Hudson for almost two decades.
20:46Environmentalists and fishermen rallied to save the river's ecosystem.
20:51They formed Riverkeeper, which grew into one of the fastest-growing and most successful environmental organizations of all time.
20:59In 2002, their work finally paid off.
21:03General Electric agreed to dredge 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth of PCBs from the river.
21:10Work has begun, but no one knows how long the cleanup will last, and if the river will continue to be a potential threat to offspring of eagles like these.
21:24North of Sing Sing, the Black Knights of the Hudson are preparing for battle inside the oldest occupied military post in America.
21:34West Point sits high above the river, overlooking a narrow bend.
21:41George Washington once considered it to be the most strategic military site in the country.
21:48American soldiers at West Point once controlled river traffic here using a 150-foot-long iron chain strung across the river to stop ships.
21:58The West Point Military Academy was established in 1802 by President Thomas Jefferson.
22:07Cadets come from all 50 states and can only register if they agree to abide by a strict four-point honor code,
22:15not to lie, steal, cheat, or tolerate anyone who does.
22:21Competition is nothing new to the banks of the Hudson River.
22:26One of America's wealthiest fortunes was built on it.
22:30Frederick Vanderbilt commissioned this estate in Hyde Park in 1895 on 211 acres,
22:37but the wealth he used to build it came from a fortune first earned by his grandfather on the West Point River.
22:43It was here, off Manhattan, that America's once richest man, Cornelius Vanderbilt, got his start as a small-time ferry operator.
22:52He's said to have bought his first ferry with a loan of $100 in 1810 and then beat out his competitors, including his own father, one by one.
23:02By the 1840s, Vanderbilt was the largest employer in the United States
23:07and soon bought up railroads and shipping companies that reached all the way to California.
23:13Modern ferries still ply Vanderbilt's old routes.
23:17Today, the Staten Island Ferry is the largest ferry in the United States.
23:22Vanderbilt was the first man to build a ferry in the United States.
23:26Modern ferries still ply Vanderbilt's old routes.
23:30Today, the Staten Island Ferry carries 21 million passengers a year.
23:36Vanderbilt's old rail line, on the Hudson, is still in operation.
23:43In Vanderbilt's day, his train steamed right along the river and into the city down 10th Avenue on street-level tracks.
23:52At the time, this busy street was nicknamed Death Avenue due to the number of train-related fatalities.
24:00It's why every train traveling through the city had to be led by a man on horseback to warn residents of its approach.
24:10In the 1930s, the original tracks were replaced with elevated ones to increase safety.
24:17Now, they've been transformed into the High Line.
24:23It's a suspended ribbon of walkways and native plants that weaves its way down the city's west side.
24:31Thousands use it every day.
24:36Today, green space in New York is also sky-high.
24:41The second tallest building in New York City is also its greenest skyscraper.
24:49Insulated floor-to-ceiling glass walls and a rainwater collection system have helped enable the Bank of America Tower to become the first skyscraper in the world to receive Platinum LEED status, the highest green building rating possible today.
25:06Green skyscrapers are the latest addition to New York's rich architectural heritage.
25:12But many of the state's most unique structures require a trip upstate.
25:23The banks of New York's Hudson River can best be explored by air.
25:29A two-seater helicopter lifts off over the valley.
25:32Below, the houses and estates of some of America's most illustrious names.
25:38John D. Rockefeller, once America's richest man, built this six-story stone house called Ki-Cut in Sleepy Hollow, turning profits from Standard Oil into a palatial 3,500-acre estate.
25:54It lies on one of the highest points on the river.
25:56Rockefeller designed much of Ki-Cut's gardens himself.
26:00The house now belongs to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
26:07This is believed to be one of only two domed octagonal residences in the world.
26:13The Armour Steiner House in Irvington.
26:16In 1859, a New York financier named Paul J. Armour built this eight-sided country residence.
26:26It was believed that an eight-sided house would have twice as much sunlight in its rooms as a four-sided one.
26:35Later, a prominent tea importer named Joseph Steiner bought the house and turned it into a four-sided residence.
26:42Later, a prominent tea importer named Joseph Steiner bought the house and added its most distinctive forms, a colorful domed roof and cupola.
26:53After Steiner, residence included a Finnish writer and a poet.
27:02In 1976, the house had fallen into disrepair, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation stepped in to rescue it from demolition.
27:13Now restored, it's part of the Hudson Valley's unique architectural heritage and is as visually stunning from the ground as it is from the air.
27:27But architects aren't the only ones who have made their mark on the landscape.
27:37This is said to be one of the largest works of art in North America.
27:43And there's no better way to enjoy it than from above.
27:50It used to be an abandoned bluestone quarry, until a local sculptor named Harvey Fite bought the site in 1938.
28:00Inspired by ancient Mayan art, he set to work on a sculpture he called Opus 40, since he expected it to take 40 years to complete.
28:10It's a work of passion and patience.
28:15Employing the techniques of ancient Egyptian builders, Fite hoisted and pieced together giant individual slabs of the quarry's bluestone to create a sculpture of multi-level curved terraces and ramps.
28:31He also built a house to live in right next to the quarry.
28:35Sadly, Fite died here in 1976 from an accidental rock fall, just three years short of his goal.
28:44But even incomplete, Opus 40 remains one of New York State's artistic treasures.
28:56Fifty miles to the southeast, another piece of the Hudson River Valley has been transformed into art space.
29:05These rolling hills used to be farmland until half a million concertgoers descended on them in August 1969 for what's been called the greatest musical event of all time, Woodstock.
29:22Performances by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Grateful Dead drew so many concertgoers that New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller used the National Guard to airlift in supplies.
29:37Thirty-five years after the historic event, the site of the concert was turned into the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.
29:44Today, its amphitheater holds 15,000 people, just three percent of the attendance at Woodstock.
29:53Original Woodstock musicians including Crosby, Stills, and Nash have returned to play here.
30:07In New York State, freedom has always been hard fought and won.
30:13Some of the most important battles in the American Revolutionary War took place on New York soil.
30:20An obelisk in the town of Victory celebrates two of the biggest.
30:28It was here in the fall of 1777 where British forces surrendered in the Battles of Saratoga.
30:37Afterwards, France finally recognized the independence of America and entered the war as its ally.
30:49Three of the obelisk's four sides hold statues that honor the generals that led the American advance, Horatio Gates, Daniel Morgan, and Philip Schuyler.
31:00Schuyler lived nearby in this farmhouse.
31:03During the war, British troops occupied the site and burned his original house to the ground.
31:10But after the war, Schuyler later salvaged what he could and rebuilt his farmhouse in just 29 days.
31:20Saratoga lies on the Hudson River, but Henry Hudson never made it this far north.
31:26His last stop was a place on the river now known as Albany, the New York State capital.
31:34Dutch fur traders first established a settlement here in 1614.
31:39Today, Albany is the second oldest chartered city in the United States.
31:45At the city center lies the Empire State Plaza, home to the more than 10,000 employees that run the state,
31:52as well as the state library and museum.
31:56Governor Nelson Rockefeller is said to have first sketched the original plan for the plaza on the back of a postcard.
32:05Its $2 billion price tag, marble façade, and stark design have drawn criticism ever since it was finished in 1979.
32:17Upstate New York has long been the home of the New York Times.
32:20Upstate New York has long been a popular haunt for weekenders,
32:25but its forests are also home to those seeking more permanent solitude.
32:30Unless you're looking from the air, it would be hard to know that they're even here.
32:38This is a place called New Skeet.
32:44Three separate but united communities live in this picturesque setting.
32:50New Skeet was originally started in 1966 when a small group of monks broke away from the Franciscan Brotherhood and formed their own monastery.
33:02Three years later, eight nuns followed, establishing their own practice nearby.
33:10Later, a few married couples arrived and formed a third religious community in the area.
33:16New Skeet broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1979 and is now part of the Orthodox Church.
33:25Each day revolves around intense monastic practice.
33:30With its abundant forests and streams, finding sites for peaceful contemplation in New York State has never been hard.
33:37If Henry Hudson hadn't turned back at Albany in 1609 and had followed the Hudson River to its source, he would have ended up here.
33:48This is the largest area of protected wilderness in the continental United States.
33:53The Adirondack Park covers 6.1 million acres, one-fifth of New York State.
34:00It's nearly eight times the size of California's Yosemite.
34:03Unlike most mountain ranges, the Adirondacks are not strung out in a chain.
34:08Instead, they're formed as a giant dome, 160 miles wide.
34:15This region was once flat, but five million years ago, giant forces from below pushed up rock and soil, creating the Adirondacks' peaks and valleys.
34:26They are almost as tall as the Great Wall of China.
34:29The Adirondack Park's lakes and streams are some of the country's hidden treasures, but one is well-known around the world.
34:39Lake Placid was the site of one of the greatest events in American sports history.
34:44It was here, during the Winter Olympics in 1980, when the U.S. hockey team made up one of the greatest teams in history.
34:51Deep in these mountains, the headwaters of the Hudson River were discovered in 1872.
34:57But by then, it was another waterway to the west that was about to break the ice.
35:03It was the Hudson River.
35:06The Hudson River is one of the largest rivers in the world.
35:10Deep in these mountains, the headwaters of the Hudson River were discovered in 1872.
35:16But by then, it was another waterway to the west that was about to power the cities and towns of New York State.
35:25Ancient trails once crossed the Mohawk River Valley in upstate New York.
35:31This was the land of the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of Native American nations that inhabited the valley's rich forests and hills.
35:41Stretching from the Hudson River, the Iroquois Confederacy settled here.
35:46This was the land of the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of Native American nations that inhabited the valley's rich forests and hills.
35:52Stretching from the Hudson River all the way to Canada, its rivers and ancient footpaths became a major route for the fur trade.
36:01By the early 1600s, the popularity of hats made from beaver fur were driving the beaver to near extinction in Europe.
36:10Fur traders set off for the New World, which still had large numbers of beaver, especially here in upstate New York and further north in Canada.
36:22Access to the Mohawk's rivers and trails were paramount, and conflicts over trade routes flared among the tribes and between the British and French.
36:32In 1758, a British general named John Stanwix established a fort on this site in what is today Rome, New York.
36:42Fort Stanwix was built to control an important six-mile land route connecting the Mohawk River and nearby Woods Creek.
36:51The Oneida hoped the fort would bring peace between their tribe and the pioneers.
36:57But the British abandoned Fort Stanwix just three years after completion.
37:02And in 1777, an American Revolutionary Force successfully defended the fort against attack by British and Iroquois troops.
37:17Half a century later, Rome became the site of the biggest construction project in the state's history.
37:27A man-made waterway that would replace the Mohawk Valley's ancient trading routes and turn former trading posts into boom towns.
37:41The 363-mile-long Erie Canal follows New York's Mohawk Valley and links the Hudson River with a string of towns to the west, all the way to the Port of Buffalo on Lake Erie.
37:57Today, locks in the canal still help ships move upriver, just as they did almost two centuries ago.
38:07When it was finished in 1825, after seven years of digging, cargo could travel on a single ship from New York City to America's Great Lakes, right through the state for the first time.
38:20The going is just as slow today as it was then.
38:24But the canal's route through the Mohawk Valley is as scenic as it gets, as it approaches Rochester.
38:36Today, the Rochester metropolitan area has the second-largest economy in the state, and part of the canal still runs right through downtown.
38:46The arrival of this waterway in 1820 caused the city's population to double in just ten years.
38:54With mills churning out more flour than any other place in America, Rochester became America's first boom town, and was nicknamed the Young Lion of the West.
39:06Ever since, the city has been known for its broad avenues, elegant homes, and famous citizens.
39:12Abolitionist and women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony lived in this humble red house on 17 Madison Street, where she was once arrested for trying to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
39:28Anthony died here in 1906, just 14 years before the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote.
39:35Across town, these well-tented gardens once belonged to a man whose name and company are synonymous with Rochester.
39:44In 1884, long before he made the fortune he needed to build this mansion, a scrappy inventor named George Eastman patented the first mechanism that held rolls of paper film.
39:55He and his mother came up with a new name for the company, Eastman Kodak.
40:01At the time, photography required big cameras, heavy glass plates, and messy chemicals.
40:08Kodak film rolls and cameras brought picture-taking to the masses, and helped turn Rochester into the imaging capital of the world.
40:16Bausch & Lohm and Xerox, two other imaging giants, were also founded in and around the city.
40:23Today, the digital age has reduced Kodak's fortunes, but the company's headquarters are still right in downtown.
40:33The Erie Canal is the largest canal in the world.
40:36The Erie Canal isn't the only waterway flowing into Rochester, New York. Water from the Genesee River once powered the city's mills.
40:45It's the longest river that flows north in the Western Hemisphere, on its way to Lake Ontario.
40:51Before it arrives in Rochester, the Genesee flows through Letchworth State Park.
40:55It's been called the Grand Canyon of the East.
40:59In 1852, the Erie Railroad Company built a bridge across the river, just above Upper Falls.
41:06The old portage bridge was called the highest wooden bridge in the world.
41:11The bridge was built in 1862, and was the largest bridge in the world.
41:16The bridge was built in 1862, and was the largest bridge in the world.
41:21The old portage bridge was called the highest wooden bridge in the world, before it was destroyed by fire in 1875.
41:30The bridge that replaced it is made of steel, and is still used by trains today.
41:38Gorges and waterfalls line the river, but they're no comparison to New York State's most famous natural wonder.
41:50Niagara Falls.
41:56The falls straddle the border of the U.S. and Canada, in the northwest corner of New York State.
42:07There are two main falls.
42:10Horseshoe Falls, which is primarily on the Canadian side of the border.
42:15And the American Falls, in New York.
42:20When glacial waters carved up this land, and created the falls, they were seven miles downstream.
42:28But over time, the raging water has eroded the rock below.
42:34And the falls have been inching their way upriver ever since.
42:39Many a daredevil has been tempted to test their power.
42:44The first to survive the falls was a woman named Annie Taylor, in 1901.
42:51On her 63rd birthday, she climbed inside a wooden barrel, and, flinging to her heart-shaped pillow, disappeared into the water.
43:00On her 63rd birthday, she climbed inside a wooden barrel, and, flinging to her heart-shaped pillow, disappeared over the American Falls.
43:12Taylor managed to survive the more than 70-foot drop with just a few bruises.
43:19Others haven't been as lucky.
43:21Water from the falls generates 280 tons of force on the rocks below, enough to power two giant hydroelectric plants that siphon water off the river.
43:35They're the biggest generators of electricity in New York State, churning out millions of kilowatts of power that's shared between the U.S. and Canada.
43:44Harnessing power from the Niagara River is nothing new.
43:49In 1759, a Frenchman named Daniel Junker constructed a small canal above the falls to run his sawmill.
43:59More than a century later, new mill owners expanded the canals, and in 1881, Niagara Falls became the site of the Canadian Civil War.
44:09J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts invested, and electric power soon lit up mills and towns all around the river.
44:19Nearby Buffalo, New York, became the first city in America to have electric streetlights, earning its nickname, the City of Light.
44:28Today, Buffalo is still the largest city in the United States.
44:32New York from the air, a land of ancient trails and rivers, where industry flourishes and ball joints meet.
44:42The city of New York is the birthplace of New York City.
44:47The city of New York is the birthplace of New York City.
44:52New York from the air, a land of ancient trails and rivers, where industry flourishes and bald eagles thrive.
45:04From the battlefields of revolutionary soldiers, across the spires of the country's tallest towers, and waters that have fueled one of America's most famous fortunes.
45:15To see New York from the air is a chance to discover its people, bridges, waterways, and the skyscrapers and natural wonders that make New York the Empire State.
45:46New York from the air
45:51New York from the air