Aerial.America.S04E01.Amazing.Destinations
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00:00From coast to coast, America is a land of amazing destinations.
00:10From Native American sites that have endured for centuries, to geological ones that date
00:16to the age of dinosaurs.
00:20Parts of the country have seen engineering feats few thought possible, and space flights
00:25that didn't even seem probable.
00:28The land has inspired writers and painters, inventors and poets, moved by beauty, necessity,
00:37or sometimes just their own ego.
00:41These are places both near and far, with stories that just might surprise you.
00:58On a dirt road in the middle of the country, something remarkable emerges out of nowhere.
01:28Chalk formations stretching 70 feet high.
01:37These are the Monument Rocks in the remote plains of western Kansas.
01:42Around 80 million years ago, in the last age of the dinosaurs, this was the bottom of a
01:47great inland sea, home to fish, sharks, and a ferocious marine reptile called the Mosasaur.
01:58As the animals died, their skeletons sank to the seafloor, decomposing into this soft
02:04limestone or chalk.
02:08When the sea retreated, the towers formed.
02:16They're hard to find today.
02:18They sit on an unmarked road about 30 miles from the closest town.
02:22But the towers were an important part of history.
02:26This nearby outcropping, called Castle Rock, was a landmark for stagecoach drivers and
02:31pioneers heading west.
02:34But the formations won't be around forever.
02:37With each passing year, a little more of the towers disappear in the winds and rain of
02:43the Kansas plains.
02:46Another far more recognized canyon became an American wonder thanks to the foresight
02:51of Teddy Roosevelt and a man named John Muir.
03:02In the early 1900s, few people had explored the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.
03:08Marine service didn't start here until 1901.
03:19But in the spring of 1903, Roosevelt halted a political trip to visit it along with Yosemite
03:25and Yellowstone.
03:26Muir, a naturalist who founded the Sierra Club, served as Roosevelt's guide for part
03:34of that trip.
03:47Their passionate talks about the American wilderness ultimately helped shape one of
03:51Roosevelt's greatest legacies, conservation.
04:07The president knew it would take years for Congress to approve the Grand Canyon as a
04:12national park.
04:14So in 1908, he cut through the red tape by designating it a national monument, something
04:21that didn't need congressional approval.
04:24That power came from the recently passed Antiquities Act, which was intended to preserve prehistoric
04:30Native American ruins and artifacts.
04:40The move protected 800,000 acres of the canyon, but still allowed private development and
04:46hunting in some parts.
04:49In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that turned the Grand Canyon into
04:55a national park.
04:59It finally was a place that, as Roosevelt said, could be a site of grandeur for your
05:04children, your children's children, and all who come after you.
05:14It was also key in protecting another Arizona treasure, Montezuma Castle.
05:20Located in the center of the state, the 12th century building is one of the best preserved
05:24prehistoric cliff dwellings in North America.
05:28White settlers, who erroneously thought the Aztecs built this and all other southwestern
05:33ruins, named it after one of their prominent rulers.
05:38Turns out, it was actually an ancient people called the Sinagua.
05:43But the name stuck.
05:46Archaeologists think the inhabitants reached the building with a series of ladders that
05:50they then pulled up to prevent enemy tribes from entering.
05:54The same cave that protected them has preserved this architectural site for more than nine
06:00centuries.
06:02Further west in Phoenix is an event that's managed to weather two world wars, the Great
06:07Depression, and some natural disasters.
06:13The Arizona State Fair is among the oldest in the country, dating back to 1884, 28 years
06:21before Arizona even became a state.
06:28The very first fair was short-lived.
06:31A flood destroyed its site in 1891.
06:37Fourteen years later, a determined citizen's group revived it by purchasing this site.
06:43Today, more than a million people come out each fall for the dizzying rides and unusual
06:49foods, which include fried alligator tail and donut burgers.
07:00In central Colorado, a one-of-a-kind theme park is centered around a major engineering
07:06feat, the Royal Gorge Bridge.
07:12In the 1920s, a Texan named Lon Piper was mesmerized by the natural beauty of this Arizona
07:18River Canyon.
07:27Piper dreamt of building a bridge here to give visitors an unmatched view, and people
07:32in nearby Canyon City backed him, hoping it would generate some income.
07:38Despite the inherent challenges, workers completed it in six months.
07:44When the bridge opened in 1929, it was the highest suspension bridge in the world, a
07:51title it held for 72 years.
07:56China finally built a taller one in 2001.
07:59Today, it's home to a host of rides, most of which involve swinging 956 feet over the
08:07Arkansas River.
08:21About the same time the bridge opened, a nearby attraction was gaining steam.
08:27This is the Cog Railway on Pikes Peak, just outside Colorado Springs.
08:33It was the brainchild of a man famous for his mattresses.
08:38Zalman Simmons, an inventor and founder of the Beautyrest Mattress Company, needed to
08:42get to the top of Pikes Peak to check on one of his latest creations, insulators for telegraph
08:48wires.
08:51After an exhausting two-day mule ride, he decided there had to be a better way.
08:56Soon, the world's highest cog railway was running.
09:02The train climbs 8.9 miles through Colorado Blue Spruce and above the Timberline, where
09:08wild elk roam free.
09:15About the same time the train was getting up and running, a college professor named
09:18Catherine Lee Bates visited the summit by carriage and mule.
09:23Her visit inspired her to write the poem, America the Beautiful, which later became
09:28the lyrics to the popular anthem.
09:50A much different anthem took America by storm, thanks to red rocks just outside Denver.
09:57On a cold, misty night in 1983, this is where a young band named U2 gave their breakout
10:04performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday.
10:08Over the years, the natural and perfect acoustics here have attracted rock stars and opera stars
10:13alike.
10:15Their sounds reverberate off two 300-foot monoliths, both taller than Niagara Falls.
10:21Gradual earth movements raised these giants from the prehistoric ocean floor millions
10:26of years ago.
10:28Powerful geological forces also left a remarkable fossil record here.
10:33The 868-acre park features dinosaur tracks along with fossils from marine reptiles that
10:38swam here when it was covered by an ancient sea.
10:44Much of Colorado used to be underwater, including this surreal sight in southern Colorado.
10:52This is Great Sand Dunes National Park.
10:55At the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
11:00Scientists believe the 750-foot dunes started forming about 440,000 years ago when the ancient
11:06Lake Alamosa began to disappear.
11:10Winds from the surrounding mountains blew the sand and sediment left behind, forming
11:14the dunes.
11:17The earliest visitors were nomadic people hunting mammoth and bison.
11:23Ancient spear points have been found here.
11:28Over the centuries, the dunes have served as a landmark for early explorers, a mining
11:33spot for men seeking gold, and now as a playground for people of all ages.
11:40But Colorado's biggest and arguably best destination is the Rocky Mountains.
11:47Nestled at its northern end is Rocky Mountain National Park, which exists largely because
11:52of a teenage boy.
11:55In 1884, a sickly 14-year-old named Enos Mills left Kansas for Colorado, hoping the climate
12:02would improve his health.
12:07His mother, who had lived here, often told him incredible stories about the mountains.
12:13He climbed Long's Peak at 15 and fell in love.
12:19In the years that followed, he pushed for a national park, finally succeeding in 1915.
12:26In all, that once sick boy climbed Long's Peak more than 300 times, both alone and as
12:33a guide, and became one of the world's best-known naturalists.
12:43From the Colorado Rockies comes a powerful river that could only be tamed by an equally
12:48mighty dam.
12:53In a remarkable feat of ingenuity and engineering, the U.S. government built the Hoover Dam to
12:59tame the Colorado River, which devastated land by flooding in the spring, then drying
13:04up in the winter.
13:07Congress also hoped they could harness some of the river's power for electricity, irrigation,
13:12and drinking water.
13:15Fifty-two hundred men worked around the clock, completing the dam two years ahead of schedule,
13:21and $15 million under budget.
13:28Head architect Gordon Kaufman set about creating something that would complement the engineer's
13:33design.
13:39His team put aside ornamental plans drafted by previous architects, instead creating a
13:44modern Art Deco style.
13:52The four large intake towers sit in Lake Mead, the massive reservoir that provides water
13:57to much of the southwest.
14:07The towers drive the water into massive turbines, which generate hydroelectric power, a clean,
14:13renewable source of energy that provides power to 29 million Americans in California,
14:18Nevada, and Arizona.
14:34Water is also a driving force in the northern reaches of the Midwest, along the Michigan
14:40coast.
14:52The state is surrounded by four great lakes, Erie to the southeast, Huron in the northeast,
14:59Superior to the north, and Michigan to the west.
15:06That coastline is home to more lighthouses than any other state, with a history that
15:12dates back to 1825.
15:18Few are still in service, replaced by more modern navigational systems.
15:24Today, many are museums, homes, and B&Bs, giving people a taste of history, and sometimes
15:33even a creative way to make a future.
15:39Some of the ships guided by those lighthouses ended up here, at an amazing site called the
15:44Sioux Locks, the only passage between the lower Great Lakes and Lake Superior.
15:53Built in the 1800s, the locks sit at the northernmost point of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, in the
15:58tiny town of Sioux St. Marie, often called the Sioux.
16:06They straddle the U.S.-Canadian border, where rapids once made ship passage impossible.
16:18American ships rise, as if on an elevator, 21 feet from Lake Huron to Lake Superior.
16:35When they complete the passage, the ships are in another Sioux St. Marie, in Ontario,
16:42Canada.
16:43The town was split as a result of the War of 1812.
16:58Another of Michigan's engineering marvels is also on the Upper Peninsula, the Mackinac
17:04Bridge.
17:05It opened in 1957, after years of debate over how to connect Michigan's two peninsulas.
17:14One far-fetched idea involved a floating tunnel.
17:19Its chief engineer, David Steinman, faced three main obstacles, high winds, deep water,
17:25and the pressure of ice accumulation.
17:28He came up with innovative solutions for each, setting standards still used in bridge building
17:33worldwide.
17:36Michigan's Lower Peninsula is home to a site that's captivated people for centuries, Sleeping
17:42Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a 35-mile stretch of sand and two neighboring islands.
17:51This area got its unique name from a Native American legend.
17:55The story goes that a forest fire drove a mother bear and her two cubs from the Wisconsin
18:00shoreline into Lake Michigan.
18:03When the mother made it across, she climbed a cliff to search for her cubs, but they drowned
18:09just offshore.
18:16The great Indian spirit, Manitou, was so moved, he let her fall asleep here, creating a solitary
18:23dune in her honor.
18:36Today families flock to the dunes year-round to hike, swim, and play, with some even attempting
18:42the Dune Climb, a 450-foot trek from bottom to top.
18:54In northwestern New Mexico is an amazing archaeological site where an ancient people once thrived.
19:02These ruins were part of a network of villages built by the ancestral Pueblo people called
19:07the Anasazis.
19:10After centuries of living in vulnerable pit houses, they started experimenting with stone
19:15and mud mortar in the 9th century, eventually building these great houses.
19:24The largest held multiple families, with hundreds of interlinked rooms.
19:32A network of roads and settlements connected the people until the 12th century, when drought
19:38likely drove them away.
19:46Some migrated to the nearby Frijole Canyon, home to the Bandelier National Monument.
19:57Ancestral Pueblo people arrived here in the 11th century and stayed for approximately
20:01400 years, constructing their homes with soft volcanic rock.
20:09In the 1500s, faced with overpopulation and a changing environment, the people moved again,
20:21toward Taros, New Mexico, where many descendants still live today.
20:26That area is also home to the much revered San Francisco de Assis Mission Church.
20:33Its sculptural lines have been celebrated for centuries, but the actual architect isn't
20:38known.
20:42Spanish colonists who settled here started building the church in 1772, a process that
20:48took more than four decades.
20:53The adobe building was a favorite subject of photographers Paul Strand and Ansel Adams,
20:59along with painter Georgia O'Keeffe, who returned to it again and again.
21:0960 miles southwest of the church is another site that inspired O'Keeffe, and many others,
21:17Ghost Ranch, home to Kitchen Mesa.
21:24The hill and surrounding 21,000 acres have been preserved thanks to an environmentalist
21:29named Arthur Pack.
21:33He bought this ranch in 1936 and let O'Keeffe rent a summer cottage here.
21:39In 1955, much to O'Keeffe's dismay, Pack donated the entire thing to the Presbyterian Church.
21:47Its leaders continued Pack's mission to preserve the land, which is also home to dinosaur fossils,
21:53Navajo relics, and the flat-topped mountain Pedernal, another beloved subject of O'Keeffe's.
22:04A famous southern figure also found inspiration in his surroundings, in Oxford, Mississippi.
22:14Novelist William Faulkner grew up in this small town, and, in his writing, immortalized
22:20both the area and its social issues.
22:23The Lafayette County Courthouse appears in his book Requiem for a Nun, famous for the
22:28line, The past is never dead, it's not even past.
22:36Faulkner bought this home just outside Oxford in 1930.
22:41The year after, The Sound and the Fury was published.
22:46He named it Rowan Oak, after a Scottish legend about the protective power of rowan trees.
22:53Faulkner remained largely unknown until 1949, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature,
23:01followed five years later by the Pulitzer.
23:06The South is also home to some of America's most legendary land, the swamps of Louisiana.
23:15Stretching from the Big Easy all the way to Texas, this rich ecosystem was vital to the
23:20early Cajuns, who survived by hunting, fishing, and trapping, though they also saw the bayous
23:27as a source of danger and evil spirits.
23:34Today the swamps are home to flocks of white egrets, thousands of American alligators,
23:51and forests of bald cypress, which fend off rot with the oil in their trunks.
24:10A few hours west of New Orleans, nature also takes center stage at Bird City, a nesting
24:18spot for 20,000 birds, including snowy and great egrets, blue herons, wood ducks, and
24:25geese.
24:28The preserve came about in a rather unusual way.
24:33In 1895, Edward Ned McElhaney, the son of Tabasco founder Edmund McElhaney, was concerned
24:40that the high demand for feathered women's hats was driving Louisiana's snowy egret
24:45to extinction.
24:50Ned waded into the swamp, caught eight young egrets, and raised them himself in a rookery
24:55next to his house.
24:59It was Louisiana's first wildlife preserve.
25:111,100 miles northeast of Louisiana is the nation's first capital, Philadelphia.
25:19On July 4, 1776, the Founding Fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence here at Independence
25:26Hall.
25:28Four days later, the famous Liberty Bell rang out from this steeple, calling citizens to
25:37hear the Declaration of Independence.
25:42It was the first time in the history of the United States that the Declaration of Independence
25:49was heard.
25:50Four days later, the famous Liberty Bell rang out from this steeple, calling citizens to
25:55hear the Declaration read.
25:59Today, a replica called the Centennial Bell hangs here, while the Liberty Bell is on display
26:08across the green.
26:14Nine of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence lived in Pennsylvania, including
26:20a key figure in American history, Benjamin Franklin.
26:25Today, his home and print shop are marked by these simple frame girders.
26:33The original home was torn down in the 19th century, but archaeologists have uncovered
26:37wall foundations, wells, and more.
26:43Franklin spent his last years here, until his death at the age of 84.
26:4820,000 mourners came to his funeral in the city he loved.
26:56The southern state of Alabama is home to a surprising sight.
27:01This is the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, birthplace of the Saturn V, the
27:07type of rocket that put the first man on the moon.
27:17But America might not have developed that technology without World War II.
27:21Dr. Wernher von Braun designed rockets for the Nazis, until he surrendered to the Americans,
27:28who used his expertise to develop ballistic missiles in Huntsville.
27:34When the Cold War with Russia began, the space race started, with each country trying
27:38to prove its superiority.
27:42NASA was born in 1958, establishing the Marshall Space Center here two years later.
27:50Soon von Braun and his team began developing Saturn rockets, ultimately testing 32 designs.
27:59Each one worked.
28:01Finally, in 1969, powered by a Saturn V, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins
28:09lifted off.
28:14Today, a crater is named after von Braun, one you can see very clearly.
28:22From a mountaintop more than 4,000 miles away, on the Big Island of Hawaii.
28:32This is the W.M. Keck Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano so remote
28:39it's one of the best places on Earth to study outer space.
28:46Eleven nations have telescopes here, where they've made key discoveries about the formation
28:51of stars and the origin of black holes.
28:56The volcano sits near the center of the Big Island, and on its southern end is the most
29:01active volcano in the world, Kilauea, part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
29:14It's been emitting steam and lava since 1983, in what are called quiet eruptions, meaning
29:20gases escape slowly, instead of in one violent burst.
29:32The natural forces at work here help scientists study how land masses may have been formed
29:37millions of years ago, and are still being formed today, as cooling lava expands Hawaii's
29:45coastline, bit by bit.
29:52Hawaii itself was born around 40 million years ago, from sea volcanoes and the shifting Earth,
29:59which helped mold this spectacular scenery on the Maui coast.
30:06The eight islands were annexed by the United States after decades of fighting between Native
30:10Hawaiians and American businessmen over who should govern them.
30:16The last monarch of the islands was overthrown in 1893, but many in Congress opposed annexation
30:23until the Spanish-American War in 1898, when the strategic importance of Pearl Harbor became
30:30clear.
30:31Two years later, Hawaii became a U.S. territory, and in 1959, it became a state.
30:39Over the years, its unique location, thousands of miles from any continent, has helped protect
30:46the diverse and stunning landscape.
30:50Another pristine set of islands was created by a far different geological force.
30:56Thousands of years ago, melting glaciers helped carve out the San Juan Islands, located north
31:02of Washington's Puget Sound.
31:07They sit in the state's far northwest corner, where four are reachable by ferry and the
31:12rest only by private boat.
31:22Thanks to their remoteness, many parts of the islands exist largely as they have for
31:26centuries, as a playground for sea lions, bald eagles, and other wildlife.
31:38100 miles south of the islands is a much-praised site, Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park.
31:51For decades, this was a drab petroleum facility. Then, in 1999, the Seattle Art Museum bought
31:58the land, the last stretch of undeveloped property on the waterfront.
32:07Over the next eight years, the museum and the trust for public land transformed it into
32:12an oasis of art and green space.
32:22At its center, a 2,200-foot path through the four main ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest.
32:29An evergreen forest, a grass-filled meadow, an aspen grove, and a saltwater shore.
32:39Interspersed in the park are several sculptures, including Alexander Calder's The Eagle, which
32:45he created in 1971 at the apex of his career.
32:51The inspiration for the park came from the mountains that sit across the Puget Sound.
32:56This is the Olympic Range in Olympic National Park.
33:09The British mariner who named the mountain range was so awed by them, he thought Greek
33:14gods could live here.
33:20Covering an area bigger than Rhode Island, the park is actually made up of rainforests,
33:25beaches, glaciers, and the Olympic Mountain Range.
33:33The highest peak, Mount Olympus, is covered with glaciers, including the spectacular Blue
33:39Glacier.
33:47The park also protects some of the most pristine temperate rainforests in the U.S. and 73
34:00miles of uninterrupted coastline.
34:08Across the country, a far different coastline with a remarkable natural resource, South
34:14Florida's Everglades National Park.
34:21The massive and complex ecosystem is actually a slow-moving, 40-mile-wide river, home to
34:28many endangered plants and animals. It's also the only place in the world where alligators
34:35and crocodiles coexist.
34:44The next spot is as far south as you can get in the U.S. by car, thanks to the engineering
34:50marvel of the Overseas Highway.
34:54From Miami, it takes you across the stretch of islands that make up the Florida Keys,
34:59and ends 128 miles later on in Key West.
35:06This town is famous for its bars and laid-back attitude, but there's a lot more to it than
35:12that.
35:14The 2,900 square nautical miles surrounding the Keys are a National Marine Sanctuary,
35:20home to thousands of species of wildlife, dozens of shipwrecks, and one of the world's
35:25largest reefs.
35:28Key West was also home to Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s. The Nobel Prize-winning author
35:35lived with his family in this Spanish colonial, where he wrote the novel For Whom the Bell
35:40Tolls, among others.
35:44You can still find descendants of his six-toed cat, Snowball, on the property.
35:54The same year Hemingway published his first novel, America was taking on this, the first
36:00modern national highway, known as Route 66.
36:06In the 1920s, the United States was changing rapidly, in large part because of the increasingly
36:12affordable automobile. But roads in the country were a mess.
36:19In 1921, the government set about creating a highway, with wider lanes and fewer curves,
36:26that could connect urban and rural areas.
36:31Fully commissioned in 1926, Route 66 relied largely on existing roads, and wasn't even
36:37fully paved until 1938.
36:43But its route from Chicago through St. Louis and to Los Angeles soon started changing lives,
36:50allowing farmers to more easily transport goods, jump-starting the trucking industry,
36:56creating mom-and-pop businesses along the way.
37:04Route 66 ended here, in the state of California, home of Big Sur and the Pacific Coast Highway.
37:27This dramatic 90-mile section, where the Santa Lucia Mountains meet the sea, is filled with
37:34sheer cliffs and waterfalls. And Highway 1 is the only way through it.
37:44This road was the dream of a doctor and entrepreneur named John Roberts, who traversed this rocky
37:50terrain on horseback to reach patients. In 1894, after a trip to reach shipwreck victims
37:57took him four grueling hours, Roberts finally photographed this stretch between San Simeon
38:03and Carmel, becoming the land's first surveyor.
38:07It took years to secure funding, but in 1919, construction began.
38:15One stretch heads over another modern marvel, Bixby Creek Bridge, one of the highest single-arch
38:26bridges in the world.
38:37As the highway twists north, it takes you to what golf enthusiasts would certainly call
38:42an amazing destination, Pebble Beach.
38:55In the early 1900s, a man named Samuel F. B. Morse, named after his great-uncle, inventor
39:01of the Morse Code, was told by his developer bosses to make the California peninsula profitable.
39:08At the time, they were having a hard time selling lots here, and wanted to unload them
39:13all for $1.3 million. Morse decided to put in a golf course, and got two amateurs to
39:21design it with him for free.
39:29When it was done, Morse bought the land himself, then owned and operated it for the rest of
39:34his life. His family eventually sold it for $72 million.
39:55Up the coast in San Francisco is green space of a different kind, Golden Gate Park.
40:05But 150 years ago, this land wasn't even green. It was all sand and rolling dunes, with barely
40:12any trees. The park's planners changed that when they planted a strain of grass that anchored
40:19the sandy soil.
40:27In the western end of the park is one of the park's newest additions, the new green home
40:33of the California Academy of the Sciences. The massive $500 million facility includes
40:40a natural history museum, a planetarium, an aquarium, and a rainforest.
40:49For a true sense of America's amazing wilderness, few states can compete with Oregon.
40:57In the foothills of the Ochoco Mountains, up the Crooked River, is the rock-climbing
41:02mecca of Smith Rock State Park.
41:10Millions of years ago, a massive volcanic eruption spewed hot ash, lava, and chunks
41:15of rock here, which cooled and weathered into these great stone pinnacles.
41:25The soft rock, or welded tuff, is part of the draw for rock-climbers, who started flocking
41:31here in the 1960s.
41:52But no one knows exactly who discovered the park. It might have been a former sheriff
41:57named John Smith, traveling here in 1867. Or, it could have been Private Volk Smith,
42:03a U.S. Cavalry member, who fell to his death here fighting Native Americans in 1863.
42:13Climbers do agree this is one of the premier places in the world for their sport, particularly
42:19this outcropping called Monkey Face, which is among the hardest ascents in the world.
42:27Oregon is also home to the Columbia River Highway, the first planned scenic highway
42:32in the country. It was the dream of an industrialist named Sam Hill, who believed a good road would
42:39help the area prosper. Hill's own farm failed, but the highway didn't.
42:46Completed in 1922, it was hailed as an engineering masterpiece for its integration into the surrounding
42:52landscape. Hill went on to help build the Pacific Coast Highway. Today, kite surfers
42:59and tourists can enjoy all the river has to offer, thanks to one man's dogged determination.
43:08A lumber baron named Simon Benson was also a proponent of the road, and one-time owner
43:15of this, Multnomah Falls, which sits just off the highway. A Native American legend
43:22says the waterfall was created to win the love of a young princess who wanted a hidden
43:26place to bathe. Benson, a passionate philanthropist, believed the site was so spectacular it ought
43:33to be enjoyed by everyone. So in the early 1900s, he bought the waterfall, along with
43:40400 additional acres, then donated the whole lot to the city of Portland. The pedestrian
43:45bridge at the bottom of the falls was built by and named for Benson. Today, the waterfall
43:51is among Oregon's most visited sites.
43:55This part of Oregon was breathtaking to two of its earliest visitors, Lewis and Clark.
44:01They traversed the state with a small party of men and a woman named Sacagawea, emerging
44:07at the Pacific in 1805. They'd started their exploration of the uncharted west from St.
44:14Louis a year and a half earlier. Today, the camp they set up in these evergreens, which
44:22they named Fort Clatsop, is part of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.
44:29From here, the intrepid explorers continued to travel the Oregon coast, at one point climbing
44:36the 1,000-foot peak of Tillamook Head on an expedition to find whale blubber.
44:45It was a long, difficult climb, but from the top, Clark said,
44:53I behold the grandest and most pleasing prospect which my eyes ever surveyed.
45:00That same sense of wonder has helped define America, motivating some men to conquer the
45:16country's highest peaks and others to travel beyond the Earth's atmosphere, all the way
45:24to the moon. It's driven engineers to build bridges in
45:31what seemed like impossible places and helped artists create some of the country's most
45:38celebrated works. Remarkable people and places in a country
45:45that continues to inspire.