All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S09E10.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day, they uncover
new mysterious phenomena

that defy explanation.

The ship-killing monsters of
the Bermuda Triangle.

Every legend
is usually based on

at least a little
nugget of truth.

NARRATOR: The CIA site
that doesn't exist.

MUNOZ: It's pretty clear
classified operations

take place on the property.

NARRATOR: And America's
forgotten apocalypse.

This was a really
big disaster.

But no one seems
to know about it.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

**

NARRATOR: Every day,
NASA's fleet of 26

Earth-observing satellites
circle the globe,

capturing every square mile of
our planet in

incredible detail.

Yet this is just one part of
the space

agency's mission to map
our world from the heavens.

Satellites are great for
showing us pictures of

what's happening on
the surface of our planet.

But they can do so much more.

NARRATOR:
By using computer modeling to

combine data from satellites

and ocean-based instruments,

scientists capture something
truly incredible.

RUBEN: What we're seeing is
the movement of ocean currents

but on an epic global scale.

NARRATOR:
The data has revealed what is

invisible to us on Earth --

tens of thousands of currents
traveling across

some 41 million square miles
of ocean.

FANARA:
This is absolutely gorgeous.

It looks like
a Van Gogh painting.

KOUROUNIS:
This is really remarkable.

You would never be able

to perceive this without
satellite technology.

NARRATOR:
A patch of turbulent ocean

intrigues analysts.

KOUROUNIS: The first thing
that really catches

my attention are these
swirling whirlpools.

There are dozens
of them out there.

NARRATOR: What's weird
is that the mysterious

whirlpools are concentrated
around an area

some call the Hoodoo Sea.

Others know it as
the Bermuda Triangle.

This stretch of water
from Miami to the island of

Bermuda down
to Puerto Rico

is said to be the most
treacherous in the world.

NARRATOR:
Reports of strange phenomena

in these waters date back
to 1492,

when Christopher Columbus
describes seeing lights

and flames in the skies.

Since then, the
500,000-square-mile triangle has

claimed hundreds of ships
and thousands of lives.

Mariners have talked of
terrifying maelstroms,

capable of sucking ships down
to the sea floor.

Legends of giant whirlpools
have been around for centuries.

KOUROUNIS: This satellite
imagery really reminds me of

some of those old tales,
and every legend is

usually based on at least
a little nugget of truth.

NARRATOR: Analysts wonder if
the satellite data can shed

light on some of
the strange disappearances

reported in
the Bermuda Triangle.

KOUROUNIS: Looking at the image,
something really stands out

to me in that a lot of
these swirls

are happening around
the edges of the most powerful

current in that part of
the Atlantic,

the Gulf Stream.

First charted by
Benjamin Franklin in 1775,

the Gulf Stream forces vast
amounts of warm water up

the coast of Florida and
onwards towards Newfoundland

and western Europe.

It can transport four billion
cubic feet of water per second,

more than all the world's
rivers combined.

KOUROUNIS:
As that water flows around

the underwater topography,

these mountains, these valleys,
that we never see,

because they're submerged
beneath the waves,

you end up with these rotating
currents that can spin

in one spot on a gigantic scale.

NARRATOR: Recent studies
have discovered that

these colossal gyres
have parallels

with a phenomenon
that's just as mysterious

as the Bermuda Triangle.

Amazingly,
mathematicians have

found similarities between

these giant whirlpools
and black holes in space.

The way they suck in water is
similar to the way

a black hole sucks in light.

Just as light cannot escape
from a black hole,

the water cannot escape
from the gyre.

NARRATOR: Scientists believe
black holes form

when the core of a dying star,

sometimes a million times more
massive than our sun,

collapses in on itself,

creating gravitational forces

so powerful that
they deflect all light

and force it to travel in
endless circles.

The light just sort of orbits
the black hole.

Einstein called this
a photon sphere,

and it effectively creates
a barrier

from anything else trying
to get into that vortex.

Water traveling around in
circles creates a closed loop,

trapping water inside it,

so wherever it travels,
there's no escape from these

giant whirlpools.

NARRATOR:
In the Bermuda Triangle,

another phenomenon could
increase the power of

these vortices.

The hurricanes that sweep
through this region

every year can supercharge
these swirling whirlpools,

creating gyres that can cover
thousands of square miles

and contain billions of
gallons of water.

RUBEN: It's like if you just
release a fire hose

in the middle of a field,
it's going to go everywhere.

You end up with these currents
going around

and around and effectively
trapping the water inside them.

NARRATOR: In 2012,
scientists attempt to study

these epic vortices
by launching

underwater probes in
the Sargasso Sea

on the edge of the triangle.

One of the instruments is
irretrievably lost,

sucked deep into the ocean,

suggesting the true power of
the swirling currents lies

beneath the surface.

The real danger of these
whirlpools are called

deep eddies, and those pose
a serious threat

for underwater vehicles.

Deep eddies are like
underwater tornadoes and can

stretch thousands of feet
into the abyssal depths.

And what makes them even

more terrifying is that
they're invisible.

In 2014, a Chinese submarine
got caught up in one of

these oceanic vortices
and started to suck it down

into the depths.

The captain of this sub
actually described it like

a fast car spinning off
the side of a cliff.

If they hadn't acted swiftly
in closing valves

and releasing gas to increase
the submarine's buoyancy,

that sub would have been
crushed like a can.

NARRATOR: Any connection
between these sub-sea cyclones

and the disappearances reported

in the Bermuda Triangle
remains unclear.

Yet the satellite data
has revealed

extraordinary hidden forces
within our oceans,

forces that as well as
sustaining life

can also destroy it.

It just shows you
the immense power

of these gyres and why it's
so important we track them.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
New Mexico's atomic hell.

This isn't just the site of
a radioactive spill.

It's the biggest
on U.S. soil.

NARRATOR:
And World War Weird.

The absolute audacity
continues to blow my mind.

NARRATOR:
May 15, 2020.

A camera orbiting New Mexico

captures something in
the landscape below.

HEIMLER: What we're seeing
is a pattern of six

perfect circles that don't
have any business being there.

It looks like
a six-shooter cylinder

imprinted onto the Earth.

NARRATOR:
To Martin Morgan,

this resemblance maybe more
than a coincidence.

MORGAN: The first thing that
comes to mind when you think

about strange things in
the New Mexico desert is

military testing.

NARRATOR: Over the years,
the vast empty spaces of

New Mexico have been ground zero
for some of

the U.S. Military's most
dangerous experiments.

These include the detonation
of The Gadget, the world's

first nuclear device.

The test firing of captured
Nazi rockets.

And Project Mogul,
rumored to be

the origin of
the Roswell incident.

So you've got a legacy of
military testing of

the most cutting-edge quality
taking place in New Mexico.

But then there's also
Kirtland Air Force Base.

NARRATOR: The 80-square-mile
Kirtland Air Force Base

is the closest major
military installation

to the site in the image
and is a center

of nuclear weapons research,

including clandestine
biological

and chemical weapons testing.

What's interesting is
when I look into the records,

the people around this area
had been getting sick.

They saw things like cancer.

They saw things like
kidney disease.

CAVELL: It begs the question of
do those illnesses have

something to do with the circles
that we're seeing here.

NARRATOR: When analysts turn to
historic images,

they spot a clue.

PEPPER: I can see
these large piles of

what looks like sand --
checking the geological records,

I see that this area is really
rich in uranium.

It has to be some sort
of mine.

NARRATOR: The records reveal
the shapes in the image

were once part of the Church
Rock uranium mine.

And in 1979, it is the site of
a catastrophic accident,

one that continues
to plague the health

of those living nearby to
this day.

PEPPER: This isn't just
the site of a radioactive spill.

It's the biggest
on U.S. soil.

NARRATOR:
The disaster has its origins

some 3.5 decades earlier.

the nuclear bombs
that devastate the cities

of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
bring World War II to an end

and kickstart the atomic age.

In the middle
of the 20th century,

the demand for uranium
went sky high.

NARRATOR: The U.S. government
needs uranium to make bombs.

But the demand for the element

extended well beyond
the military.

PEPPER: Uranium was considered
a new wonder material.

It was worth
a huge amount of money,

so people came in droves
looking for it

and prospecting for it.

NARRATOR: The government offers
the equivalent of

a $100,000 bonus to anyone
who discovers uranium ore.

And when vast reserves are
found in the deserts of

New Mexico,
dozens of mines

spring up across the state,
searching for

the radioactive treasure.

The potential to become very,
very wealthy very, very quickly

through uranium mining

set off a tidal wave of
industry and mining operations

being set up all over
the region.

ANNOUNCER: At $7 a pound,
the uranium search

rivals the Old West's
gold rush.

NARRATOR: Much of
New Mexico's uranium

lies under Native
American reservations,

including Church Rock.

In 1968, the largest underground
uranium mine in the country

opens here,
employing 200

Navajo workers who produce
more than 200,000 tons of

uranium oxide a year.

When processing uranium ore,
you're left with

something called tailings,

and those were stored
in these large, open ponds.

Because this stuff is so
toxic, it needs to be kept

secure and if it isn't,

it can lead to disaster.

NARRATOR:
On July 16, 1979,

a tailings pond
at the mine collapses,

releasing 1,100 tons of
radioactive debris

and 95 million gallons
of toxic

waste water
into the Puerco River.

HEIMLER: This isn't just
a trickle of

radioactive waste
coming out of the dam.

This is a raging torrent
flowing down into the river.

NARRATOR:
The catastrophe releases

three times more radiation than

the reactor meltdown at Three
Mile Island that same year.

This was a really
big disaster,

but no one seems
to know about it.

And so we're left with one
question, why?

Why is Three Mile Island
so familiar,

and this one remains
completely obscure?

NARRATOR:
Like the mine workers,

the local people affected by

the Church Rock spill are
almost all Navajo.

Despite the scale of
the disaster,

authorities fail to order
an evacuation or declare

a state of emergency.

They carried on with life
as normal.

They kept drinking from wells,

they kept rearing their
livestock, unaware that this had

been contaminated with
radioactive material.

PEPPER: The Navajo people are
dependent on their livestock,

and so when they actually

took them to butcher,
the fat had turned yellow

from all this radioactivity.

NARRATOR: Church Rock's owners
begin a cleanup operation.

Yet only one percent of
the spill is removed by

the time they reopen
the mine just

three months later.

PEPPER:
The cleanup plan was just

literally hands putting
materials into buckets.

NARRATOR: In 2011,
the land around the mine

is declared safe, but cleanup
continues underground.

Yet since the disaster,
one in six

Navajo workers have developed
lung cancer, and large numbers

of local children suffer
from birth defects.

Some believe the disaster's
toxic legacy, like

the circles in the image, is
being erased from history.

This is the largest spill
in U.S. history,

yet it's
relatively unknown,

and I would hate to think that
the fact that it is unknown

is related to the land that it
was on of the Navajo nation.

NARRATOR: Coming up,

inside the CIA's
top-secret spy school.

You're taught how to get
yourself out of any

and every scenario.

NARRATOR: And the mystery
of the white mountain.

HORTON:
Something's going on here

that's nothing to do
with snow.

NARRATOR:
August 2018.

A satellite scanning a highly
classified Department of

Defense facility in Virginia
captures something out of place.

ALBERTSON: When I look
down at this image,

I see some things that
makes sense

and some that don't.

On the one hand, I see
an airfield, that makes sense.

And I also see this strange
squiggly line.

NARRATOR: The weird,
twisting shapes don't

appear to serve
a military purpose.

MUNOZ: Some of them look
like paved roads.

Others look like dirt tracks,
but they don't lead anywhere.

They're almost
in, like, a loop.

NARRATOR: Officially,
there are no units

stationed at the facility,

but reports dating back many
years contradict this claim.

Locals talk about hearing
automatic gunfire

and things like that
on a regular basis

inside the confines of
the space.

[gunshots blasting]

MUNOZ: It's pretty clear
that some classified types

of operations take place
on the property.

NARRATOR: The veil of secrecy
surrounding the site is

shattered when a local news
agency drops a bombshell.

PAVELEC: A newspaper
breaks the story

that this is
a training facility

for CIA operatives
that they have

nicknamed "The Farm."

NARRATOR: Declassified
intelligence documents reveal

the 10,000-acre site

is one of four top-secret
CIA training facilities.

They all trace
their origin back to

perhaps the most catastrophic
intelligence failure

in U.S. history,
Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor is
such an enormous shock

that almost immediately,

you get pretty
extreme measures taken by

the U.S. government.

NARRATOR:
Blindsided by Japan's attack,

President Roosevelt orders
the creation

of the Office of
Strategic Services,

or OSS.

After the war,
the OSS

morphs into the CIA.

It's given a vast budget

and controversial powers to
collect intelligence

and perform covert operations

to defend U.S. security.

Agents on the ground have
to make contacts with

individuals who are willing to
sell out their own government.

They are the ones on
the front lines

recruiting assets,

gathering raw information
to be processed into

actionable intelligence.

NARRATOR:
At the site in the image,

recruits are put
through an elite

training course known as
the Clandestine Service

Trainee Program.

[indistinct shouting]

Though CIA staff records
are classified,

it's rumored only
a select few of

its estimated 22,000 employees
ever enter The Farm.

Lindsay Moran was one of them.

Not everybody who works for
the CIA gets sent to The Farm.

The Farm is a pressure cooker.

It's a place where you train
specifically for

the clandestine service

and specifically for
undercover and covert

activities overseas.

NARRATOR: Behind these walls,
operatives are

plunged into a fictional
foreign nation.

Inside a replica
embassy building,

they are put through
a crash course of spy skills,

including code breaking
and how to recruit assets.

You're gonna need social
situations training, where you

collect intelligence

at everything from
an embassy party

to an academic conference.

You're gonna need things
that teach

aspects of exploiting
and disseminating intelligence.

NARRATOR: Moran reveals
the twisting shapes in the image

are from one of The Farm's most
intense training exercises --

the defensive driving course.

[engine revving]

Here, operatives engage
in high-speed chases

and learn how to detect
roadside bombs and deal

with ambushes.

MORAN: The common nickname
for the CIA's

defensive driving course
was Crash and Burn.

You're taught how to drive
fast and under pressure

to increase your confidence

in being able to
get yourself out of

any and every scenario.

I started as
a polite driver, and I ended up

as a rather aggressive driver
and remain one to this day.

[tires squealing]

NARRATOR:
After six months at The Farm,

a siren sounds across the camp.

[siren wailing]

Trainees are told to stop what
they're doing, leave,

and, if they do their job
correctly, disappear.

MORAN: The Farm is critical,
not just to every

individual operative,
but to the agency as a whole,

because these are the people

who tended to keep
America safe.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
jailhouse rock.

KAYS: They ended up attracting
fugitives from the law

with no questions asked.

NARRATOR:
And the weird swamp cipher.

It looks like a puzzle
that's been stamped

into the swamp land.

NARRATOR: Autumn 2018,
satellites scanning

the Apuan Alps

in Italy uncover a mystery
400 miles below.

DENNIE: This looks like
a typical Alpine image,

but if I look at images of
the same mountain range through

the seasons,
the snow never goes away.

HORTON: Something's going on
here in these mountains

that's nothing to do
with snow.

NARRATOR: A detailed examination
of the landscape confirms

that these are no ordinary
Alpine peaks.

HORTON: I can see
the roads zigzagging

their way up the valleys.

I can see industrial works
and activities.

DENNIE: Based on the fact that
this is an extremely white rock,

I think what we're looking at
here is marble being quarried.

NARRATOR:
Geological records confirm

that this is
the Carrara quarry,

a vast marble mountain where
13,000 people mine four million

tons of the translucent rock
every year.

But what makes
this place truly

remarkable isn't just
its immense size

but its long and often
brutal history.

People have been mining marble
here for thousands of years.

KAYS: These quarries
have been active all

the way since ancient
Roman times.

So you can go today and buy
a slab of marble

from the same rock that,
for example, Michelangelo

got his marble from.

NARRATOR:
In the eighth century B.C.,

the soldiers of ancient Rome
begin a campaign of conquest

that will see them
create the largest,

most powerful empire of
the ancient world.

As they subjugate
and slaughter all in their path,

their rulers
and emperors immortalize

their exploits in marble.

HORTON: In ancient Rome,

there was massive demand
for sculptures,

and indeed,
decorated buildings, as well.

Many of the most famous Roman

buildings were dressed with
Carrara marble.

The Pantheon is perhaps
the most famous of

these examples.

NARRATOR: At this time, there
are five million slaves

in the Roman Empire,

around 15 percent
of the entire population.

For those sent to work in
the Carrara quarry,

it was tantamount
to a death sentence.

Today, we have giant
excavators, giant dump trucks,

conveyors, and cranes,
things that help make

that easier, but it must
have been a deadly process

to get it out
2,000 years ago.

It was a pretty dangerous
place to work.

NARRATOR: When the Roman Empire
fades from

history in the late
fifth century A.D.,

Europe descends into
the Dark Ages,

and the giant steps of
the Carrara quarry falls silent.

But 800 years later,
the rebirth of civilization on

the continent leads to
an explosion of activity

on the white mountain.

HORTON:
During the 15th century,

the marble became
the material of choice

for the great sculptures
of the Renaissance.

Michelangelo, da Vinci,

many of the famous statues in

Italy were created from
the same marble.

NARRATOR:
By the early 20th century,

Carrara has
600 separate quarries,

manned by six thousand
men and boys.

Each massive block of marble
is sawed, often by hand,

and, much like
in ancient Rome,

the white mountain becomes
stained with the blood of those

who toil there.

DENNIE: It takes a tremendous
amount of physical

effort in order
to mine these rocks,

and one idea back
in the late 1800s was

to bring in convicts as that
source of cheap labor.

KAYS: They ended up attracting
fugitives from the law,

people that could go and get
a job with no questions asked.

NARRATOR: In a twist of fate,
the marble mined

by criminals is
shipped to America,

where it is used to construct

the Peace Monument
in Washington.

Forced to endure brutal
conditions for minimal wages,

the workers' camps quickly
become hotbeds of unrest.

You actually had revolution
born from these quarry beds

because of the types of people
and the work they were doing.

The Italian anarchist movement
is born as quarry

workers descend
into the nearby town,

barricading the road
with giant marble blocks.

HORTON: It was the introduction
of more mechanical

technology towards

the end of the 19th century
and into the 20th century

that meant that
working conditions

in these quarries were
greatly improved.

NARRATOR: Today,
the Carrara quarry is one

of the oldest excavations
on Earth,

and the rock first chiseled
out by slaves 2,000 years ago

is now sliced out of the white
mountain on an epic scale.

DENNIE: When you walk in,
you're fronted with huge cliffs

of pure white marble,
and those are created by

wire saws tipped with
industrial diamonds, and those

saws slice huge slabs of
marble -- 20, 30 tons at a time.

NARRATOR: The jagged scars
revealed from space

tell the tale of more than

two millennia of
world history,

etched in stone.

This white stuff on the side
of the mountain is some

of the most valuable
and sought after

building stone on Earth.

NARRATOR: Coming up, the crazy
plan to defeat Hitler.

The most remarkable thing is
that the plan actually worked.

NARRATOR: And death and terror
in the Florida swamps.

These are a powerful
reminder of

a really shameful episode
in all our history.

NARRATOR:
March 17, 2020.

The WorldView-3 satellite
in orbit

some 380 miles above the coast
of northern France

spots something lurking in
the ocean.

MUNOZ:
Now, this is really odd.

I see some dark structures
in the water,

but they look like
they're submerged.

You're seeing
almost a grid pattern.

These shapes at first
I thought were shipwrecks,

but they don't really look
like that

upon closer examination.

NARRATOR: Zooming in reveals
a three-mile-long line of

snaking blocks that appear to
be made from concrete.

MORGAN: Some of them have
a covering over them,

but in some cases,

it's stripped back,
and it exposes

this grid-like support
structure on the inside.

You can see that
these are decaying.

These have
eroded significantly.

NARRATOR:
The crumbling structures

circle the town of
Arromanches,

and to military historian,
Kevin Hymel,

that's significant.

The fact that they're in
the water outside of the French

town of Arromanches,
Normandy,

tells us that we're
looking at something very

specific to World War II.

NARRATOR: The satellite
has captured a bizarre

yet hugely important relic
of Operation Overlord,

or D-Day.

HYMEL: These are the remnants
of a mulberry harbour.

They are part of
the invasion of Europe

and a pretty radical
and extraordinary idea by

the Allies.

NARRATOR: Mulberry was the code
name given to lines of

temporary floating harbors
used during the D-Day landings.

The need for them was created
in 1942, when Allied forces

ramp up plans for a massive
assault on Nazi-occupied France.

Facing them are some
850,000 German troops

and the Atlantic Wall,

a colossal 2,400-mile-long
network of coastal defenses

and fortifications.

This is going to be
the largest invasion in history.

One of the keys to D-Day is
getting as many troops

and tanks
and artillery pieces

ashore and pushing
the Germans back as

quickly as they can.

NARRATOR:
The Allies know that to defeat

the entrenched Germans,

the invasion forces need
a constant supply of fresh

troops, tanks,
and ammunition.

Yet while Normandy's wide
beaches make them ideal for

an amphibious assault,

they are too shallow for
military supply ships.

MORGAN: It's one thing
to put armed men ashore

on an invasion beach.

It's another thing entirely to
then keep them fed and supplied

in the days, weeks,
and months that followed.

The Allies are looking for
the long game.

The goal is Berlin --
you're going to need millions

of men,
hundreds of thousands of tanks,

artillery, food.

NARRATOR:
The disastrous attack on

the nearby town of Dieppe
in 1942

had highlighted the perils of
launching an assault without

proper support.

Within eight hours of landing
on the beaches,

German forces had slaughtered,

taken prisoner, or injured
more than half of

the 6,000 Allied forces.

MUNOZ: That entire operation
really opened the eyes of

Allied commanders
to realize that

a massive beach landing
operation is not going to be as

easy as they thought.

NARRATOR: Faced with
this mission-critical problem,

Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and his generals

devise a bizarre plan.

MORGAN: They thought big.

They thought, "We'll just
make a port here in

England and take it with us
when we invade."

NARRATOR: Churchill's idea is to
construct around 150 enormous

hollow concrete blocks,
tow them

across the channel, and use
them to make floating harbors

for the D-Day troops.

JANULIS: Imagine what's being
proposed here --

build something the size of
a skyscraper and sink it right

off the coast of a defended,
German-occupied France.

It sounded crazy.

NARRATOR: This is the first time
such a project has

been attempted
in military history.

To build the giant structures,

8,000 workers used
31,000 tons of steel

and 600,000 tons
of concrete.

The largest blocks are 200 feet
long, weigh 6,000 tons,

and are the height of
a five-story building.

There were many people
who looked at this and went,

"This idea is balderdash.
This is insanity.

What guarantee do
we have that it will even work?"

NARRATOR: On June, 6 1944,
the D-Day invasion

fleet of more than
1,000 ships carrying

156,000 troops heads towards
the Normandy beaches.

The sections of the mulberry
harbours go with them,

towed by a flotilla
of over 130 tugs.

Just getting to France

represents something
that I assign

miraculous qualities to.

These aren't just these dull,
dead chunks of concrete.

These are concrete boats,
basically.

A mile from the French coast,

the Allies sink the
giant caissons

and then add block
ships, cays,

and pontoon roadways to connect
the harbors to the shore.

The most remarkable thing is
that the plan actually worked.

JANULIS: This was an ace
up their sleeve.

The Germans did not
expect them

to bring their own port
with them.

They were expecting something
out of the playbook.

Well, Churchill just
rewrote it.

NARRATOR: A storm soon destroys
one of the harbors,

but the other manages to land
half a million vehicles,

2.5 million troops,

and four million
tons of supplies.

It gives the Allies that
continuous supply window that

they're going to need for
the campaign across Europe.

The absolute engineering
audacity that went

into it continues
to blow my mind

Today, the strange
structures in the sea

are a reminder,
visible from the skies, of

the incredible events that
took place here all those

years ago.

What we're seeing in the image
are evidence of one

of the most absurdly
successful logistical

operations in military history.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
a stain on American history.

It was the most
barbaric system.

NARRATOR:
November 19, 2019.

A satellite scans
the Florida wetlands

and captures something
out of place among

the seemingly endless acres of
sawgrass and mangrove.

It almost looks like
it's a geometric puzzle

that's just been stamped
into the swamp land.

WALTERS: You've got
this whole network

of higgledy piggledy
ditches and channels.

There's no particular kind of
logic to it.

NARRATOR: Analysts dial up
the magnification.

The spaces in between
look to me like fields.

But looking at the image,

it seems these fields have
been long abandoned.

There are very few crops

that grow in absolutely
saturated conditions.

I think this is rice.

This does remind me
of kind of rice paddies.

But rice in the United States?
I -- I never really think of it.

NARRATOR: Local historical
records confirm that

these flooded shapes are
the remains of rice fields,

and they are a legacy of
an era of death and terror.

WALTERS: These ditches,
as innocent as they look,

are a really powerful reminder
of a shameful episode

in all our history.

NARRATOR: The story written in
these lines begins in 1513,

when Spanish explorer Juan Ponce
de Leon and his crew, rumored

to be on a mission to locate
the fabled Fountain of Youth,

become the first Europeans to
set foot in Florida.

They established a colony
late in the 16th century,

called it La Floride, and began
cultivating right away.

They focused on things like
citrus fruits.

[birds chirping]

Initially, the Spanish relied
on indigenous labor,

but with the introduction of
European diseases,

these numbers collapsed.

So by the early 16th century,

we see the development of
a slave trade.

NARRATOR: Many historians
claim that the first

Transatlantic slaves arrived
in Jamestown in 1619.

Yet recent research suggests
that almost every Spanish

expedition to Florida

in the century preceding
this date carried

enslaved Africans with them.

WALTERS: The Spanish,
in the middle of

the early 16th century,

had actually brought
in slaves to their colony,

and they end up on plantations.

NARRATOR: In 1763,
the Spanish are forced

to hand over Florida
to the British

in exchange for Cuba.

The state's new owners

dramatically accelerate

the work begun by
the Conquistadors,

transforming thousands of
square miles of fetid swamp

into fertile farmland.

You've got a very industrious
set of British colonizers,

and they're all over the north
and east of Florida area,

getting these plantations up
and running.

NARRATOR: During British rule,
the London Board of Trade offers

20,000-acre lots to anyone
willing to move to Florida.

As more plantations spring up,

the trade in enslaved humans
begun by

the Spanish more than
a century before

goes into overdrive.

In Florida, slavery
didn't only start earlier,

it went on a lot longer than
it did anywhere else in

the continental United States.

HORTON: The appalling
conditions, forced labor,

rigid systems of
punishment and control --

it was the most
barbaric system.

NARRATOR: According to local
land records,

a British merchant
purchases the swamp land

in the image in 1814.

Over the next decade,
slave labor carves out 1,000

acres of irrigation
and transportation canals,

making it the largest
plantation in Florida.

The location of
this plantation is just about

ideal, because waterways

were the main form
of transportation in this area,

not roads.

NARRATOR: Crops of rice, sugar,
citrus, and cotton

generate profits equivalent

to millions of dollars
for the plantations' owners.

Cotton became
increasingly in demand as

a result of
the Industrial Revolution,

and that cotton was
being produced

in these plantations in
the American South.

WALTERS: You look at
the remnants of

these rice paddies today,
and they look fairly harmless,

but you can't really see
the horror story behind them.