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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:03,880 Tom ward (narrates): A ruined village 2 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:06,720 pitted and scarred by its wartime past. 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,880 You see a warzone kind of frozen in Amber. 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:18,520 A ghostly fleet of ships lost in the wilderness, 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,320 doomed to destruction. 6 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:24,560 There's something really quite spooky about it. 7 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,400 A bridge to nowhere, 8 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,360 hidden in the forest that came to a grisly end. 9 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:34,400 It has this other worldly quality to it, 10 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:36,216 and it doesn't really feel like it should be, 11 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:37,360 you know, in our world. 12 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,720 And strange metal structures concealed in dense woodland. 13 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,400 It's deep in the Maine wilderness 14 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:51,720 far from anything, 15 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:53,720 what is it and what is it doing here? 16 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:00,640 Once, they were some of the most advanced structures 17 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:03,200 and facilities on the planet, 18 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:05,720 at the cutting edge of design and construction. 19 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:11,880 Today, they stand abandoned, contaminated, and sometimes deadly. 20 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:14,880 But who built them and how? 21 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,040 And why were they abandoned? 22 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:21,080 (Theme music) 23 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:40,960 On the arid plains of northern Spain, 24 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:46,360 265km from its capital, Madrid, lies a ghost town. 25 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:47,880 (Grim music) 26 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:55,840 Although the town has a strange beauty, 27 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:59,000 the ruins of hollowed-out buildings are everywhere, 28 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:01,960 and rubble is piled up in the empty streets. 29 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:03,360 (Birds chirp) 30 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:07,760 The story goes that if you listen hard enough, 31 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:10,120 you can hear voices from the past. 32 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:14,520 You see the ruins of a city 33 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,480 that clearly suffered some kind of disaster. 34 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:20,600 Was it an earthquake, you know? 35 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:23,680 Was it some kind of rushed evacuation? 36 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:26,240 What knocked down these buildings 37 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:27,840 and why were they never rebuilt? 38 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:31,200 Its name is belchite. 39 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,080 To add to the strangeness, there's another town 40 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,560 with the same name right next to it. 41 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:42,840 Why are there two belchites side by side? 42 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,560 And what happened to cause such devastation to one of them? 43 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,680 And then you look closer and you see something 44 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:54,640 odd about some of these ruins. 45 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:58,440 They're not just eroded by weather and gravity, 46 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,560 they're chipped away. 47 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:02,680 Look closer and you can see bullet holes, 48 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:05,280 damage from mortar fire. 49 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:07,080 This is a unique form of erosion. 50 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:08,680 This is the erosion of war. 51 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:14,320 Which army was responsible for destroying the town 52 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:16,480 and why was it never rebuilt? 53 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:18,760 (Dramatic music) 54 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:21,760 (Cannon fires) 55 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:22,920 For the reasons, 56 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,280 we need to look to the bloody civil war 57 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:27,800 that ripped Spain apart in the last century. 58 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:30,440 (Cannon fires) 59 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:32,200 In 1936, 60 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:34,520 Spain was a deeply divided country 61 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,240 that was politically torn between the extreme right and left. 62 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,640 The nationalist fascists and the anti-fascist Republicans. 63 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,600 Leading the nationalist side was general Francisco Franco, 64 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,760 a man who would eventually rule Spain 65 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:54,920 with an iron fist until his death in 1975. 66 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,360 Franco was supported by other fascist countries, 67 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,960 notably Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Nazi Germany. 68 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:09,040 The Republicans drew their support from the Soviet union 69 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,000 and from the famous international brigades, 70 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:13,520 the paramilitary units 71 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:16,000 who fought in support of the popular front government 72 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,280 of the second Spanish republic, during the civil war. 73 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,720 The Spanish civil war started as a conflict 74 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:29,200 within Spain itself, you had a very left-wing government 75 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,000 and then right-wing forces in the military, 76 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:33,400 basically staged a coup 77 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,520 against their own elected government. 78 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:38,080 By the following year, 79 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,920 these right-wing nationalist forces under general Franco 80 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,160 were controlling a large part of Spain. 81 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:49,640 In an attempt to slow down their advance, 82 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:51,520 in August 1937, 83 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,920 republican forces decided to attack zaragoza. 84 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,440 The city was the regional capital and the communication centre 85 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:03,400 for the important aragon front. 86 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:10,360 It isn't so strategically important, 87 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,080 but it was an important enough city 88 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,200 that it would have been a real blow to nationalist morale. 89 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:20,960 On route to zaragoza was belchite. 90 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:27,200 The original republican plan was to bypass the village 91 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:28,640 but that wasn't what happened. 92 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:32,640 Instead its forces attacked. 93 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,360 So, here, you have belchite with a few thousand, 94 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:41,640 not elite, Spanish nationalist troops, 95 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:43,720 but they are supplied well enough, 96 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:48,640 armed well enough that they turned the town into a small fortress. 97 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:51,080 Instead of going straight for zaragoza, 98 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:52,880 which they could have taken, 99 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:56,080 they get bogged down in this village of 3,800 people. 100 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:02,280 Who were the men who fought to take belchite? 101 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:05,640 And what was their connection to a fighting unit 102 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:07,160 from the United States? 103 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:11,720 When the world learned that Franco 104 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:15,480 and his fascist compatriots were trying to overthrow 105 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:17,640 the elected government of Spain, 106 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:19,520 there was really a lot of outrage 107 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,520 and a lot of people wanted to come and help 108 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:23,280 this beleaguered government. 109 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,680 And so, a lot of people from the west 110 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:29,280 came to volunteer and assist. 111 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:35,560 Around 3,000 of those volunteers were from the United States. 112 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:39,480 They formed the Abraham Lincoln battalion 113 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:41,280 and made their way to belchite. 114 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:45,200 By belchite, the Abraham Lincoln battalion 115 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:49,320 has been through a couple of major campaigns, 116 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:51,960 they are really veterans, 117 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,640 they're first rate troops at this time, 118 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:56,360 they weren't when they started. 119 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,520 But at this point, they have learned on the job, 120 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:02,760 and they're pretty effective soldiers. 121 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:09,680 It was these motivated and battle-hardened soldiers 122 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:11,640 that made the assault on belchite. 123 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:17,280 Juan Simon, a tour guide in the old town, 124 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,480 explains how the Americans and their republican allies 125 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:21,680 attacked the town. 126 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:36,920 (Cannon fires) 127 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:41,400 The civilians who were unable to escape 128 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,760 hid in their cellars as the battle raged above them. 129 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:48,480 The town was essentially under siege. 130 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,520 They were cut off from the outside food, water. 131 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,560 It was really quite a brutal way to take a city 132 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:01,080 without much concern for the lives or the welfare of the civilians 133 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:02,560 who were trapped inside. 134 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:08,080 But the nationalist forces had a strategic advantage. 135 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:11,480 From the top of this tower, 136 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:14,280 which is still disfigured by the shellfire, 137 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:18,000 they had a clear line of fire down onto the republican troops below. 138 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:56,240 Once the republican troops had taken out the machine-gun, 139 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:59,000 the Lincoln battalion was able to force its way 140 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,320 in through the church of st augustine. 141 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:41,840 These are... 142 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,760 Really the worse kinds of battles. 143 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:49,560 It's up close and it's personal. 144 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:51,960 The noise, the explosions... 145 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:54,880 You're going building to building, 146 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:57,000 and that means throwing hand grenades, 147 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,080 that means demolishing things, 148 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,320 that means setting fire to buildings 149 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:03,920 to actually literally burn your enemy out. 150 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:08,920 It's a high casualty form of warfare. 151 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,960 After two weeks of brutal and savage fighting, 152 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,560 the Americans and their allies finally took control of the town. 153 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:25,600 It was very bloody, 154 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:28,680 very devastating to the local population. 155 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:32,360 When Ernest Hemingway, 156 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:35,000 who was covering the Spanish civil war 157 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:37,760 for American newspapers, when he arrived in belchite, 158 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:42,120 he said the city was less a town than a bad smell. 159 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:46,960 Decomposing in the blistering summer sun, 160 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,960 bodies from both sides piled up in the streets. 161 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,640 In total, 3,000 people were killed. 162 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:57,600 Were the gains worth the awful bloodshed? 163 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:01,840 Abraham Lincoln battalion 164 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:04,520 talked of this as one of the toughest fights 165 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:05,600 in the war. 166 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:08,600 And they aren't sure 167 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:13,120 why their elite brigade 168 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:16,320 was diverted to a house-to-house battle. 169 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:18,600 But somehow, it happened. 170 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:23,840 It was really one of the big screw-ups of the war, 171 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:25,560 is the offensive, 172 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:29,200 they gained a little territory and literally accomplished 173 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:30,840 no strategic effect at all. 174 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:35,400 Six months later, the tables were turned, 175 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,240 when nationalist forces retook belchite, 176 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:41,440 but why was the town never rebuilt? 177 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:48,240 Franco didn't want belchite to be restored 178 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,000 because he knew it had propaganda value. 179 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:54,360 This was one of the great battles that the nationalists lost. 180 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:57,680 You would think that you would want to celebrate your victories, but no. 181 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:02,200 If you're a dictator and you can point to a horrific disaster 182 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:04,520 where many civilians lost their lives, 183 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:06,160 then you can stand up and say, 184 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,040 "if it weren't for me, this would keep happening." 185 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:12,920 Franco wouldn't let 186 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:16,160 the local population rebuild the city, 187 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:17,560 but eventually they decided 188 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:19,600 they just needed to build a new town next door. 189 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:29,200 Today, the town stands as a memorial to the thousands 190 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:33,200 who lost their lives here and as a stark reminder 191 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,200 of the tragedy and brutality of the civil war. 192 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:41,000 When you see belchite today, 193 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:44,080 you see a warzone kind of frozen in Amber. 194 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:47,600 You see the effects, you see the bullet holes, 195 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,720 you see where the mortar shells fell, 196 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,840 and you see the tragedy of war, 197 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:58,080 and how so often wars aren't just fought between armies, 198 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:02,760 they're often fought between armies with civilians caught in the middle, 199 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:03,856 and that's what happened here, 200 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:05,440 that's what makes it so heartbreaking. 201 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:14,880 On the western coast of Canada, in Powell river, 202 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:20,120 a small town 170km from Vancouver is an astonishing sight. 203 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:27,640 Ships stretch across the water. 204 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:31,640 One connected to the other, listing gently towards the shore. 205 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:36,760 It looks like a decaying ghost fleet 206 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:39,320 with their crews mysteriously missing. 207 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,600 There's something really quite spooky about it. 208 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:48,400 They're covered in barnacles, 209 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:50,040 and moss, and seaweed, 210 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,560 it's almost as if nature is claiming them back again. 211 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:59,040 Heavy rusting chains extend across their decks, 212 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:01,200 their crews have long since gone... 213 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:04,800 What secrets do the ships hold? 214 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:08,816 People think there's still treasure 215 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:10,080 somewhere deep inside, 216 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,136 and if they can just get in there and see what's there, 217 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:14,120 maybe they'll find something really interesting. 218 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:19,200 It's hard to tell how old the ships are 219 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:20,600 or where they're from... 220 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:24,280 But there's one thing they all have in common. 221 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:31,240 The really unusual thing about these boats is that, 222 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:34,200 unlike most, they're not made of steel, 223 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:35,880 these ones are made of concrete. 224 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:41,360 They've definitely inspired a sense of mystery growing up. 225 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:44,480 You start to wonder, like, "what are these things? 226 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:46,760 "Where did they come from? 227 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:48,920 What is their story?" 228 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:51,400 How are they connected 229 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:54,280 to one of the deadliest weapons ever made? 230 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,000 The answers are rooted in the desperate days 231 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:05,880 of the end of the world war I. 232 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,360 There had already been three years of trench warfare 233 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:12,960 on the western front, 234 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,080 which had resulted in a bloody stalemate. 235 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:20,440 The allied big push on the somme in 1916, 236 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:22,720 which was supposed to break the deadlock, 237 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:26,400 had lasted four months and gained practically nothing. 238 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:33,280 The allied corps received a boost in April 1917 239 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:36,160 when the United States declared war on Germany. 240 00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:38,400 Within 15 months, 241 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:41,040 there were a million us troops in France. 242 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,880 Although these vast numbers were committed to the land war, 243 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:51,600 the us also urgently needed to expand its naval fleet. 244 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:54,760 But it was running out of raw materials. 245 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:57,040 It had to find a solution to the problem. 246 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:04,360 They come up with the idea "let's try concrete." 247 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:10,040 Well, problem with most concretes is they're too heavy. 248 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:12,960 Now, they had to develop, and they succeeded 249 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:18,360 in developing a new type of concrete that was light but still 250 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:19,640 very, very strong. 251 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:23,960 During world war I, they were a go-to option 252 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,320 because they didn't take up the important raw materials, 253 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:29,680 like steel that were needed for the war effort, 254 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:31,520 and they could be made cheaply 255 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:33,480 and much more functionally out of concrete, 256 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:35,600 and concrete, of course, does float. 257 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:40,960 The ships so impressed the us government 258 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,680 that they ordered 24 of them. 259 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,080 And they're completed just as the war ends, 260 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:50,360 but they're put into service 261 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:52,400 and they actually worked pretty well. 262 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:56,960 Once you've made a concrete ship, 263 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,480 it is actually quite a long-lasting thing. 264 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:07,960 Concrete, unlike steel, doesn't get metal fatigue, 265 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,280 doesn't wear out, it doesn't rust. 266 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:12,240 So, potentially, 267 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:15,160 you have a very easy-to-maintain kind of ship. 268 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,360 In fact, the ships were so effective 269 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:23,040 that when there was a shortage of steel 270 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:24,920 during the world war ii, 271 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:28,280 naval architects once again turned to concrete. 272 00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:33,560 All of them had a very similar purpose, 273 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:35,920 which was mainly to act as freight ships 274 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:38,400 and for storage because they're very good at holding 275 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:41,520 large amounts of material and keeping it dry. 276 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,080 But what are ten cargo ships from two world wars 277 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:51,080 doing here in British Colombia. 278 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:56,640 This is the ghostly fleet that the locals call the hulks. 279 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:01,760 Around the beginning of the last century, 280 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,880 paper mills sprung up all along the coast, 281 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:06,920 including here at Powell river. 282 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,200 The logs used to make the paper 283 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:14,600 were transported to the mill by water 284 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:16,520 and then unloaded into a log pond. 285 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,040 It had to be big enough to store the logs 286 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:24,240 and be protected from the elements to keep it safe for the workers. 287 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:27,640 The only problem here is it's exposed to severe winds 288 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,120 from both the north and the south, 289 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:33,080 and they needed to find a way to shelter the log ponds. 290 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:40,240 So, the mill owners decided to build a breakwater, 291 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,560 a barrier built into the sea to protect the log pond 292 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:45,560 from the force of the waves, 293 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,360 as mechanical engineer Matthew denniston explains. 294 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:52,800 So, typically a breakwater structure 295 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,320 would be made of large rocks, dumped in big piles 296 00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:57,856 and they would build up from the sea floor 297 00:18:57,880 --> 00:18:59,280 to make that protection, 298 00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:00,360 where in our case, 299 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:03,120 it's far too deep to make this type of breakwater. 300 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:05,240 So, I think the light bulb just came on, 301 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:07,120 "hey, why not use ships instead?" 302 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,240 Steel being in salt water in the ocean 303 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:14,520 deteriorates very quickly if it's not protected. 304 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,680 And we found that we would have a steel ship 305 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:20,440 that would come in and it would maybe last 20 years 306 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,280 before it had to be decommissioned, 307 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:25,360 where these concrete ships were already 40 years old, 308 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:26,600 coming into replace them, 309 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:29,880 and had still lasted another 50 plus years. 310 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:37,960 In 1948, the first concrete ships arrived in Powell river. 311 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:41,840 But how effective would they be as a breakwater? 312 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,680 The ships were anchored down and chained together to form a, 313 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:51,080 sort of, artificial reef. 314 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:55,360 To help them withstand the elements, 315 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:59,040 they were weighed down with gravel and they list to one side, 316 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:01,400 so their decks are angled towards the shore. 317 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:04,936 They're actually much heavier than ordinary ships, 318 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:07,800 so much more effective in keeping the water 319 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:08,880 and the weather at bay. 320 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:16,200 One of the ships is the 'quartz', and it has a hidden past. 321 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,680 So, one of the most unique things about this ship 322 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:25,640 is that it was actually a part of some of the first nuclear testing 323 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,760 that the us military did on bikini atoll, 324 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:33,960 and this ship specifically was part of the nuclear test baker. 325 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:35,000 (Loud blast) 326 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:36,520 The test bomb propelled 327 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:40,400 a dome of water 1.5km wide into the sky. 328 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,240 It created a wall of radioactive mist 329 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:47,080 that contaminated many of the surrounding ships, 330 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:48,480 including the 'quartz'. 331 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:53,960 They were simply there to see 332 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,640 the effect of the nuclear blast on ships. 333 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,840 So, you know, they had ships of every type and description 334 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:05,240 at bikini atoll and they wanted to get radioactivity readings, 335 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:07,960 they also wanted to see the blast effect 336 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,120 of the nuclear weapons would have at different ranges. 337 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,280 Ten years later and radiation-free, 338 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:22,240 the 'quartz' arrived at Powell river to join the other concrete ships. 339 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,440 The service life was supposed to only be 15 years, 340 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:32,320 when in reality, here we are 75 years later, 341 00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:34,440 and they are still holding strong. 342 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:39,960 So, why are there now plans to sink some of them? 343 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:45,920 (Instrumental music) 344 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:47,000 Today, 345 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:50,080 the paper mill no longer needs such a large log pond. 346 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,880 The plans now are to sink some or most of the ships 347 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:57,200 and allow them to become a natural reef, 348 00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:59,040 bringing to life again 349 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,360 the underwater maritime colony and community. 350 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:07,120 The ships are an extraordinary story of creation and technology. 351 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:11,400 They were born out of desperation, 352 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:15,240 out of a need to find a way to build ships with new materials, 353 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:17,160 and yet when that need was gone, 354 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:20,840 they found another use here acting as a breakwater, 355 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,360 and when even that role is completing, 356 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:27,880 they're now gonna find another one down on the seabed as reefs. 357 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:31,640 They really are a testimony to the creativity and creation 358 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:33,800 of what can be done with new materials. 359 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,480 Hidden deep within woodland in south-east Germany, 360 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:49,080 600km from its capital, Berlin, is a strange sight. 361 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,200 (Eerie music) 362 00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:01,080 A cold and bleak landscape disfigured by charred rock. 363 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:04,800 There's a real air of foreboding. 364 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,360 You can tell that something bad happened. 365 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,000 It looks entirely natural 366 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:16,120 until you see metal spikes puncturing the stone. 367 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:20,680 You're walking along, and suddenly the floor turns to concrete, 368 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:23,400 and then you see an embedded footprint there, 369 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:24,560 and you keep walking, 370 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,000 and then further along, there's another footprint. 371 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:31,920 And immediately, you think, "what went on here? 372 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,920 "Who made these footprints? 373 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,800 And what happened to them?" 374 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,160 The mystery deepens the further you go. 375 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:47,200 Rusted corroded steel and badly weathered concrete 376 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,600 is twisted violently out of any recognisable shape. 377 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,040 Whatever happened here would take one heck of a force 378 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,480 to cause this much damage. 379 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:02,000 And there's more. 380 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:05,680 Concealed beneath the forest floor is a mysterious tunnel... 381 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,840 Nearby, just visible through the trees 382 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:11,600 are strange depressions. 383 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:16,600 And what's most sinister is an arch... 384 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:19,680 A bridge to nowhere. 385 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:22,920 How are they all connected? 386 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:31,160 You've got what looks like a giant rib 387 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,840 of some massive dinosaur sticking out of the earth. 388 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,440 There is something really fantastical about it. 389 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,400 It has this other worldly quality to it, 390 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:44,520 and it doesn't really feel like it should be, 391 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:45,680 you know, in our world. 392 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,080 Who constructed this arch? 393 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:52,560 And why did its builders die in their thousands? 394 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,120 And what cataclysmic event caused its destruction? 395 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,000 (Dramatic music) 396 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,720 In the final years of the world war ii, 397 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:10,360 the allied bombing campaign against Germany reached its peak. 398 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:17,400 The Germans have lost control, not only the airspace over France, 399 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,200 the allied landing areas, 400 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:21,800 but they have lost control of the airspace 401 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,280 over their own country. 402 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,280 (Loud blast) 403 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,040 Despite the millions of tonnes of bombs 404 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:32,160 dropped on German cities such as Hamburg and Cologne, 405 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,280 there had not been a complete collapse in civilian morale, 406 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,560 which had been part of the aim, 407 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,680 nor had Germany's industrial capacity and production 408 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,160 been severely reduced. 409 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,120 That changed towards the end of the war 410 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,920 when targeted attacks on German infrastructure 411 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,360 and her industrial heartlands began to take effect. 412 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,240 Allied bombs were destroying German factories, 413 00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,160 severely affecting her ability to continue fighting. 414 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,120 (Loud blasts) 415 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,760 So, the Germans had to find some way 416 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,400 to defend themselves against the allied onslaught. 417 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:12,720 (Loud blasts) 418 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,520 So, German high command 419 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:18,240 decided to move production of certain armaments into caves. 420 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,560 The problem the Germans have 421 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:25,880 is that it's really, really hard 422 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,440 to make caves in rock. 423 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,040 Their clever solution is 424 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:35,440 they're gonna make giant artificial caverns 425 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,600 where there was no cave before. 426 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:44,040 And this is the result, weingut eins, 427 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,200 a vast concrete structure that the Germans hoped 428 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,720 would allow them to keep their war machine running. 429 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,400 But what were they going to build here? 430 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:55,560 And why was it hidden 431 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,320 deep within a forest in south-east Germany? 432 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,440 Local historian, dr erhard bosch, 433 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,960 explains that the site had to match a very specific set of requirements. 434 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,680 In order to be able to build concrete buildings, 435 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,800 you need gravel, you need water, you need cement, 436 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:24,440 and you need steel, and all that was here. 437 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:30,240 It was weingut's sheer size that sucked in resources. 438 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:38,080 This bunker presented all sorts of engineering challenges. 439 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:40,960 It would consist of 12 separate arches 440 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,480 and be a quarter of a mile long. 441 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,560 Each arch would be over a hundred feet wide. 442 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:49,920 It's a major construction project. 443 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,440 A workforce of over 10,000 was gathered together, 444 00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:59,160 and construction of the first arch began in July 1944. 445 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,120 Building arches is a challenge. 446 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,520 They're very strong shapes when they're actually finished. 447 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:08,560 But while you're constructing them, 448 00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:12,560 you have to keep them supported in order to keep it stable. 449 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,960 Usually, a timber or steel frame was used, 450 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:20,400 but dwindling resources 451 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,000 meant that the builders had to use another material. 452 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:28,680 You need as much gravel as possible 453 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,960 because the construction method you're gonna use 454 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,840 requires mountains of gravel. 455 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,440 They could pile up this gravel into an immense shape, 456 00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:45,040 this arch shape, and then create their concrete arch on top of that. 457 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,200 But how would these vast mounds of gravel 458 00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,160 be moved from one arch to another? 459 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,280 A few hundred kilometres away, there's a clue. 460 00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:02,520 This was an underground tunnel with mine carts on a rail track. 461 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:04,600 Once each arch was completed, 462 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:06,720 the gravel that was beneath it 463 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,320 was dumped down through hatches into these waiting carts, 464 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,960 which would then take the gravel along to the next construction site. 465 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,960 The pressure was on to finish the bunker, 466 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:20,840 to begin production of a plane 467 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,600 the Germans hoped would change the course of the war. 468 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:29,800 It was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, 469 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,280 the messerschmitt me 262. 470 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,640 Overhead was a roof that was virtually bombproof. 471 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:43,920 We are here under the 7th archway, 472 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,800 the foundations to the left and right go 17m deep. 473 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,520 In the lean concrete layer, you can see it up here, 474 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,160 it has broken away in some places. 475 00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,720 The first reinforcing rods can be seen. 476 00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,440 They reinforced 5m of concrete. 477 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:03,560 When complete, 478 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,640 the factory would have seen production on a massive scale. 479 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:11,680 They wanted to dig further down from here 480 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,880 and would have had eight factory floors. 481 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,280 When you consider the overall area that they would have had, 482 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:19,960 the manufacturing area, 483 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,840 that's an area of 114,000 square metres. 484 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,320 That is approximately 14 football pitches. 485 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,360 Who built these enormous arches? 486 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,800 And what is their connection to these deep caverns, 487 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,080 hollowed out of the ground, just over 3km away? 488 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,240 These craters are all over this particular area, 489 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:48,920 and it's hard to tell exactly what happened here 490 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,000 to create these holes just by looking at them. 491 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,320 But their size and their depth are ominous. 492 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,120 What were these craters? 493 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,640 And how were they linked to thousands of deaths 494 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:05,480 deep in the German woodland? 495 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,640 It was because slave labourers from the death camps 496 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:14,800 were forced to build weingut. 497 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,640 Their huts once stood where the craters now are. 498 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,680 They had no heat, they had no toilet facilities, 499 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,840 they had no washing facilities, they didn't even have fresh water. 500 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:34,160 They didn't have enough to eat, 501 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:39,560 so you can imagine that they became emaciated very quickly. 502 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,680 If they did try to escape, they were shot if they were caught. 503 00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,400 Four thousand of the weingut slave labourers died here. 504 00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:56,880 By the end of April 1945, 505 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,040 only seven arches had been completed. 506 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,600 But the allies were already sweeping through Germany. 507 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,920 The area was liberated and placed under American control 508 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:08,120 the following month. 509 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,440 So, why is there now only one arch left standing? 510 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,320 The clue is in the twisted steel and concrete. 511 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:21,800 If there were another world war, 512 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,080 the Americans thought they might adopt a bunker like this 513 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:28,600 for their own military installations back in the us. 514 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:33,160 But first, they wanted to see just how strong it was. 515 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,440 So, they decided to blow it up. 516 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,880 The us blew the arches up one by one 517 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,880 until they had discovered how much explosive power 518 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:46,920 each structure could withstand. 519 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:54,040 So, all of the cold war era nuclear bunkers 520 00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,000 are based in their structure 521 00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:00,480 on tests that were done in 1947 522 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:02,600 here at weingut eins. 523 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,160 After it was destroyed, weingut was abandoned. 524 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:16,640 When I look at the ruins of weingut eins, 525 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:20,200 that terrible slave labour project 526 00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:24,720 that was designed to keep the Nazi war machine going, 527 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:27,360 I look at its failure. 528 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,920 And I know that when power 529 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,040 is untrammelled by justice, 530 00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:38,840 it can only go so far before it destroys itself. 531 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,240 In a remote forest in Maine 532 00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:50,320 at the north-eastern tip of the United States 533 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,960 is something you don't expect to stumble across. 534 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:58,800 (Eerie music) 535 00:33:59,960 --> 00:34:03,200 You're in this part of Maine that is overgrown 536 00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,560 with trees and low forest and it's very scenic. 537 00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,000 And then in the middle of it, 538 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:11,520 you can see the remnants of old cables and machinery. 539 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:18,280 There are two identical structures made of metal, 540 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:21,960 completely rusted out with what appears to be a pipe, 541 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,400 coming out of the back of it. 542 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,520 You can see a large old engine... 543 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,680 Clearly something technical and industrial 544 00:34:32,720 --> 00:34:35,440 used to dominate this space. 545 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,040 It looks like some mad experiment gone wrong... 546 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:48,680 An eccentric scientist who decided to create something fantastical 547 00:34:48,720 --> 00:34:50,320 in the middle of nowhere. 548 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:53,200 But what is it? 549 00:34:53,240 --> 00:34:57,200 And how is it related to these two dilapidated locomotives? 550 00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,760 You come across what looks like a pulley system 551 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:06,640 and these rusted and corroded pieces of metal, 552 00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:09,280 which looks like broken pieces of trash. 553 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,480 (Birds chirp) 554 00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:15,920 The entire woodland is full of mystery. 555 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,440 Normally, tracks connect something... 556 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,040 But these just end abruptly... 557 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:26,560 But are they somehow joined and, if so, how? 558 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:31,720 And then you have the fact that it's so remote, 559 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:36,440 it's deep in the Maine wilderness, far from anything, 560 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,640 so the question is what is it and what is it doing here? 561 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:48,200 To find out, 562 00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:51,440 we need to look to an industry that helped define Maine 563 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:55,520 and make america great during the 19th and early 20th centuries... 564 00:35:56,720 --> 00:35:58,200 The logging industry. 565 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:06,280 Northern Maine has 18 million acres of forest land, 566 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:08,560 and at the turn of the last century, 567 00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,640 it was the hub of the logging industry, 568 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,600 at the time when timber was king. 569 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:21,760 The usa was growing fast and so was demand for wood, 570 00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:25,840 but it was not only domestic demands that were driving the industry. 571 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:27,800 During the late 19th century, 572 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,160 the industrial revolution was in full swing 573 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:32,240 in countries such as Great Britain. 574 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,080 It too had an insatiable appetite for lumber. 575 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,440 In fact, it is estimated that at one point, 576 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,040 Maine had the largest shipping port for lumber in the world. 577 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:49,520 And so, forests were being felled at breakneck speed 578 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,520 by lumber barons eager to profit from these huge new markets. 579 00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:01,720 Matthew laroche, superintendent of the allagash wilderness waterway, 580 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:03,880 explains how it worked. 581 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:08,400 The loggers would come up the river systems cutting pine, 582 00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:10,640 and as the pine got depleted, 583 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,400 they would just keep moving up the rivers. 584 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:18,280 You know, cutting down the tree is the easy part. 585 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:23,560 The hard part is getting that giant log out of wherever it fell 586 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:26,080 and into some kind of transportation system 587 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,480 that can get it to the sawmill or the paper mill. 588 00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:34,440 The nearest sawmill was in bangor, 145 miles away. 589 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,160 The only problem was they needed to find a way to transport 590 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,920 all these logs between one lake and another 591 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,120 across a really narrow strip of land. 592 00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:47,960 This isolated stretch of land 593 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,960 lay between eagle and Chamberlain lakes. 594 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:58,680 And it was only about 3,000 feet, just a little more than half a mile, 595 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:02,280 but if you were gonna drag all those logs by oxen, 596 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,800 it might as well have been 50 miles. 597 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,680 How would they overcome the problem of hauling 598 00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:15,080 thousands of logs across this narrow strip of land? 599 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,200 A way had to be found to bridge the gap. 600 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,880 And this is what they came up with... 601 00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,800 An ingenious system of rails, cable, and iron, 602 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:30,960 powered by the technology of the day. 603 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:34,800 It was called eagle lake tramway. 604 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:42,440 Essentially, the tramway was a small railway 605 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,400 that was pulled by a cable loop and powered by steam. 606 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,920 But this narrow strip of land was in the middle of nowhere. 607 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,920 How would they be able to transport the parts? 608 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,040 So, all the material came by rail to Greenville, 609 00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:04,480 up moosehead lake with steam boats, 610 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:06,040 and then landed at north east carry, 611 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,080 and from there, it was brought in with horses on sleds 612 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:11,120 in the middle of the wintertime. 613 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:15,640 We're talking about a 35-mile trip with sleds and horses 614 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:16,960 to get this material in here. 615 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,200 It took 12 arduous months to build the tramway. 616 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:26,920 But would it actually work? 617 00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:30,616 When they originally put this together, 618 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:34,400 they had to bolt all of these dollies to the cable, 619 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,080 and it turned out that 620 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:37,696 they tightened the bolts down all the way 621 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:38,976 but it wasn't quite tight enough, 622 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:40,840 so everything slipped and nothing worked. 623 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,480 And they then had to take thousands of bolts back out 624 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,080 and it turned out the threads didn't go far enough down the bolt. 625 00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,000 So, they had to get out a filing system 626 00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,560 and extend the threads a little bit one at a time 627 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:55,240 and then put it all back together. 628 00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:58,200 (Birds chirp) 629 00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:00,120 Once it was finished, 630 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:04,240 the workers watched nervously as the trucks crawled along. 631 00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:08,840 And they noticed it wasn't going as fast as they had expected. 632 00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,840 That was because there's a bump along the path. 633 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,720 And once the logs got over the bump, the weight of the logs 634 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:18,960 helped it pick up steam the rest of the way. 635 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,160 Would the tramway system be able to move 636 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:28,280 thousands of logs over land to mills in bangor and beyond? 637 00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,120 The tramway ran on these rails right here. 638 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,360 There was a top layer and a bottom layer. 639 00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:39,640 And these trucks, and there's one right there, 640 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:43,720 the logs went onto those little pointed things. 641 00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,360 The logs would be pulled on the eagle lake end, 642 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,040 and they would travel on this top layer of rails 643 00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:50,176 all the way to Chamberlain lake, 644 00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:51,960 and then roll off the end of the tramway, 645 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:53,136 and dump into Chamberlain lake, 646 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,720 and then from there, it was log drive down to bangor. 647 00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:02,600 The logs moved at 5km an hour, powered entirely by steam. 648 00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:10,480 These are the boilers which created steam, 649 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:14,680 ran through these pipes up here, over to this engine, 650 00:41:14,720 --> 00:41:16,320 that would drive this belt. 651 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:20,040 And the belt drove the machinery over here. 652 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:21,800 These reduction gears 653 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,520 and the big final drive over there with the u-shape cut outs in it 654 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:27,520 was where the trucks fit into. 655 00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:28,736 The cable fit right into there 656 00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:31,800 and it would drive the logs over there 657 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:33,896 and dropped them right into Chamberlain lake over there. 658 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,760 It was quite an engineering model for the time. 659 00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:44,360 The tramway operated from 1903 to 1909, 660 00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:48,320 carrying in total 100 million board feet of timber. 661 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:54,000 But why did the lumber barons abandon such an effective system 662 00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:55,720 after only six years? 663 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:01,200 Eventually, a small railroad was built 664 00:42:01,240 --> 00:42:06,040 that was able to move the logs in an even more convenient fashion. 665 00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,240 And in fact, this was the way that logging was being done 666 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,840 across new england at that time. 667 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:15,280 There were dozens of small little rail lines being built 668 00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:17,160 into all kinds of wilderness areas 669 00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:20,920 for the sole purpose of extracting the timber. 670 00:42:22,240 --> 00:42:24,160 They did not remove the tramway 671 00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:26,800 from this location when they stopped using it 672 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,440 primarily because it was such a remote area, 673 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:30,736 they couldn't really take it out. 674 00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:33,016 I suppose they didn't really know if they would use it again, 675 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:34,080 but they never did. 676 00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,240 Once they had shut it down, it never got used again. 677 00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:39,400 (Birds chirp) 678 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:47,520 Now, the tramway is rusting away 679 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,360 and gradually being reclaimed by nature. 680 00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,200 When I come here and I see people looking at them 681 00:42:55,240 --> 00:42:56,896 and they are asking a bunch of questions, 682 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:58,536 "how did they get it here, "what did it do, 683 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:00,920 "when did it work, how much did it move", 684 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,720 it kind of renews your enthusiasm for the site. 685 00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:06,360 When I see this kind of thing, 686 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:11,520 it just makes me think about the enormous effort, 687 00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:17,080 the sweat, the ingenuity that went into these kinds of projects 688 00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:19,360 and into building the United States. 689 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:27,160 (Instrumental music) 690 00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:34,680 Now, they lie abandoned, 691 00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:38,320 but once, they were at the cutting edge of engineering. 692 00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:42,960 There are echoes from history in these decaying structures. 693 00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:47,480 They remind us of terror and war 694 00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:51,360 but also of great innovation and human endeavour. 695 00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,440 Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV 56612

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