Original subtitles

They were once the most advanced buildings and structures on the planet.

The best achievements in design and construction .

Today they are abandoned, polluted and deadly.

These empty buildings are filled with echoes of real people's lost lives,

leaving many questions unanswered and mysteries unresolved.

In this show, we look at the strangest abandoned highways and transport hubs

and we ask: why the survival of Italy during the First World War

depended on a narrow road cut into a narrow rock wall.

The whole highway was built in nine months high in the mountains,

when it was attacked and it saved thousands of lives.

What mistakes led to the construction of the most dilapidated road in all of Britannia?

This shows us very clearly that things can go wrong

and how much they can go wrong and you remember it.

Why is one of the best French tourist attractions

too dangerous to visit now?

The builders of Grands Goulets achieved more than they could have imagined.

It was inspiring, it was romantic

and everyone wanted to travel on it.

And how the American businessman won the bet,

building a wooden road in the desert ?

Undertaking such a project requires American insanity

why not? Of course I do, I can handle anything.

Highway through the desert? Yes, why not?

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

We use them every day and take them for granted,

but roads are an important part of our world

for trade, travel and communication.

But sometimes roads are not built just for economic gain

sometimes it is a matter of life and death.

One of Europe's amazing roads saved the country from destruction

and crushing defeat.

Mount Pasubio rises above the Venetian plain in northern Italy .

A network of tunnels and roads runs over and through the vertical slopes of the mountain

and what appears to be only a narrow and dangerous narrow path.

But how did it play an important role in World War I?

During the war, of course, things were very dangerous,

you were under enormous pressure.

In times like these, engineers made the impossible possible.

They were attacked from above, they had little time

and it took them nine months to build it.

Things like this make engineers create things very quickly

and to do something that is not usually done in peacetime.

This is an amazing technical achievement that should be taken as such.

Italy did not choose a side until 1915

and entered World War I to fight its rival, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But its battles were not fought in muddy trenches,

its battles were fought on snowy mountaintops.

Most of Italy's battles during World War I

took place in the mountains bordering Austria-Hungary,

it was the so-called "White War", where most of the fighting took place above the snow line.

This comes with logistical challenges

and the natural obstacles that mountains present to the movement of troops,

meant that neither side had much to gain.

High in the Alps, Italian and Austrian forces were locked in battles of attrition.

Men tried to survive in the barren landscape,

where freezing temperatures and avalanches claimed hundreds of lives.

1916 the Austrians captured the peaks on both sides of Mount Pasubio

and the road leading directly to Venice remained vulnerable.

Dr. Manual Grotto was a member of Italy's elite Alpine Army.

He is an expert in the brutal war above the clouds.

This mountain marks the end of the Venetian plain and the beginning of the Alps.

If the Austrians had broken through the front line here,

they would have spilled over the plain

and gained control of Venice .

In 1916, a combat tanner was worn,

which had been located here and there across the Isonso River in northeastern Italy,

to the Trantino front a little to the west

and the Austrians made the breakthrough known as the Strath Expedition.

As a result, the hills along the plain of Venice became

suddenly become vitally and strategically important.

From the mountains near Pasubio

the Austrians had but one way to the summit directly before their eyes.

A million soldiers faced each other.

600,000 Italians and 400,000 Austrians.

The Austrians advanced on this flank

and when they took away that mountain,

they prevented the Italians from using the road leading to the front.

For this reason, a road with 52 tunnels was made.

The Italian commanders faced a question

how to move men and equipment to defend an important mountain,

without getting blown to pieces along the way ?

The only answer was to build a new road through the vertical cliffs of the mountain.

In wartime conditions, engineers can make the impossible possible.

"It can't be done" is not an acceptable answer.

And it is not a mistake or a coincidence that happened in the past

great technological leaps precisely during armed conflicts.

So when it comes to something like a 52-tunnel road,

then maybe it's not as well known as it should be,

it is not taken as the technical achievement that it really is,

given the conditions under which it was made.

With enormous effort, the Italian military engineers were able to build a gravel road,

which zigzagged in terrifying curves over the foot of the Pasubio.

The road was only one truck wide

and a driver losing control of the car faced certain death.

But that wasn't enough. To bring more men and equipment to the top of the mountain,

another road had to be cut through the southern cliffs of Pasubio

and even through the mountain itself.

Engineers divided the road into sections.

Step by step, they connected the road from the beginning at 1200 m

until the end at almost 2000 meters .

The soldiers building the road were former miners

many of them were too old to serve at the front.

They fought the mountain itself.

If the cliff was too steep to cut a sim into,

there was no other option but to dig a tunnel and there were 52 of them in total.

Yes, they were soldiers in name, but they were not fighters,

but still it was a battle zone bombarded by Austrian artillery

and it was precisely because of this that it was necessary to build this road.

However, the logistics task they solved and the danger of this work,

the tools they used to create this road and tunnels,

walking down the road today you can see how dangerous it could have been,

forget about building it if you can't see anything in front of you.

The men who did this deserve extraordinary admiration.

And did they get medals for bravery? No, although you should have.

Italian engineers raced to victory.

Can they get the road ready before the next Austrian attack?

One important device gave them a chance

it was a pneumatic drill.

Pneumatic drills were introduced in the late 19th century

and made the process of road construction and tunneling more efficient.

Before it was physical work. With hammers and chisels

a rock was carved to throw stones away

or make holes to place explosives.

The pneumatic drill has a combined hammer and chisel.

With compressed air, the rock surface can be broken up quite quickly.

You are working on a hillside at an altitude of 600 meters

and you make a narrow path that can fit two mules at a time,

but it was extremely important from the point of view of the war ,

because otherwise the country would basically be split in two,

which would have caused a big problem for the military so it had to be done.

And since it had to be done quickly, an air drill helped them do it,

and to do something functionally, but did it quickly.

Drills were used to make holes for the explosive, which removed the rock layers.

Drilled holes can still be seen in the tunnels ,

which were later filled with explosives.

The tunnel was built using explosives.

To build a 6.4 kilometer road through Mount Pasubio

it took nine months of constant effort.

To save time, it was made so wide that two mules could fit on it at the same time

and even on the highest section no handrails were placed.

Will the 52-tunnel road save lives or is it too dangerous to use?

The whole highway was built in nine months high in the mountains,

when it was attacked and it saved thousands of lives.

In 1918, the 52 tunnel road served as an important artery,

the Italians were able to beat back the Austrians

and remove the threat to your heartland.

At the end of the war, this unusual road through Pasubio mountain

disappeared over time when rockfalls blocked the tunnels and tracks

and now it is despite great efforts during tunneling

closed to all but the most determined walkers.

But the men who built it left a monument to their efforts,

which changed the course of the war.

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

The 52 tunnel road was not the only Alpine road,

which tested the abilities of the engineers.

In the mountains above Grenoble in southern France

another road was carved into the hard rock of the cliff face.

This time the road was not built because of the war,

but to trade with isolated mountain villages.

The name of the road is Grands Goulets

soon became known throughout the country.

But why such an amazing technical achievement

now closed and falling apart?

And how did the engineers develop the extremely dangerous system of road cutting?

The builders of Grands Goulets achieved more than they could have imagined.

Man conquers nature in a beautiful way

and Grands Goulets is a beautiful example of this.

You won't see anything like this anywhere else. It is completely unique.

There are valleys and mountains, different materials and outcrops,

there are rivers in the mountains that change direction.

Construction of roads and tunnels through mountain passes

is a difficult and very difficult task.

Grands Goulets were built 150 years ago, before technology

and yet they managed it.

The Vercors Plateau rises above the Rhone River in southern France .

For centuries, steep cliffs separated the plateau from the lowlands

it's a kind of Lost World.

In the mid-19th century, farmers living on the plateau demanded

a highway that would connect them to the markets of the cities below.

But the obstacles were huge.

Surrounded by granite cliffs and ravines.

The Vercours Valley is a natural fortress.

Finding a way through this line of defense was not easy.

Local road workers Pierre Drogue and Jean-Marc Lente

know first hand how difficult and dangerous this project was.

Of course, that was impossible at the time.

In fact, it was the construction project of our turn of the century.

The Vercours Plateau was completely isolated,

they lived in the forest above and traded in Royan below.

The road ensured the movement of goods.

People could travel down the mountain on horses or mules.

So it was vital to trade.

In more than a thousand years , Vernaison was a mountain river

cut a narrow channel in the rocks,

but it was not easy to exploit.

The beginning of the Grands Goulets road follows natural erosion,

where the river water had previously passed.

Water always follows the path of least resistance,

so if you go where nature has made its tunnels

and created your own walkthroughs, might be a good idea.

Then you have to think carefully, because if this is the path of least resistance,

so what geology can we find here?

It is difficult to decide whether it is right or wrong to do so.

But there is still a way to go.

A tunnel was built next to the river in 1846,

however, after a few hundred meters, the river changed direction and fell to the bottom of the ice cell.

Now the engineers were faced with another challenge.

They had to build a road in a vertical rock face.

The rock is above you and on one side of you,

then it's a steep drop, it's like a tunnel with an open side.

Engineers have developed a technique that is almost suicidal.

Men descend the rock wall with a rope,

they cut a hole for the explosive, light the fuse

and swing themselves away during the explosion.

It was extremely dangerous work.

Would there have been better ways to do it? Hard to say.

It certainly could have been done with hand picks and axes

and of course it would have taken much more time.

They chose a more dangerous and faster way to build the road .

Construction methods used to build the Grands Goulets road

would have made the modern healthcare worker quite sweaty.

Men went to work every day, risking not coming back.

To finish the three kilometer section of Grands Goulets

it took six years of hard work.

But the new road dramatically changed the lives of the inhabitants of the Vercours Plateau.

The road offers breathtaking views and access to the valleys below

made it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the South of France .

Grands Goulets must have been a trade route from the beginning,

which connects the villages on the hill with the rest of the world.

But as soon as the road was ready and men no longer risked their lives,

hanging ten meters below and planting explosives,

it was something else, it was romantic and inspiring

and people were engrossed in moving on this path.

I wonder if the engineers involved in the construction of the Grands Goulets road knew

that they create a kind of artistic and cultural masterpiece,

but if you look at it now, it's something beautiful.

There is something mystical about it and it has great artistic value

and in my opinion it is one of the beauties of technology.

However, problems soon began with Grands Goulets.

Built so wide that two horse-drawn carriages could fit on it at once,

the road could not accommodate cars, buses and trucks.

Engineers trying to widen the road realized they had made a major mistake.

The road to Grands Goulets is quite narrow

and there is a reason for that.

There are no reinforcements in the tunnels that the road passes through

and your path runs along the mountain side,

so you can only make the road a certain width,

because you do not strengthen the rock above you.

Widening the road would be quite difficult,

they had to think about how to support this rock?

And it can be extremely difficult, especially at the time

it was difficult to deliver materials to support the rock wall ,

then you should have built a pretty decent tunnel,

but that was not quite what they were trying to achieve.

Years passed and faster and bigger cars

turned the curves of the tunnel into death traps.

in 2000 and in 2005

nature itself played its role.

Whole rock wall sections fell down onto the road.

In 2000 and 2005

there were large rockfalls in Grand Goulets .

The first of these took place to our left

and 2005. another one was happening right here above our heads.

150 years later, in 2005,

a decision was made to close the road.

Maybe closing the road isn't the only solution.

Maybe the cliffs could be secured and rockfalls could be ruled out,

but for that the whole area should be cleaned,

something quite different should be done to avoid the element of risk

and the inherent beauty of that path would disappear.

So I think the road will remain closed

and i'm sad because i like going there

but i'm afraid because it's not safe.

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

Building roads and communication lines can be easy from a technical point of view,

but a hillside road in Derbyshire, northern England

is the most dilapidated road in the British Isles .

Mam Tor Road was built in the 19th century,

but today it looks as if it was torn apart by an earthquake.

So what happened to Judinate tea, as it came to be known?

I don't know how advanced the geology was when Mam Tor was built.

However, as you can see, a landslide has occurred here.

This shows us very clearly that things can go wrong

and how much they can go wrong and you remember it.

Mam Tor's story begins with Britannia's first global conflict,

of the Napoleonic War.

1809 was a time when the result was very balanced

and Britannia's role was merely to supply soldiers,

although the number of soldiers to be sent increased steadily -

it was a veritable industrial powerhouse the alliance's cash reserve,

who fought for life and death against Napoleon

and thus would have burdened communities like Castleton,

which had their goods as quickly and efficiently as possible

ship to nearby markets to feed this industrial powerhouse.

The construction of this road was directly related to the war effort.

In 1819, road builders started building the road.

From the small town of Castletown to the city of Sheffield.

Business interests made the new road important.

The Industrial Revolution took place in Great Britain

and industries arose all over the country, but this industry needed,

for goods and materials to move in and out.

Transport networks were crucial.

So without new roads, railways and canals,

and this great network united the whole country into one country,

the industrial revolution simply wouldn't have happened.

They were the life-pumping veins and arteries of the Industrial Revolution.

One would not have been possible without the other.

But there was one problem.

Castleton was separated from Sheffield by steep hills.

If the road went up a steep hill,

it would have been unusable for horse-drawn carriages of the time.

It has some limits if from a steep road

a horse can be made to lift a heavy load.

Mam Tor was chosen as the route because of the terrain conditions

the slope was much smaller there,

so they could zigzag up without making too steep a path.

It was the road that the horses got up,

but they knew nothing of the geology of the place,

it was probably the worst place to build a road .

So what did the builders do about the slope problem?

The new road was routed over the slope of the 518-meter Mam Tor hill.

The slope of the slope made it possible to build a road with gentle curves.

However, the slope could have hinted at a major flaw in their planning.

The road planners did not understand the underlying geology of the area,

which is an important factor in the planning of road networks today .

Understanding geology is so important,

because your road surface can be really hard,

but if its foundation is weak and unfit for the purpose,

then this strong tea is of no use.

Even for today's road builders , the most important factors are

geology and environment of the future road location .

It is necessary to know how to deal with the existing geology and environment,

to get a nice and solid path that stays in place.

Locals call Mam Tor the Judisevas mountain

and this gives an idea of ​​the fact that the hill is situated on a layer of slate.

A kilometer from the road is a scar left by an old landslide

although Mam Tor appears to be solid, the slate beneath it means,

that one slope is in constant motion - especially during periods of heavy rains.

The entire hillside moves slowly towards Castleton

at a rate of a quarter of a meter per year.

The road is built on a layer of sandstone,

but below that is a layer of shale.

Slate is extremely unstable, especially in winter,

when it rains that seeps through the sandstone

and makes this shale layer almost liquid.

So that was a critical factor for Mam Tor.

As the surface of the hill continued to move,

Mam Tor's road soon began to crumble.

In the 19th century, the road was repaired in a very simple way,

but when the road surface was covered with bitumen, it became much more difficult.

The use of bitumen made it easier to improve the road surface,

because stones can be mixed with sticky bitumen

and create a beautiful strong surface.

The problem, however, is that the foundation of the road just slides away.

So it doesn't matter how good the road surface is:

if the base is not strong enough, the top will not last very long.

Even with the new road surface , the slope continued to move.

Over time, several attempts were made to prevent it from sliding away on the road.

The biggest test took place in 1949.

There was a big slide and then they dug further into the hill

and put on the lower part of the road

a road covered with limestone was built.

This made matters worse as they cut deeper into the geology,

which caused even more slippage,

in addition, the road surface was made too difficult.

After that, all the stuff started moving at an unprecedented speed.

As the outer edge became heavier, even more sliding occurred.

It's like hanging a weight on the wrong side of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

It falls over. They contributed to it.

If they knew what we know now, they wouldn't have done it.

Finally , the patience of the local authorities was broken due to continuous landslides.

In 1979, Mam Tor Road was closed to all traffic.

The road was abandoned because it was almost unusable.

A balance must be found between the cost of building a new road

and completely abandon what is and what has been destroyed

and how much will it cost to repair the original road?

And if the new road is cheaper

and better for the environment than repairing an old road,

then you have to choose a new path.

But there comes a time when you have to say:

"That's enough - nature defeated us. Let's close."

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

Abandoned Buildings

Highways to Nowhere

An unstable foundation can be an obstacle for road builders,

but matters are even more complicated when the entire soil is in motion.

One of the most unusual highways built on sandy terrain,

which constantly threatened to bury the greatest efforts of engineers.

And all because of a bet.

The "Old Boardwalk" is an 11-kilometer stretch in San Diego, California

and Phoenix, Arizona across rugged desert terrain.

But how was it done and has the achievement stood the test of time?

There was no road in this desert for a reason.

Highways and deserts don't mix.

Deserts are extremely dynamic landscapes

there is wind in the desert, there are sand dunes in the desert

and interacting with each other , they completely change the surface of the earth.

Things move, get higher and lower,

so building a road there seems like a crazy thing to do.

When it comes to Laudtee, the simplest idea is the best idea.

We are dealing with fast moving and changing sand

this is the surface on which they tried to build a road.

The road is something fixed, something that doesn't move,

however, the sand is constantly moving and they needed something flexible.

The idea is simple, and perhaps because of its simplicity it worked.

1912 Los Angeles became the terminus of the trans-American railroad.

But with no highways to connect it to the east,

nearby San Diego was becoming an economic sinkhole,

which was prevented from expanding by a desert considered impassable.

One local businessman decided to stop ignoring the city.

His name was Ed Fletcher and he insisted on

for the Southern California Highway to use San Diego as its stopover.

As a result, Fletcher was challenged to participate in a rally,

to see which city has the fastest connection to Phoenix, the capital of Arizona.

He gave Los Angeles newspaper reporters a 24-hour head start.

And incredibly, Fletcher arrived in Phoenix first,

in just nineteen and a half hours.

Ed Fletcher is one of America 's greatest unsung heroes.

He takes initiative, sees a challenge and overcomes it.

Let's build the right road in the desert.

Really? How? Of wooden planks, is that a good idea? And he does.

People think California is full of evil,

perhaps it has always been this way, but the effort must be appreciated.

Undertaking such a project requires American insanity

why not? Of course I do, I can handle anything.

Highway through the desert? Yes, why not?

Although he won that bet,

how did Fletcher turn San Diego into a traffic hub?

He brought 13,000 wooden planks

and built an 11-kilometer boardwalk through the desert .

Planks were laid out in the desert for a highway,

I would have come up with such a solution when I was seven years old.

But the fact that they did it

13,000 sawn boards were laid side by side,

to that one could say that it is not possible.

Anything was possible for Ed Fletcher .

It makes you wonder where he got his idea from,

because until then most of the boardwalks were built for the military.

We know that during the US Civil War many railroads were built

and during World War I, when this road was built,

armies of all countries built temporary roads in the Ypres Salient.

He probably knew it, but his path was not temporary.

The road was built to last and it is quite unusual to think,

that this relatively simple structure

must have lasted more than a year or two.

Amazingly, Fletcher's improvised tea was so successful,

that in 1915 it was connected to the California state highway system.

If I had taken the card at the time

and used it to go to San Diego and I would have gone via the Boardwalk

and I would have seen the sawn boards of which the road is made,

then I would have been very shocked. You don't expect anything like that.

It is quite strange and rather surprising to me,

two wooden planks in this moving sand desert

can be part of a highway. There's a lot to learn from it,

as engineering solutions can sometimes be very simple,

but it seems a bit crazy to me .

The boardwalk was in continuous use for ten years

not only by local traffic, but also by tourists,

who came to enjoy an amazingly rocking ride through the desert.

Fletcher's Laudtee became successful because of its novelty,

it's off the beaten path, it's an adventure.

People want to ride it, they want to experience it.

These are people who seek excitement,

people who boast of having been on the boardwalk

and everyone wants to do it.

Fletcher proved he can do it and there is still a way to go.

He even improved his two-plank design with a solid wood surface.

I love the iterative process of constructors and engineers here

from two parallel tables on which car wheels can be set

until the continued planking,

which is set before you as a more monolithic structure.

The strong surface is a step forward compared to two planks,

but at the end of the day it's still the same problem,

that the landscape changes very dramatically in a matter of hours ,

so we have to understand what we are dealing with

how much wind is there, how much is the sand moving? Which is better, which is worse?

And once we understand what we're dealing with,

then we will find the right answer to the question. I think that makes sense.

In 1926, the correct solution was to replace wooden planks

with a professional asphalt coating installed on a sandy slope.

The quicksand was analyzed and found out,

that the sand moved more when it was lower,

anything lifted up was less affected by the quicksand

and when a more permanent asphalt road was made,

then it was made on a raised slope.

The same original Laudtee

was located below where the sand is more mobile.

When the new asphalt road was completed,

the old boardwalk was abandoned in the wilderness.

It gradually disappeared under the sand

and was torn down by looters who coveted its timber.

Ed Fletcher showed what a little imagination can do

and with a great deal of determination.

Roads can pose great challenges for engineers,

especially when the terrain adds construction challenges.

The efforts of the engineers who created the Grands Goulets road in the 19th century

ended in collapse and death in 2005.

The road is now abandoned.

Grands Goulets is now closed as it is unsafe.

The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Shall we go and bulldoze the road wider

and we put ropes so it's safe and anyone can experience it?

Or we leave that perfect moment in time, that romantic journey

and the memory of it in photos, let's leave everything as it is?

I think that's right.

Mam Tor road in northern England kept sliding down the hill

and by 1979 was too dangerous and closed.

Ironically, the Boardwalk connecting California and Arizona,

which ran on unstable ground, less problematic than expected,

but it has been replaced by a modern bituminous road.

Ed Fletcher was able to unite the country,

closing the gap between Arizona and San Diego,

which would otherwise have been abandoned and remained undeveloped.

Of all the roads, the 52 tunnel road has withstood time the best.

The road was abandoned for 80 years, but was rediscovered in the 1970s.

By then, the tunnels were filled with debris

and most of you had fallen in.

Volunteers cleaned the tunnels and repaired the road surface

and volunteers and tourists return every year ,

to commemorate the thousands of men who died in the mountains

and remember their towering technical achievement.

Only when a long time had passed since the war,

people began to appreciate things,

which was amazingly built into the mountains,

as they once were.

So they start visiting battlefields

and to remember their fathers who fought there.

The engineers who built the 52 tunnel road in Italy,

speak for all road builders of the last two centuries .

Fletcher's planks from the desert road in the United States

to the death- defying workers of France's Grands Goulets Pass

and to the unfortunate souls who battled nature during the construction of the Mam Tor road.

Above the entrance to the tunnel, the words are scratched in stone:

"Those who do great things are remembered forever."