All language subtitles for The UnXplained S02E09 Secrets of Americas Monuments 1080p HULU WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Soaring structures built
to stand the test of time.

And gigantic stone obelisks
that reveal mysterious agendas.

For millions of people,
monuments like Mount Rushmore,

the Washington Monument,

and the Empire State Building
represent

the engineering triumphs
of a great nation.

But what is it about
America's monuments

that continue to fascinate
and inspire us

decades or even centuries
after their creation?

And could their facades
be concealing hidden meanings

or even secret purposes?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Here in the Black Hills, nearly
6,000 feet above sea level,

four colossal granite faces

look over the majestic
landscape.

Their names?

George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson,

Theodore Roosevelt
and Abraham Lincoln.

Four iconic representations
of America's dramatic past.

TONY PERROTTET:
Mount Rushmore is
an extraordinary vision

when you first see it.

It's very impressive.

It's closer in spirit
to an ancient monument.

It's like one of the, you know,

the wonders
of the ancient world.

SHATNER:
Today, more than two million
people visit each year

to gaze in awe at these
silent stone sentinels.

But was Mount Rushmore built
merely to allow Americans

to celebrate their history?

Or is it possible
that it had another,

even more profound purpose?

Doane Robinson was the
state historian of South Dakota

in the early 1900s.

He was the original person
to have an idea

of bringing tourists to his
great state of South Dakota.

PERROTTET:
His idea was to create these
folkloric sort of characters

carving from the Black Hills.

This sort of shaping of the,
of the, of the very landscape.

It‐it seems
a very American thing.

SHATNER:
Doane Robinson envisioned
his monument

to depict the heroes
of the American West,

such as Lewis and Clark,
Sacagawea, Buffalo Bill Cody,

and Chief Red Cloud.

BRACEWELL:
Doane Robinson's original idea
was to bring a sculptor,

a stone sculptor,
to South Dakota to do the job.

He asked several sculptors
in the United States

that were unavailable,

and he read a newspaper article
about the work

that Gutzon Borglum was doing
down in Stone Mountain,

and got the idea that
he would be available

to do this kind of massive
sculpture in South Dakota.

PERROTTET:
Gutzon Borglum was
the first American sculptor

to have a piece of work bought
by the Metropolitan Museum

while he was still alive.

He'd gone and studied in Paris
with Rodin.

So he had quite
an impressive career

by the time he was
contacted by Doane

to go to South Dakota.

ROBIN BORGLUM‐CARTER:
Gutzon was a second‐generation
American,

and love for America
was instilled into him

in the beginning.

His father was from Denmark
and was a Mormon missionary,

and had waited ten years
to get to the United States.

So he had an appreciation
for American art

and everything American.

SHATNER:
Gutzon Borglum rejected
Doane Robinson's plan

to carve depictions
of Native Americans

and regional folk heroes.

As far as he was concerned,

his masterpiece required figures
of a more national stature.

PERROTTET:
He was really looking
for something incredibly grand,

incredibly splendid,
something for the ages,

so that his name would
ring down through history.

So he came up with the idea
of using the presidents.

SHATNER:
But why would such an
accomplished artist

risk his reputation to pursue
an engineering feat

that other sculptors had deemed

not only difficult
but impossible?

BORGLUM‐CARTER:
I think he had convinced himself
that he could carve mountains,

and he wanted to prove
to everybody

that this could be done.

He had one dream,
and that was to create something

on a monumental scale that would
show everybody one man's

love for his country.

It just became an obsession.

SHATNER:
To realize this tribute
to America,

Borglum employed a small army
of highly skilled artisans

to ensure that the beauty
of Mount Rushmore

was equal to its enormity.

People like Italian immigrant
Luigi Del Bianco.

LOU DEL BIANCO: Before
Mount Rushmore was even carved,

two years were spent
clearing trees.

They had to create roads.

They had to run 20 miles
of electrical cable

from Mount Rushmore
to Rapid City

so the pneumatic drills
could be powered,

or any other kind of,
uh, necessities.

SHATNER:
To get from the staging area

to the top of the mountain,

the men had to climb 700 steps,

which is like climbing halfway
up the Empire State Building.

And they had to bring heavy
equipment along with them.

So, this is a pneumatic drill,
and it probably weighs about‐‐

I'm gonna say it weighs
about 25 pounds.

The larger drills were probably
45 pounds.

And these guys had to use these,
like, up to 12 hours a day.

SHATNER:
After 15 years, 400 men,

more than 20,000 pounds
of dynamite,

and the removal of
450,000 tons of rock,

the work intended to represent

"the triumph of modern society
and democracy" was complete.

But there is another feature
of Mount Rushmore's

original design that has forced
many historians

to debate and ponder
Gutzon Borglum's

profound reason for
creating the monument.

There's a valley
right behind the memorial,

and on the other side
of the valley,

he had plans of carving a sort
of cave into the mountain.

BORGLUM‐CARTER:
Some of the drawings were
that there would be

a 12‐foot entrance, and then
there'd be a big room inside,

and then he kind of
enlarged that

to a second big room,
and then there was even talk

of rooms underneath it.

It was going to be something
quite monumental‐‐

pharaonic in scale, really.

And the centerpiece of it was
this Hall of Records,

which would recount
in very grandiose terms

the first 150 years
of American history.

SHATNER:
According to surviving
documents,

Borglum's Hall of Records was
to be an 80‐by‐120‐foot chamber

deep within the granite
mountain.

Not unlike a similar chamber
believed to be located

beneath the paws of the Sphinx
in Egypt.

Inside, Borglum imagined
the busts of important

American leaders and innovators
would be put on display

along with the United States'
most sacred documents,

including the original
Declaration of Independence

and United States Constitution.

But while only a small fraction
of the Hall of Records

was ever built,

one has to wonder,
why did Borglum think

such a remotely located archive
was necessary?

BRACEWELL:
Gutzon Borglum
had always believed

that you couldn't leave this
for future generations

and civilizations
without explaining

what the meaning was
and the message was

of the mountain‐‐
a massive sculpture

as a memorial
to the United States.

SHATNER:
Gutzon Borglum once
lamented that

each succeeding civilization
forgets its predecessor.

"Civilizations," he said,
"are ghouls."

Is it possible that he foresaw
the eventual criticism

that his work, along with
his previous associations

with white supremacist groups
like the Ku Klux Klan,

would eventually receive?

BORGLUM‐CARTER:
Well, the Stone Mountain project
is kind of complicated.

What it always comes back to
is the Ku Klux Klan.

And certainly Gutzon knew
when he went down there

that the Klan met
at Stone Mountain.

And he knew that the backers
were sympathizers.

PERROTTET:
He fell in with a bad crowd
as the Klan was reviving

in the early '20s,
and especially in Georgia.

It was very bad judgment.

And what happened in the end is
he fell out with the Klan.

He fell out with all the people
who were funding him.

And he just threw
the whole thing aside.

SHATNER:
Perhaps Borglum believed
that by enshrining the nation's

founding documents
in a stone vault,

he could protect not only
his greatest work of art

but his own reputation.

Unfortunately, we may
never know the truth.

Gutzon Borglum passed away
in 1941,

before his original design
for Mount Rushmore

and the Hall of Records
could be completed.

It's a story similar

to the true purpose behind
another famous U. S. monument

not only associated
with dead American presidents

but with those who lived there.

MARSHATNER:M:
Two While staying atther
in a temporary residencedge

known as the President's House
on 190 High Street,

George Washington meets
with the commissioners

of the newly established
District of Columbia

to announce the winner
of an important

architectural design contest.

The chosen plan
by Irish architect James Hoban

was selected from dozens
of submissions,

all vying to design
what was to be

the president's permanent home.

WILLIAM SEALE:
George Washington liked
architecture.

He was very interested
in houses, symbolism.

And the White House
is an iconic symbol

of the presidency
all over the world today.

Everything about the White House
is George Washington's idea.

It was really his vision
for the city,

for the scale of the building,

for the necessity of it being
built with stone in a time

when there were no stonecutters
in Washington.

SHATNER:
Starting construction in 1792,

the President's Palace,
as it was then called,

took eight years to complete,
at the then cost

of approximately $230,000.

A relatively modest sum,
even in those days.

After British troops
set fire to the structure

during the War of 1812...

...numerous renovations
and additions expanded

the original two‐story building
to include colonnades

connecting the East
and the West Wings,

as well as the north
and south porticos.

According to the official tour,
the White House

as we know it today contains
a staggering 132 rooms...

...including 16 family
and guest rooms

and 35 bathrooms.

55,000 square feet in all,
located on 18 acres

in the heart of one of the
busiest cities in the world.

Presidents years ago
would entertain everyday people

who could just walk
to the White House,

get in and talk
to the president.

The White House
used to be thought of

as the people's house.

There are very few areas
in the White House

that the president
can be truly private.

Presidents are living
a very abnormal existence.

So you wonder how they get
some sense of normalcy,

which you don't get
in the White House.

SHATNER:
For more than two centuries,

the White House has served
as the primary residence

of every president
of the United States.

But 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
is more than simply the home

of the president
and first family.

It is also the headquarters
of the executive branch itself.

Which have led many to ask:

is there more
about the White House

that we don't know, hiding
behind its austere facade?

Experts have long suspected
that top secret tunnels exist

beneath the White House,
enabling the president to travel

throughout the city
entirely unseen.

I was very surprised
to learn the quick routes

that needed to be taken
in case of an emergency.

And not something
that I can discuss,

but there are ways
that the president can be moved

from point A
to point B very quickly

in an emergency situation.

SHATNER:
According to historians,

many of the rumors
surrounding such tunnels

and other classified
security features

originated during President
Harry Truman's administration

in the 1940s,

after numerous structural
issues were discovered

throughout the residence.

WHITCOMB:
The White House had nicknames
like a "public shabby house."

There was lots of derogatory
terms about it over the years

because it would fall
in and out of disrepair

depending on how popular
the president was with Congress.

SEALE:
And so,

the White House, by the time
President Truman was there,

was like a hamburger
someone had sat on.

All the levels
were just squashed.

And the corps of engineers
had been yelling about this

for a long time.

SHATNER:
Between 1949 and 1952,

a drastic renovation
was authorized by Congress.

Engineers replaced
the wooden subframe

with state‐of‐the‐art
steel beams

and rebuilt the inside from
scratch using modern materials,

leaving only the iconic
sandstone exterior intact.

The White House is a facility
that's‐‐ we call it hardened.

A facility that's actually
built to withstand

someone shooting a rifle,

someone bringing
any kind of explosive,

or any kind of threat
to the building.

You want to be able to protect
the people inside the building.

SHATNER:
As a result,
some historians have questioned:

should the modern White House
be considered a residence

or a fortress?

RON KESSLER: The White House
grounds are protected

by a complete array of sensors
that detect heat, motion.

If anything is detected, the
Secret Service comes running.

BRAD PATTERSON: It was realized
you really needed

some kind of a military facility
there in the White House.

And so the Situation Room
was established

in the West Wing
of the White House.

It has an international
top secret,

secure teleconference system

so the president can engage
in face‐to‐face conversations

with other leaders of the world.

There's the famous picture
in the Situation Room

of President Obama
and Secretary Clinton

and the staff during the mission
that went after Osama bin Laden.

The capability certainly exists,
within the Situation Room,

to watch live broadcasts.

SHATNER:
As a matter
of national security,

the members of the White House
staff are under strict orders

not to reveal the full extent

of the building's
defense infrastructure.

However,
it has been acknowledged

that in addition
to the Situation Room,

the White House also contains
a bunker‐like structure

beneath the East Wing

known as the Presidential
Emergency Operations Center,

or PEOC,

to protect the president
in case of direct attack.

But could the White House's
military capabilities

go even further than that?

Let's just say that, yes,
the White House is capable

of thwarting an attack.

For instance,
if you remember Frank Corder,

the individual who flew
the airplane onto the South Lawn

and that crashed
into the White House itself.

SHATNER:
On September 12, 1994,

Frank Eugene Corder,
a 38‐year‐old Army veteran

suffering from depression,

flew a small airplane
directly at the White House

in what is believed to have been
an assassination attempt

on President Bill Clinton.

Although the official record
states

that Corder's plane crashed
before it reached its target,

many believe it was,
in fact, shot down.

BASHAM:
People just assumed

that the White House had

all of those defense mechanisms
in place,

and when this Cessna
flew into the White House,

and fortunately
they prevented any penetration

into the interior
of the White House itself.

So, I think that demonstrates
that‐that, that it does exist.

SHATNER:
Is the White House
a full‐fledged battle station,

protected by
antiaircraft missiles

and other covert armaments?

And if so, what about
the other prominent structures

located in our nation's capital?

May they also be hiding secrets
in plain sight?

There are many who believe
that the answer lies

just a few yards away
within the very heart

of the Capitol dome.

AKRAM ELIAS:
Gstands what is perhapsd
the single greatest monument

to democracy in the world,

the United States
Capitol Building.

The iconic dome at the center
is flanked

by two nearly identical wings.

The North,
which houses the Senate,

and the South, which houses
the House of Representatives.

The vast sandstone‐clad
structure contains

some 600 rooms and covers
approximately four acres.

It's designed to radiate power.

And as one stands here,
one can feel themselves

just being
lifted up by its presence.

And it was designed
to be that way.

SHATNER:
As with the White House,

the cornerstone ceremony was
presided over by Freemasons.

At 10:00 a. m.
on September 18, 1793,

crowds gathered to watch
George Washington

carefully anoint
a massive stone block

with corn, oil and wine.

He then struck it three times
with a gavel

to announce the
laying of the cornerstone...

...for the building
intended to become

the heart
of America's new democracy.

When Freemasons
conduct such a ceremony,

they're basically
sending a message

to the people who are going
to work out of that edifice

that their main mission
is not to rule over people.

George Washington wanted
to send that powerful message,

"This is the symbol
of this new American republic."

SHATNER:
Seven years after construction
on the Capitol began,

the United States Congress
held its first session

on November 17, 1800.

As the number of states

admitted to the nation
grew over the next 50 years,

the design
of the original buildings

continued to expand
in order to accommodate

the increasing number
of legislators in Congress.

But there is one fact
about the Capitol dome

that is less well‐known,

and it's not about what lies
on top of the building

but what lies deep below.

HENRY:
Beneath that is what's called

the crypt.

This is fascinating
because civic buildings

are not supposed to have crypts.

Churches have crypts.
Cemeteries have crypts.

But the U. S. Capitol
has a crypt. Why?

SHATNER:
A crypt?

According to historians,
the crypt

below the Capitol dome's rotunda
was intended

to be the burial place
for George Washington,

similar to the burial places
of English kings

beneath the floors
of the British cathedrals.

However, by the time
the construction

of the crypt was completed
in 1827,

Washington, who strongly
rejected any notion

that he should be regarded
as a king,

had already been buried
at his home in Mount Vernon.

Washington's family,
out of respect for his wishes,

now refused to move his body
to Washington.

But even though the crypt
beneath the Capitol is empty,

George Washington's presence
can still be felt

all over the Capitol.

ELIAS:
One of the most fascinating
parts of the Capitol

is the rotunda,
which is at the heart;

it's a circle.

And if you look above,
you see a beautiful painting

of the apotheosis
of George Washington.

It's an enormous painting
that depicts Washington

as you would see a god depicted.

He sits in a setting of clouds

with what look like angels
immediately surrounding him.

The apotheosis
of George Washington

was completed
by Constantino Brumidi in 1865.

The word "apotheosis"
is a Greek word

that means to deify;
to raise from a man

to a god‐man,
or to achieve glory.

And when one achieves glory,
one glows rays,

just like the gods.

Who's buried
in Washington's tomb?

Nobody.

Because he's up on the ceiling.

He's raised himself
from the tomb,

gone up through the rotunda
and up through the sun gate

that leads to heaven.

He is a deity.

SHATNER: Could The Apotheosis
of Washington be a clue

that America's founding fathers
actually intended

the United States be built upon
not only the laws of man

but also divine forces
beyond our understanding?

Perhaps.

But the story of the Capitol
Building becomes even stranger

when you consider what stands
atop the iconic dome.

The freedom statue
on top of the Capitol

is a 19 1/2‐foot‐tall statue
of an Iroquois goddess

who actually is morphing
into an eagle.

This is very important
because the ancient gods

were portrayed as eagle‐headed.

Nimrod was taken into
the heavens by eagles.

So was Zeus.

And also with the legends of
the Iroquois Native Americans.

The Iroquois creation story
of sky woman, uh, is basically:

before Earth really became
what it is today,

there were beings
that were similar to us

living in the sky.

One day, a young woman,
sky woman, became pregnant.

She is to go down
to the world below.

And so this extraterrestrial
that lived in the sky‐‐

she comes down
and then the human race begins.

SHATNER:
An extraterrestrial
that came down to Earth

from the sky?

But if so, how did this figure
from Iroquois mythology

come to be standing atop
America's Capitol Building?

At the debate on the
Declaration of Independence,

the Iroquois chiefs
were specifically invited.

And over 40 of them came
to Philadelphia

in May of 1776.

And they stayed there
on through the debating

and passage of the
Declaration of Independence.

Their presence was
so important because

if half your economy is
trading with Native Americans,

then you have to learn about
how the community,

their government runs,

you have to learn about
the culture.

Benjamin Franklin,
in particular,

was deeply interested in
the star legends and star lore

of the Iroquois Confederacy.

So when we add all this
together, it looks like

the freedom statue is
being referenced here

as a star being.

SHATNER:
An empty crypt
beneath the rotunda.

George Washington portrayed
as a god.

And a statue of an Iroquois
star goddess.

Might the United States
Capitol Building reveal that

America's most important
monuments serve

not just
an architectural purpose

but also a spiritual one?

Many believe the answer is yes,
and suggest that for the proof,

we need only look to one of our
most iconic national monuments:

a giant stone obelisk
whose history is as fascinating

as the U. S. president
for whom it was named.

SHATNER:
IAfter an extensivee
three‐year renovation,

including significant
security enhancements

to make it nearly invulnerable
to terrorist attacks,

the Washington Monument,
a towering memorial

dedicated to America's
first president,

finally reopens
to an eager public.

The Washington Monument is
such an important place

in the American narrative
because of what it represents.

It represents
George Washington himself

and his important position
in the building of our nation.

It is a ray of light
descending from the heavens,

or inspiration itself,

just as he was that
to the young nation.

SHATNER:
First unveiled in 1884,

and standing 555 feet tall,

the Washington Monument
is not only

the tallest structure
in Washington, D. C.,

but the tallest stone structure
in the world.

It is a feat made
even more incredible

by the fact that
the 36,491 blocks

of marbled granite
and bluestone gneiss

that comprise
the Washington Monument

are only held together
by gravity and friction,

without any mortar whatsoever.

Most people look
at the Washington Monument

and they see a huge obelisk,

but I doubt that
very many people at all

know every stone
in the monument is unique.

Every stone has its own story,

and they all have secrets.

SHATNER:
Secrets? In the stones?

Most who visit
the Washington Monument

immediately notice
a slight variation

in the color of
the stone facade,

indicating the towering spire
likely underwent

a troubled period
during its construction.

The monument's origins
date back to 1833,

when a group of citizens called

the Washington National
Monument Society

took charge of the project

and selected a design
by architect Robert Mills.

BERGER:
Robert Mills' original design
for a Washington monument

was that of a 600‐foot shaft,

a obelisk with a much
flatter pyramidion

than that which now bedecks
the Washington Monument

we all know.

And it would have
a colonnade surrounding

the Washington Monument's
central shaft of statuary

of the founding fathers
that supported George Washington

in the building of the nation.

SHATNER:
ON July 4, 1848,

thousands of people
gathered on the hillside

just south of the White House
to commemorate

the long‐awaited start
of construction

on the Washington Monument.

What they witnessed wasn't
merely the laying

of the ceremonial cornerstone

but an elaborate
Freemason ritual.

BERGER:
The Freemasons were
very instrumental

in the building
of the Washington Monument

because, of course,
the subject matter

that the monument honors‐‐
George Washington himself‐‐

being a very prominent
Freemason.

They wore
George Washington's sash.

They wore his apron.

‐And they had his gavel.
‐(gavel bangs)

You were identifying with
the father of our country.

And then, of course,
a few years later,

the Civil War intervened,
and that led to

enormous delays in
constructing the monument.

After a lot of delay,

the construction
of the Washington Monument

is jump‐started again.

SHATNER:
When construction resumes,

the stones used to
complete the monument

came from a different quarry.

This explains why
there is a visible difference

in the color
of the stones today.

Also different is
the final design.

Mills's grandiose vision
for the Washington Monument

was replaced by a simpler

and perhaps
even more striking design‐‐

a single, towering obelisk.

But what could have inspired
the use of a symbol

from ancient Egypt to honor
the most venerated

of American presidents?

ELIAS:
It is no coincidence
that obelisks are used

as symbols in the rituals
of freemasonry.

The Egyptians were
great builders.

And here, we're not talking
anymore only about

building structures,
physical structures.

We're talking about
creating, also, a link

between the physical Earth,
where we live,

and what is happening
in the universe around us.

The language of freemasonry
is a language of symbols.

And there is
a fundamental reason for that.

By using a language of symbols,
you can talk about ideas

that free the mind
with some form of safety.

HIERONIMUS:
There are important symbols

within the Washington Monument.

When you get in the elevator
and you go up,

above one of the elevator doors

is a winged disc
with a six‐pointed star

in that disc.

That winged disc goes back
to Egyptian mythologies

and indicated elevation
of consciousness.

We're getting in this elevator,
moving into

the higher spiritual dimensions,

with the six‐pointed star
in the middle!

BERGER:
The aluminum tip on top
of the Washington Monument

was placed there
December 6, 1884

upon the completion of this
structure as a crowning act.

Engraved upon it, two words:

"laus Deo,"
or "Praise be to God,"

facing to the east.

And as those two words
face to the east,

the sun rises but never sets
upon those words.

Is the Washington Monument

a glorious memorial
to a great man?

Or is it also a tribute
to the role Freemasonry played

in the founding
of the United States?

There are many who believe
that both things are true,

and that the mystery
of America's obsession

with tall buildings
can best be answered

by examining the story
of a building

that, while no longer
the world's tallest,

is still one of its most famous,

the Empire State Building.

SHATNER:
After four years
The Eof construction, d

the Empire State Building's
remodeled

102nd floor observatory is
finally revealed to the public.

Costing a staggering
$165 million,

the renovation also includes
a 10,000‐square‐foot museum

and an all‐new observation deck,

offering visitors a 360‐degree
view from atop the building,

one that has often been called
the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The Empire State Building,

almost more than any other
building, represents New York.

Great look, a great presence.

It's called the "it factor."

People have it,
buildings have it,

and the Empire State Building
has the it factor.

SHATNER:
Designated a National
Historic Landmark in 1986,

many consider the Empire State
Building to be not only

the most recognizable
building in New York City

but also the entire world.

Over 20,000 people arrive
to work here every day,

taking one of the 73 elevators
to offices

located across 103 floors,

nearly 2.7 million square feet
of office space in all.

In fact, the 1,454‐foot
building is so large,

it was even given
its own zip code.

Originally designed
to be a symbol

of America's indomitable
spirit and ingenuity,

until 1972
the Empire State Building

enjoyed its unique status
as the world's tallest building.

The Empire State Building was
scheduled to be a thousand feet.

The Chrysler Building was 1,046.

So they determined
that they would ensure

that they would be
the world's tallest building

by adding a 200‐foot‐high mast
atop the building.

You could almost call it
the race of the titans.

The idea for the world's tallest
tower always gains attention.

And there is a certain kind
of status that's given

to any building
that's going to break a record,

because it certainly
is a signal achievement.

SHATNER:
As anticipated,

when the Empire State Building
finally opened

on May 1, 1931,
its coveted status

as the tallest building
in the world

brought it international renown.

But why construct
a building to tower

more than a thousand feet
above the Earth?

If monuments
like the Capitol Building

and the Washington Monument
are meant to symbolize

a connection to something
greater than ourselves,

could the Empire State Building
be an attempt

to literally ascend from
the Earth and touch the heavens?

WILLIS:
The thrill of being at the top

of the Empire State Building

is, is really to‐to be
above it all.

To look out to the harbor

and have the, the thrill
of nearly infinite vision.

There are many
historical paradigms

to summarize the achievements
through the ages.

For the Romans
it might be the Pantheon,

for the Greeks
it might be the Parthenon,

but the Empire State Building
summarizes the idea

about what America wanted
to be in the 20th century.

SHATNER:
According to historians,

the romantic notion
of being above it all

was taken to the extreme

when the Empire State Building
first opened.

WILLIS:
The stock market was going up,

real estate investment
was rampant.

They needed to have some
extra measure of modernity

that signaled that this building
not just stood above the rest

but participated
in this upper stratum

of the‐the world of business.

So they imagined that they would
add a docking station

for dirigibles,
for the zeppelins.

SHATNER:
A dirigible docking station?

Is it possible
that the Empire State Building,

hailed as a symbol of America's

can‐do attitude
and industrial might,

was actually envisioned to be
the world's tallest airport?

TAURANAC:
They said, "We will drag it
into the building,

crank it down."

The dirigible can be moored
to the top of the mooring mast.

A gangplank can be dropped
to the 103rd floor

where there was a platform
that ringed to the building.

And the passengers
can de‐dirigible

down the gangplank
1,250 feet in the air.

It was the looniest building
scheme since the Tower of Babel.

SHATNER:
The first test

of the Empire State Building's
docking station

was a massive failure.

Although workers managed
to pass a mailbag

over from the top of the tower,
the tethered airship was rocked

by high winds
while attempting to dock.

After the Hindenburg disaster
in 1937,

the notion
of commercial dirigible travel

was abandoned altogether.

A fate that fortunately
would not befall

another great American monument,

one that thousands of people
travel across every day,

despite the possibility

of catastrophic
structural collapse.

In celebration
of its 50th anniversary,

hundreds of thousands
of people gather

to walk across one
of America's greatest monuments,

the Golden Gate Bridge.

Designed by engineer
Leon Moisseiff,

the 887,000‐ton bridge
measures 1.7 miles across

and is suspended
by two main cables,

each 7,659 feet long
and over three feet in diameter.

And although more than
100,000 vehicles

commute across
the bridge every day,

on this day
it begins to groan and sag

under the load of 300,000 people
on it at once.

There was a weeklong fiesta.

Schools closed, parades, bands.

It was just everyone
in San Francisco,

Marin County,
and the counties to the north

came to celebrate
the opening of this bridge.

Two crowds, one from the north
and one to the south

came together in the middle
of the bridge

with no place to go and it got
to be a crush loading.

There were so many people
on the bridge

that that vertical curve
of the bridge

was flattened, straight out,

deflected something
on the order of 20 feet.

The bridge
was swarmed with people,

and it was probably the biggest
load the bridge has ever seen.

SHATNER:
As sudden winds
cause the bridge to sway,

the pedestrians begin to panic,
fearing the span will collapse.

Their fears
are heightened by the fact

that a similar
Leon Moisseiff‐designed bridge

collapsed in Tacoma, Washington
nearly 50 years earlier.

Moisseiff's ambition
was to make bridges

higher, longer and lighter.

But in the case
of the Tacoma Bridge,

he made it too aerodynamic.

(wind blowing)

So the bridge began
to move with the winds,

and it set up a process in which
the, the bridge collapsed.

SHATNER:
Fortunately,
the Golden Gate Bridge

did not share the fate
of the Tacoma Bridge,

and the massive crowd
escaped unscathed,

although authorities
no longer permit

mass gatherings on the bridge.

It was a rather
frightening moment

with what could have been

the greatest
civil engineering disaster

in the history
of the human race.

Fortunately, retrofitting that
had been recently accomplished

enabled the bridge
to go through that difficulty.

SHATNER:
But if the Tacoma Bridge
suffered

a catastrophic collapse,
what made the builders

of the Golden Gate Bridge
think they could build

an even longer
and more ambitious bridge

and yet not suffer
a similar fate?

Particularly when no one
at the time

had ever built a suspension
bridge anywhere near its size?

Moisseiff's key contribution
was the towers.

He took the towers
higher and higher

than previously anybody thought
could be done.

And that allowed the bridge
to spin suspension cables

over a greater distance,

which allowed the Golden Gate
strait to be spanned.

When we look at the success
of the Golden Gate Bridge,

the beauty of it suggests to us

the whole sort
of mystery of the cosmos,

or creation, of time,

of human enterprise,
human ingenuity,

and, really,
engineering as a pursuit

of human beings across time.

It's hard to look
at America's monuments

and not feel a sense of wonder.

They serve to remind us
that while they may last

for centuries, we only serve
as their temporary caretakers.

And despite their
groundbreaking engineering

and fascinating histories,

there is much about them
that is a mystery.

A mystery that guarantees
that they will remain

unexplained.

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