Original subtitles

(wind rushing)

(inspirational music)

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Our journey starts

in the northeast of New York state

at Lake Champlain before heading west

into the Adirondack Park

and then turning north to Lake Placid.

From there it's west across the state

to the St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands,

before following the shoreline of Lake Ontario to Rochester.

We then fly west to the end of the Niagara River

before heading upstream

to one of the wonders of the natural world:

The Niagara Falls.

(upbeat music)

Lake Champlain acts as the border

between Vermont and New York

and runs for about 110 miles.

Towards the southern end is a peninsula

on the New York side,

with an old fort at its end.

Crown Point Fort was built by the British

and provincial troops in 1758

to secure the region from the French.

It's the largest earthen fortress

in the United States.

On the same site are the remnants of the French fort

built 20 years earlier,

which was attacked twice by the British

before being destroyed by the French

as they retreated.

But the newer and much larger fort

was never directly assaulted by the French

and was eventually only manned

by a small unit of men.

A decade later, it offered no resistance

to the Americans at the beginning

of the War of Independence.

The fort was abandoned in 1780

and is now a national historic landmark.

Flying west from Lake Champlain

and the vast Adirondack Park opens up.

Today, around six million acres

are protected by a state constitution of 1894

which said that "the lands of the state

"now owned or hereafter acquired

"constituting the forest preserve

"as now fixed by law,

"shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.

"They shall not be leased, sold, or exchanged

"or be taken by any corporation, public or private,

"nor shall the timber thereon be sold,

"removed, or destroyed."

(birds chirping) (serene guitar music)

In then 1950s and '60s, the Adirondack Northway was built,

which carves its way through the park

and is part of the Interstate 87 route.

Contrary to the concept of an interstate,

this one doesn't actually leave New York state,

making it actually an intrastate freeway.

And it is the longest one in the country.

(serene guitar music)

The park contains thousands of streams,

brooks, and lakes, all surrounded by natural forest.

(serene guitar music)

Beaver Flow Lake is just one of the thousands

that visitors can enjoy in almost complete seclusion.

(serene guitar music)

Hunting and fishing are allowed in the park,

although in certain areas there are strict regulations.

As a result, the lakes are not over-fished

and are well stocked with trout and black bass.

(serene guitar music)

One of the reasons for strict environmental controls

in the late 19th century

was to manage the lumber industry

and iron ore mining.

And as late as 1940, a titanium dioxide mine

was begun in the Tahawus Region.

It closed in 1989 and, with the march of time,

less and less of the mine works are visible

as nature begins to take over.

The area does, however, have an interesting claim to fame

as it was here on a hunting trip

that Theodore Roosevelt learned

that President McKinley was dying

and that he could shortly become the next president.

(serene guitar music)

The village of Lake Placid,

which sits at the southern end of the lake

with the same name,

has a place in the history books

as one of only three places in the world

which has held two winter Olympic games.

The first was in 1932 and the second in 1980.

Lake Placid was founded back in the early 1880s

for mining, but today centers on a range of winter sports.

The ski jumps seen today

have replaced both those built in wood

for the 1932 Olympics

and also the jumps erected for the 1980 games.

One reason is that current rules

demand heights of 90 and 120 meters.

Back in 1980, it was only 70 and 90 meters.

(harmonica blues music)

Even the old 1980 Olympic flame cauldron

still stands where all the athletes gathered

for the opening ceremony.

(harmonica blues music)

The weather in the Adirondack Park

can change in a matter of minutes.

But even if the landscape is draped in low cloud and mist,

its beauty can still be appreciated

for its dramatic splendor.

This enormous park occupies

about a quarter of New York state,

and much of it is a wilderness

with only a few intrepid visitors

venturing into the remoter parts

where, in the distant past,

Mohawk Indians once hunted.

(serene orchestral music)

West of the Adirondack Park

is the Degrasse State Forest.

One of 40 such state forests,

which are heavily protected

and together add up to around 90 million acres.

(serene orchestral music)

The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago

which straddles the border

between the United States and Canada

in the St. Lawrence River.

The islands run for about 50 miles

and the Canadian islands

are in the province of Ontario

with the American islands in the state of New York.

There are, in fact, many more islands than 1,000

and actually number close to 1,800,

ranging in size from 40 square miles

to islands occupied by a single residence.

And even smaller uninhabited rocks

that are home to migratory water fowl.

The number of islands has been determined

using the criteria that any island

must be above water level all year round,

bigger than one square foot,

and support at least one living tree.

The area is very popular among vacationers,

campers, and boaters,

and is often referred to

as the freshwater boating capitol of the world.

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During the late 19th century,

several fantasy castles were built on the islands

for wealthy industrialists.

Singer Castle on Dark Island is one of them.

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It was originally called The Towers,

and the inspiration for its design

came from castles mentioned in the novels

of the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott.

It was built for the sewing machine magnate

Frederick Gilbert Bourne,

president of the Singer Manufacturing Company.

He died shortly after the castle was completed,

and since then, it has changed hands several times.

(serene orchestral music)

The castle comes complete with dungeons,

peepholes, and underground passageways.

(serene orchestral music)

A few miles upriver and past other islands

is another fantasy castle,

which has a tragic story behind it

and left the castle on Heart Island

deserted for 73 years.

A hart deer stands proudly on the roof

of Boldt Castle,

designed to be one of the largest private houses in America.

The six-story castle

was going to be an international landmark

and the island was to have other fantasy buildings as well.

The castle was named after George Boldt

who owned hotels, including the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

He employed hundreds of workers

to begin the building program in 1900

for him and his family.

Four years later, all work stopped,

as tragically, his wife suddenly died

and George Boldt simply halted the work,

never setting foot on the island again.

The house was bought in 1977 by a conservation body

for a dollar on the understanding

it would be restored back to life.

To date, some $15 million has been spent.

On one end of the island is a small Gothic castle

which was to house the power plant

that would supply electricity for the house.

(serene orchestral music)

And on the other end of the island

is Alster Tower, a rustic stone folly.

On an adjacent island is Boldt Yacht House,

which could house several tall-masted boats.

It also has a distinctive design

complementing the other astonishing buildings

on Heart Island itself.

(serene piano music)

A passing storm provides a magical light

and also clears the skies over Lake Ontario.

This is the smallest of the five Great Lakes

and the most easterly.

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The lake is filled by the Niagara River

and flows out down the St. Lawrence River.

It covers an area of around seven and a half

thousand square miles,

has a maximum depth of 602 feet

and a shoreline of 712 miles.

(serene orchestral music)

The cool wind that comes off the lake

tends to slow down the fruit blossom

until the spring frost dangers has passed.

(serene orchestral music)

This makes it an ideal area for fruit growing

and peaches, apples, cherries, pears, and plums,

are grown along this coastal strip.

(serene orchestral music)

Just inland from the coast,

a certain Colonel Nathaniel Rochester,

along with two colleagues,

bought a hundred-acre site in 1803.

Rochester was founded.

Today, the city has the second-largest

regional economy in the state

and has a population of just over 200,000 people,

making it the third-largest city

after New York and Buffalo.

(serene orchestral music)

Within 40 years of its founding,

Rochester was known as Flower City

and had become not only the largest

flower-producing center in the United States,

but also America's first boom town.

When the flower industry moved west

in the mid-19th century,

a different type of flower industry took over,

and Rochester began to be surrounded by plant nurseries.

Rochester is also known as the world's image center

because it was here in 1892

that George Eastman founded the Kodak Company.

An early slogan was,

'you press the button, we do the rest.'

Kodak also pioneered film for the movie industry

with 35 millimeter and 16 millimeter formats,

which are still being used today.

George Eastman built himself a house

in the Rochester suburbs in 1902.

At the time, his colonial revival style house

was surrounded by 10 acres of working farmland,

as well as formal gardens.

The house also boasted a built-in vacuum cleaning system,

a central clock network,

and an internal telephone exchange

with 21 extensions.

Today, this national historic landmark

is home to a museum devoted to photography,

as well as the conservation of both film and photographs.

It also houses one of the oldest film archives in the world.

(serene orchestral music)

In the mid-19th century,

Rochester was at the forefront of the abolitionist movement

and even had its own newspaper devoted to the cause.

And in this house, Susan B. Anthony,

an early civil rights supporter,

tirelessly campaigned for abolition,

as well as championing women's rights.

She was to play a pivotal role

during the 19th century to introduce

women's suffrage into the country.

She died in 1906, 14 years before the 19th Amendment

was finally passed in 1920,

giving women the right to vote.

("Battle Hymn of the Republic")

A few miles up the coast,

at the entrance to the Niagara River,

is a fort which has seen three nations

both attack it, as well as defend it: Fort Niagara.

It was the French who first built

a wooden stockade here in 1678

and then replaced it with a fort in 1726.

30 years later, it fell to the British

after a 19-day siege called the Battle of Fort Niagara.

During the War of Independence,

the fort remained in the hands of the Loyalists

but was ceded to the new American nation after the war.

However, in the subsequent war of 1812,

the British captured the fort again,

only to give it back again after the war ended.

It has remained in US hands ever since.

Much of what we see today

was built in the post-Civil War era

of the mid-19th century.

The new earth ramparts withstood cannon fire

better than masonry walls.

It was only in 1963 that the US military

finally deactivated the fort,

though a military presence

in the form of the US Coast Guard

still uses part of the site,

making Fort Niagara one of the longest

continuously-run military bases in the United States.

After the British withdrew following their defeat

in the War of Independence,

they did not move very far.

In fact, just over the river,

where they built Fort George.

(somber orchestral music)

The fort became the headquarters

of the British army and local militia,

and during the War of 1812,

was captured by the Americans

at the Battle of Fort George.

However, it was retaken eight months later.

It has remained in Canadian hands ever since.

And only ceased having a military presence in 1965.

Both forts are now national historic sites.

(dramatic orchestral music)

The Niagara River acts as the border

between the US and Canada

and three bridges handle the enormous number

of border crossings each day.

The newest is the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.

It was built in 1960

and all the lanes are reversible

depending on the flow of traffic

between the two countries.

Next to the border crossing

are two enormous hydroelectric power stations.

They were built in the late 1950s,

and at the time were the largest such facility in the world.

The flow of water is regulated during the tourist season

by a treaty between the US and Canada,

so as not to lessen the dramatic flow over the falls.

10,000 years ago, the falls would have been here,

and erosion has steadily moved them

back up river by nearly seven miles.

Erosion has also created the whirlpool

where the river goes through a 90-degree turn.

The speed and flow of the water

has carved out a bowl 120 feet deep.

For a great vantage point of the whirlpool,

the cable car offers a pretty good breathtaking view.

Amazingly, it was built nearly 200 years ago

by Spanish engineers in 1816.

There are two cities with the name Niagara Falls.

And they stand opposite each other

overlooking the falls.

One in the US and the other in Canada.

Both came into prominence

at the end of the 19th century

due to tourism as well as industry,

which used the massive amount of power

generated by the river.

Visitors in their thousands come to see the falls

and many hotels and restaurants

have been built to take advantage of the view.

Perhaps the most dramatic

is the Skylon Tower.

Built in the 1960s, it is 520 feet high

and offers dramatic views,

particularly of the American falls.

The Niagara Falls are divided into two major sections,

separated by Goat Island.

The horseshoe falls,

which are mainly in Canada,

and the American falls,

with the much-smaller bridal veil falls

in the United States.

The American falls only receive

about 10% of the flow from the Niagara River,

with the rest dropping over the horseshoe falls.

The height of the falls

is just under 200 feet

and the length of the relatively straight lip

is roughly 900 feet.

In 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers

blocked the flow of water for six months

to see if they could prevent erosion

by removing the talus,

the sloping mass of rock fragments

at the base of the falls.

It was decided to leave it alone

and let nature take its inevitable course.

(serene orchestral music)

Visitors can watch the American falls

from the rocky base or by boat

or perhaps the most dramatic view

is from the Prospect Point Park Observation Tower.

(water rushing)

Even more impressive are the horseshoe falls.

(upbeat music)

The facts about the horseshoe falls are quite impressive.

It's over 2,000 feet wide around the curve.

At the center, the water is 10 feet deep

and passes over the crest at 20 miles an hour.

The height of the falls is around 180 feet

and the depth of water below the falls

is almost the same at near 190 feet.

(uplifting music)

The mist, which resembles smoke,

often makes the falls difficult to see.

In fact, if it was not for human interference,

and building underground channels

to control the current

for the hydroelectric plants,

the amount of mist at maximum flow

would make it almost impossible

to see the falls at all.

In 1829, Sam Patch jumped from a tower

to the gorge at the bottom of the falls and survived.

He started a long tradition of daredevils

going over the falls.

A 63-year-old woman, called Annie Edson Taylor,

was the first person to actually go over the falls

in a barrel in 1901.

She survived, just.

Since then, there have been several attempts.

Some successful, and some fatal.

Anyone attempting it today and surviving

will be arrested and face stiff fines.

In 1960, visitors watched in horror

as a seven-year-old boy, Roger Woodward,

was swept over the falls

with only a life vest.

He'd been playing upstream with his sister,

who was plucked from the river

only 20 feet before the falls.

He survived, and ever since,

his incredible ordeal has been known

as the Miracle of Niagara.

(inspirational music)

Well over 20 million people a year

come to witness one of the most

breath-taking sites in the world

and a perfect place to end this aerial journey.

(inspirational music)

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(whooshing)