0:00:02 > 0:00:04SIRENS WAIL
0:00:16 > 0:00:21'This mess is one of the most important places in history.
0:00:24 > 0:00:30'What happened here was thought dangerous, even crazy.
0:00:36 > 0:00:37'It took brute strength...
0:00:39 > 0:00:40'..money...
0:00:43 > 0:00:45'..and one man's iron will.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53'But from this day in 1830...
0:00:55 > 0:00:58'..nothing would be the same again.'
0:01:01 > 0:01:04This is where the modern world begins.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07GUNSHOT
0:01:44 > 0:01:47I always love coming to these places.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50There are all the potential destinations on the boards.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54The chances of reunions with loved ones.
0:01:56 > 0:01:57Sense of adventure.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12These places jar so much less than airports and motorways.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19They're like the nervous system of Britain, they're like the arteries,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22sometimes as though... they've been here for ever.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32From its beginning, in the 1820s,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Britain was gripped by railway fever.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44The speed - London to Edinburgh, five days by horse,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46a mere 12 hours by train.
0:02:50 > 0:02:55The scale - 5,000 miles of track laid in just ten years.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00The London to Birmingham line alone shifted more rocks
0:03:00 > 0:03:02than building the Great Pyramid.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08The money - by 1850,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12the railways were generating 62% of the nation's capital.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19THEY CHANT: Championes, championes...
0:03:19 > 0:03:23New ways to live - in just one week in 1850,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27trains took 200,000 people on holiday from Manchester.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32New ways to die -
0:03:32 > 0:03:34trains took five million men
0:03:34 > 0:03:36to the Western Front in World War One.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44And we're gripped still -
0:03:44 > 0:03:46100 million tonnes of cargo
0:03:46 > 0:03:51and one billion passengers still travel these lines every year.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Railways were born in Britain.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00The first steam locomotive, the first passenger train,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02the first rail network.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06200 years ago, the British were pioneering modern transport.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09The rail revolution started here.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21In the early 18th century,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Britain was on the brink of a period of innovation and social change
0:04:25 > 0:04:28that we know as the Industrial Revolution.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35The sheer scale of goods being produced was so colossal,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39it would motivate the invention of a completely new system of transport.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45And all of that was based
0:04:45 > 0:04:48on what was underneath these hills south of Newcastle.
0:04:54 > 0:05:00If you're a lucky landowner, you might find a lot of this - coal.
0:05:00 > 0:05:07Has a strange beauty and, in fact, this is just a huge lump of energy.
0:05:07 > 0:05:08In the 18th century,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Britain was producing more of this than any other country in the world.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17County Durham alone was exporting 600,000 tonnes of it a year,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19mainly to London.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22THIS was powering the Industrial Revolution
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and it would drive the development of our railways.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32But, at the beginning at least, not in the way you might think.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Coal would eventually power
0:05:34 > 0:05:37the steam engines in the railway story,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39but this was the 1720s.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Locomotives would not be invented for another 80 years.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47Such was the value of coal
0:05:47 > 0:05:50that the mine owners of Durham weren't prepared to wait.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53No scheme could be too ambitious
0:05:53 > 0:05:56when it came to moving this bulky black gold around.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00So the main job was to get this coal
0:06:00 > 0:06:02from these hills down to the River Tyne,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05where it could be carried on ships to London.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11'An immense task in this difficult terrain.'
0:06:13 > 0:06:14What they came up with
0:06:14 > 0:06:17was a system based on tracks.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22But still powered by what they'd always used - horses.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29'But these tracks could only work on the level.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32'If the problem was an uncooperative landscape,
0:06:32 > 0:06:33'and it was,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36'fine, build a new one.
0:06:38 > 0:06:39'And they did.'
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Just look at the towering legacy of coal.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54This bridge had a bigger span
0:06:54 > 0:06:57than any bridge on the Thames or the Severn.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01In fact, it had the widest span of any bridge in Britain.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10On top, horse-drawn wagons carried the coal
0:07:10 > 0:07:12from the mine down to Newcastle.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16This is a replica of one of the wagons
0:07:16 > 0:07:19that would have criss-crossed this bridge, pulled by horses
0:07:19 > 0:07:23because, of course, it was before steam locomotion was invented.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Fairly primitive. Look at the wheels made out of wood,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29wooden tracks.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Major limitation was size.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35It could only be as large as a single horse could control
0:07:35 > 0:07:38and that was thought to be about two and a half tonnes of coal.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Even so, it was taking a lot of coal out these hills.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46Every day, around 2,000 of these wagons
0:07:46 > 0:07:49went back and forward across this bridge.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51That's about one every 20 seconds.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53That meant, despite its limitations,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57it was still a very efficient way of taking coals to Newcastle.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08'Once wagons running on tracks was established as a good idea,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10'all the mine owners wanted them.'
0:08:13 > 0:08:16There you go, Les. There's your coal back.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23'Industrial transport right across the north east
0:08:23 > 0:08:25'would have to be radically updated.'
0:08:25 > 0:08:29We can see the beginnings of this huge transport system here.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31This is just a microcosm
0:08:31 > 0:08:34and you can see a change that's coming over the landscape.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36Here are the older roads,
0:08:36 > 0:08:38but here, there's a network which looked different.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42Actually, if you look closely, you can see that they're wagon ways.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44The detail's absolutely beautiful.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46You can even see on the way back up the hill
0:08:46 > 0:08:50he needs to get his whip out, he's got an empty carriage.
0:08:50 > 0:08:51On the way down,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54he's enjoying the ride with a full load of coal down there.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00The crucial idea of rail tracks is that a hard wheel on a hard rail
0:09:00 > 0:09:05produces much less friction than a normal wheel on a muddy track.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And that meant that one horse could pull a far greater load.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12The trouble is that building that system would cost a lot of money.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16But, as these wagon ways showed, it could well be worth it.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18HORSES NEIGH
0:09:20 > 0:09:24Of course, the rest of Britain already had a transport system,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26of sorts.
0:09:26 > 0:09:32A bewildering array of dirt tracks, trails and basic roads.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35'But the changing demands of an industrialising nation
0:09:35 > 0:09:39'would call for a transport revolution across the whole country.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43'Because now, horses just weren't keeping pace.'
0:09:44 > 0:09:47You could only travel at around eight miles an hour
0:09:47 > 0:09:50and the horses had to be changed every ten miles
0:09:50 > 0:09:52because they got so knackered.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57The roads were often terrible,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00which meant crashes were very common
0:10:00 > 0:10:03and the resulting traffic jams were legendary.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Then there was the lurking threat of the highwayman.
0:10:11 > 0:10:12GUNSHOT
0:10:12 > 0:10:14HORSES NEIGH
0:10:22 > 0:10:25But the big problem with transport wasn't people, it was stuff.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28If you wanted to move cargo, you needed a canal boat.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35'Get off the land onto the water.'
0:10:37 > 0:10:41It feels good. It's very slow moving, very stately.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50That is perfect.
0:10:51 > 0:10:52What a pro.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08'This canal boat could carry about 25 tonnes of cargo,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12'but during winter, these canals could freeze.'
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Barges would be stuck and their cargoes would get pilfered.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Open the paddles!
0:11:21 > 0:11:25In the summer, though, if it didn't rain, in periods of drought,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27you'd find there was not enough water in the canals
0:11:27 > 0:11:29and the boats could be grounded.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35'But let's not be too hard on canals.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39'They were a fantastic innovation.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44'And the vision to create a national network of waterways
0:11:44 > 0:11:46'was ahead of its time.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51'But their success created another problem.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55'Canals made their owners rich, too rich.'
0:11:55 > 0:11:59They had a virtual monopoly on heavy goods transport
0:11:59 > 0:12:03and, as the volume of trade grew, they made vast amounts of money
0:12:03 > 0:12:06with hugely expensive cargo rates.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13'The transport systems were slow, unreliable and expensive.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17'The winners of the Industrial Revolution would be those
0:12:17 > 0:12:21'who could transport the most stuff the most quickly.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24'There had to be a better way to do it than relying on horses.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29'And coal would provide the solution.'
0:12:44 > 0:12:48The future would see horses replaced by machines.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Machines driven by coal power.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05This is an underground wagon way,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08a tunnel two miles long.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Here, the wagons weren't pulled by horses,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14but by ropes attached to an extraordinary innovation.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18The steam engine.
0:13:21 > 0:13:27Machines developed from the early 1700s burned coal to create steam.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31The one for this tunnel had the pulling power of 40 horses.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35But the biggest drawback was that they couldn't move.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Building steam engines that were static
0:13:39 > 0:13:44and able to pull these wagons on ropes and pulleys was one thing.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47But what if steam engines could be made
0:13:47 > 0:13:50to run by themselves unattached?
0:13:50 > 0:13:56What if they could roam free across the countryside, across the world?
0:14:05 > 0:14:08How to get steam engines on the move?
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Indeed, turn them into locomotive engines.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17The concept was new.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Even the word was new.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26Such was the spirit of the new industrial age
0:14:26 > 0:14:29that strange and ingenious devices emerged
0:14:29 > 0:14:32from a set of brilliant British inventors.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40Yet these first locomotives lumbered ponderously.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44They could suddenly explode,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46or they were too heavy for their tracks.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51They were still experiments.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03If anyone could crack the whole thing,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06build a powerful efficient locomotive,
0:15:06 > 0:15:11tracks properly able to support it, bridges, tunnels,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15and then make the whole thing into a profitable system,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17that man would be a genius,
0:15:17 > 0:15:23because that man would have turned the humble wagon way into a railway.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49Once the underlying engineering principles of steam were understood,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52the pace of change kicked off.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02The prize for finding the key to locomotion would be enormous.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06And by the beginning of the 19th century,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08the future shape of locomotives
0:16:08 > 0:16:11and, with them, railways, began to emerge.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28What I'm looking at here with its iron and its muck
0:16:28 > 0:16:30and its noise and its heat,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32this is modern. I recognise this.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34This is something from our own world.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Even idiots like me can understand them.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39You just create a vast amount of steam in there
0:16:39 > 0:16:42and that pushes this piston up and that piston up,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45which is then connected to the wheels. You can even see it.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51This is a replica of something built 200 years ago,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54when the rest of the world was still in horse and carts
0:16:54 > 0:16:59and there were no sounds of planes in the sky and no smog in the air.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03What you're looking at here is not just an agent of change,
0:17:03 > 0:17:04it was a complete revolution.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22'By the early 1800s,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26'Britain was at the centre of a worldwide trading web.'
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Accelerating levels of industrial activity
0:17:34 > 0:17:37meant that vast amounts of goods needed moving.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47'Conditions were ripe for a transport revolution.'
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Because Britain's factories were consuming raw materials
0:17:54 > 0:17:57on a scale never seen before.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02It all worked brilliantly,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06because machines were turning workers here in Britain into giants.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Take these four looms that Chris is looking after.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13These are doing the work of about 20 pre-industrial labourers.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16So you take a factory with several hundred employees
0:18:16 > 0:18:20and it's doing the work of thousands of people.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22And was it like a sweatshop?
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Were they working all the hours that God sends?
0:18:24 > 0:18:2812 hours a day, five days a week and a Saturday morning,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33- and the amount of fabric these machines can produce in a 12-hour day is phenomenal.- Phenomenal.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36On average, they got about 50 yards of fabric a day, per loom.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42This level of industry changed the face of Britain.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50In 1783, a small Lancashire town had just one cotton mill.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54One generation later,
0:18:54 > 0:18:56it had 86 mills.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02Its population of 24,000 was now 150,000.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08This was the world's first purpose-built industrial city -
0:19:08 > 0:19:10Manchester.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21People talk about the Industrial Revolution so much
0:19:21 > 0:19:23that it's almost lost its meaning.
0:19:23 > 0:19:29But this is what it means. It means machines doing the work of humans.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34It means iron and steam replacing muscle and brain.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41In that period, things were shocking, they were moving so fast.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Things were getting bigger and bigger. The population was growing.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50And the success of this revolution was feeding off itself.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Once this woven fabric had been finished,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56it needed transporting somewhere else.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58It was one advance in one industry
0:19:58 > 0:20:02forcing other industries to catch up.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Someone, somehow, had to transport all this to the world market.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12And the solution would be railways.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Just 36 miles away from Manchester by road
0:20:29 > 0:20:31was the wealthy port of Liverpool,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34its gateway to the rest of the world.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41In 1824, 10,000 ships a year left these docks,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45bringing back 400,000 bales of cotton from America.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Trade between the two towns was 1,000 tonnes a day.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59'The early industrial entrepreneurs,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02'who ran the businesses and the local politics,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04'were greedy for more.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06'Their vision - to imagine the technology
0:21:06 > 0:21:11'that could link the towns together into one huge money-making machine.'
0:21:15 > 0:21:17These men here were the great and the good,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21and the not so good, of Liverpool in the early 19th century.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24You've got John Moss, who's a banker and whose father was,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26effectively, the first banker in Liverpool.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Henry Booth and Joseph Sanders were leading merchants, corn merchants.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34William Huskisson, who is the Tory MP
0:21:34 > 0:21:35and a leading economist of the day.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39And then, Charles Lawrence, who's the Lord Mayor of Liverpool
0:21:39 > 0:21:42and a big slave owner in the Caribbean.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45These men had one thing in common - they could come together
0:21:45 > 0:21:48in the smoke-filled rooms of downtown Liverpool
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and agree that the city needed to be better connected
0:21:51 > 0:21:52to the rest of the country,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56particularly the rising industrial powerhouse of Manchester,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59just 30 miles away to the east.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01These men shared a dream - that one day,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Liverpool and Manchester would be connected by a railway.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23'A high speed link between the biggest factory town in Britain
0:22:23 > 0:22:26'and an international port would be the making of both.'
0:22:28 > 0:22:31And an urban model for the future of the industrial world.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39An engineering project on this scale was completely unprecedented.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47There was one man who might be able to take it on.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52A working class mining engineer from Newcastle - George Stephenson.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57A prolific inventor with a growing reputation
0:22:57 > 0:23:01for building reliable steam engines and reliable tracks.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04The money men from Liverpool were absolutely convinced
0:23:04 > 0:23:08that the innovative, energetic, bullish,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11brilliant George Stephenson was their man.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14One of them even went so far as to claim that he was a genius.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19He certainly wasn't the natural choice. It was a bold decision.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25George's genius was to realise
0:23:25 > 0:23:29that a railway was about so much more than just the engine.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35A successful railway required a much bigger vision.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37The tracks.
0:23:39 > 0:23:40The tunnels.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Even the platforms were as important as the trains.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52There could be no half measures.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Everything had to work.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05'But in a world dominated by the privileged, George was a maverick.'
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Working class, self-educated and only semi-literate,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14yet brashly self-confident.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Stephenson believed that he was a man of destiny,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20that his railway would revolutionise the transport system
0:24:20 > 0:24:22and shape the modern world.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25He said, "I will do something in coming time
0:24:25 > 0:24:27"that will astonish all England."
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Stephenson would have to reshape Britain.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47He'd have to do what had never been done before -
0:24:47 > 0:24:50plan a railway from the heart of one enormous town
0:24:50 > 0:24:52right into the centre of another.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03To make it happen, not only would he have to tame the physical landscape,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06but he'd have to tear up another landscape
0:25:06 > 0:25:08of privilege and tradition.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Stephenson believed the railway line should run as straight as possible,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21and that meant running it quite near this very grand house down here,
0:25:21 > 0:25:27which put him on a collision course with the owner, because he didn't want the railway crossing his land.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29But his land stretched for miles on either side.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31That is Croxteth Hall,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35and it was owned by a significant member of the aristocracy.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51'Croxteth Hall was the country seat of Lord Sefton...
0:25:55 > 0:25:58'..whose family had been given this land
0:25:58 > 0:26:01'by William The Conqueror 700 years before.'
0:26:07 > 0:26:08Like many of his set,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12Lord Sefton was obsessed with gambling and the horses.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14He was lampooned as Lord Dashalong,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17because he used to tear through London
0:26:17 > 0:26:21driving his coach and horses, scattering people out of the way.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24This wood panelled card room here at Croxteth Hall
0:26:24 > 0:26:27is about as far away as I could imagine being
0:26:27 > 0:26:30from one of Stephenson's dirt covered workshops.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32There was radical change in the air
0:26:32 > 0:26:37and Lord Sefton was determined to prevent this world
0:26:37 > 0:26:41from coming under attack from monstrous modernity.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Railways, it was said at the time,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48would invade the sanctity of their domains.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50It would destroy their privacy.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54Even though the proposed route was over a mile away from this house,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Lord Sefton was appalled at the idea
0:26:57 > 0:27:01of being forced to allow the hoi polloi to cross his land.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05It was a dangerous assault on the privileged class.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12The wrath of the establishment was one thing.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18But just outside Manchester, there was an even bigger challenge.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24A treacherous piece of natural wilderness known as Chat Moss,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27feared even by the people who lived near it.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Everyone, apart from George Stephenson,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37believed that it would be impossible to get a railway line through here.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44'It's a peat bog...
0:27:45 > 0:27:49'..that seems like one vast piece of watery sponge.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57'To see the scale of the problem that confronted George Stephenson,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01'I've enlisted the help of local ecologist Chris Miller.'
0:28:06 > 0:28:10- So the peat is what I'm getting stuck in now. Is that right?- Yeah.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15How deep is that peat? It seems to go down and down. Are we going to drown in this stuff?
0:28:15 > 0:28:18Well, yeah, you can get some very, very deep spots.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Whoop, down I go, there we go.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24- Er, as you can see... - Let's see.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27- ..if you just carefully join me. - Ooh.- Ooh, steady.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28OK, nice.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29HE CHUCKLES
0:28:29 > 0:28:32So you can see, it can get very, very deep.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35This is more like a lake than dry land.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Yeah, well, it's this stuff that's in front of us,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41- it's this sphagnum moss.- Yeah.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44This actually holds huge amounts of water inside it.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48This is as challenging as any terrain
0:28:48 > 0:28:50I've seen in the United Kingdom.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52And was it just as bad as this
0:28:52 > 0:28:54200 years ago, when George Stephenson was here?
0:28:54 > 0:28:59For George Stephenson, it'd be even worse. It'd have been a lot wetter and boggier,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03- and you'd have had these conditions everywhere.- Boggier than this?
0:29:03 > 0:29:04Boggier than this.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Why on Earth did he think he could build a railway track through this, then?
0:29:08 > 0:29:10Well, he had no choice.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15I mean, this, this bog used to be about 35 square kilometres.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17It was a massive, massive expanse,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20and it isolated off Manchester from Liverpool, you know.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22You had a really huge, long journey
0:29:22 > 0:29:25to go down the bottom of the bog to make it to Liverpool.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29And so he had to take the railway across the bog.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41George Stephenson believed he'd cracked it.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46'In the spring of 1825,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49'he took the plans for his railway to Westminster.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55'It would have such a huge impact on the countryside
0:29:55 > 0:29:59'that only an act of Parliament could force people like Lord Sefton
0:29:59 > 0:30:01'to allow a railway on their land.'
0:30:05 > 0:30:06George Stephenson,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09the semi-educated working class engineer from Newcastle,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12came face to face with the full might
0:30:12 > 0:30:14of the British parliamentary machine.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17His opponent, Edward Hall Alderson,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21educated at Charterhouse Public School and Cambridge.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23And yet George was confident.
0:30:23 > 0:30:24He was even cocky.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28In parliamentary history,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31their exchange has become something of a legend.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39'What is the width of the river there?
0:30:40 > 0:30:42'I cannot say exactly at present.'
0:30:42 > 0:30:44MURMURING
0:30:44 > 0:30:45GAVEL BANGS
0:30:46 > 0:30:49'How many arches is your bridge to have?
0:30:51 > 0:30:52'It is not determined upon.'
0:30:52 > 0:30:54MURMURING
0:30:54 > 0:30:56GAVEL BANGS
0:30:58 > 0:31:03'Then you boldly say that £5,000 is enough to estimate for it?
0:31:04 > 0:31:06'Oh, I think so.'
0:31:06 > 0:31:09MURMURING
0:31:09 > 0:31:12Clearly, Stephenson was out of his depth.
0:31:12 > 0:31:13Alderson summed up.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20'As regards Chat Moss, there is nothing except long, sedgy grass
0:31:20 > 0:31:23'and a little soil to prevent the iron railway
0:31:23 > 0:31:26'sinking into the shades of eternal night.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31'This is the most absurd scheme that ever entered into the head of man.'
0:31:32 > 0:31:36The parliamentary bill for the Liverpool And Manchester Railway
0:31:36 > 0:31:39was rejected by just one vote.
0:31:40 > 0:31:42It wasn't all George's fault.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45But he was the chief engineer, the star witness,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48and he'd been caught out totally unprepared.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50Lord Sefton celebrated, of course,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54but so too did the canal owners, who got to keep their monopoly
0:31:54 > 0:31:57on the goods trade between Liverpool and Manchester.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01As for George, he was ridiculed, sacked from the project.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03But, most importantly of all,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07the entire future of his railways was now in doubt.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23What we should remember is that this was a time when progress,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25scientific and engineering progress,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28'was seen by some with deep suspicion.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36'The money men of the industrial north were gung ho about change,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39'but others were fearful of where it might lead.'
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Extraordinary experiments in electricity
0:32:48 > 0:32:51were revealing dangerous aspects of nature.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Mary Shelley's overconfident scientist, Baron Frankenstein,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00was creating a murderous monster.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10The chattering classes of Britain were frightened
0:33:10 > 0:33:12of what railways might bring.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16There's an essay by the historian Thomas Carlyle,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19called Signs Of The Times, in which, struggling for an epithet
0:33:19 > 0:33:22to describe this changing world around him,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24he calls it the "Age of Machinery".
0:33:24 > 0:33:28He has this phrase about men becoming mechanical
0:33:28 > 0:33:31in head and heart as well as in hand.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34So, for him, machinery becomes the dominant metaphor of the age.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37And this is before the first public railway line.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41This is 1829. So already, it's starting to be felt in that way.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43But there's an implication there
0:33:43 > 0:33:46that technological change might erode morality.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50Indeed. I mean, often it was seen as being godless, being unspiritual,
0:33:50 > 0:33:52that's precisely Carlyle's argument.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56And, in fact, it can be even worse than that.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59A lot of the imagery that people like John Martin are using
0:33:59 > 0:34:04is of the railway as an instrument of Satan.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08In fact, in a later image called The Last Judgment,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11in this scene of the apocalypse at the end of the world,
0:34:11 > 0:34:14in which the sinners are consigned to hell,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16that amongst this is a train
0:34:16 > 0:34:20that is careering over a precipice into chaos, into hell.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24So the railways are not only kind of unspiritual and godless,
0:34:24 > 0:34:27they're the very opposite. They're satanic and demonic.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The Liverpool And Manchester would have to wait.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52The application for it had narrowly failed.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58But Stephenson didn't give up on railways.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02He would prove they could work,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05because he was already committed to building one himself.
0:35:13 > 0:35:14It was a success!
0:35:14 > 0:35:20The people on board could now travel faster than a man could run.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29His trains were built to take coal
0:35:29 > 0:35:33from Darlington to the town of Stockton, on the River Tees.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Yet this railway provoked a reaction that no-one was expecting.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Even though I have travelled on faster trains,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49riding on this replica still gives you a sense
0:35:49 > 0:35:52of how magical it must have been to those first passengers
0:35:52 > 0:35:54at the dawn of the railway age.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11It was that magic that made it a success.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14While some of the intelligentsia were warning
0:36:14 > 0:36:16against the arrival of machines,
0:36:16 > 0:36:19the people fell in love with them.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22It seems amazing now, but no-one had expected
0:36:22 > 0:36:24the excitement it would cause.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Thousands of people went to travel between Stockton and Darlington,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31whereas a fraction of that had gone by stage coach.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36The Stockton And Darlington became world famous.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38It showed that railways had a future.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42In the history of trains, this line has been seen as a turning point.
0:36:44 > 0:36:45In a way it was,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49but not because of all the minor incremental improvements
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Stephenson made to the locomotive and the rails.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56It was because, partly driven by this huge demand from people,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58from passengers, it made money.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00It was profitable.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05And one language that the railway sceptics did understand
0:37:05 > 0:37:07was the language of money.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10The proof of profit would win them over.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18And the Liverpool And Manchester was also back on track.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27Even the owner of the rival canal now bought into the railway,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31a staggering £100,000 worth of shares,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34making him its biggest single investor.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41New plans were drawn up, the bill was passed by Parliament
0:37:41 > 0:37:45and George Stephenson was re-engaged as chief engineer.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Stephenson knew that his reputation as an engineer was restored.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56His old confidence came back with a vengeance.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Starting with the Liverpool And Manchester,
0:38:15 > 0:38:17Britain was about to be transformed.
0:38:35 > 0:38:36But building the railways
0:38:36 > 0:38:39was one job the steam engines still couldn't do.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44It would take pure human muscle.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56By the end of the 19th century,
0:38:56 > 0:39:01millions of men had gouged and blasted 20,000 miles of railways,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04the equivalent of going to Australia and back.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09Drawn from the villages and farms of Britain and Ireland,
0:39:09 > 0:39:11these are the navvies.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21Men with truly staggering levels of strength and endurance,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24the unsung heroes of the railways.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32How do you become a navvy? Is it a sought after job?
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Ganger man would look at you. He'd size you up pretty quick
0:39:36 > 0:39:39to see if you'd done labouring work. If you'd come off a farm, he'd say,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43"OK, you seem to have the build for it, you're fairly weathered,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46"you've been out in the elements, I'll give you the start."
0:39:46 > 0:39:48And he'd maybe have a look at your boots
0:39:48 > 0:39:52to see if they had muck on them so you'd been working fairly recently.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56They said it took a year to turn a farm labourer into a navvy,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59but when you were good at it, you were at the cutting edge
0:39:59 > 0:40:01of the labour force of the Industrial Revolution.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08'It was said that a navvy could shift 20 tonnes of muck a day.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11'That meant a single man could fill all these skips
0:40:11 > 0:40:14'every day for weeks on end.'
0:40:16 > 0:40:21This is knackering. I'm going flat out. I don't think I can continue for more than an hour.
0:40:21 > 0:40:22This is sprint pace.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29'Hard-drinking men not welcomed in nearby villages.'
0:40:29 > 0:40:34Being a nomad, you get a sense of the outlaw mentality because, with settled communities,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37when the stranger comes in, they're looked on with suspicion.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39So they didn't exactly get the big hello.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42And when they got paid, they'd go on the piss,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46they'd absolutely lose their head and they'd fight among themselves.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50When the job finished or the railway line moved on, they moved with it.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53They'd always follow the money, for a lifetime.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55What would my life be like if I was navvy?
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Where would I live and what sort of conditions would it be?
0:40:58 > 0:41:01Away from the towns up on the moors.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03If you were lucky, there might be some shacks
0:41:03 > 0:41:05knocked up by the contractor.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08If not, you'd dig out top soil,
0:41:08 > 0:41:14build up sod walls and a bit of a roof on it, and that'd be it.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16So you had to pay them a fair wage.
0:41:16 > 0:41:17No.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19HE CHUCKLES
0:41:19 > 0:41:22You had to pay them, as always,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24what you could get away with.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44'In the new industrial age of the early 19th century,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47'exploitation by greedy bosses was common.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53'But for navvies, it meant almost inhuman levels of blood and sweat.'
0:41:56 > 0:42:01They lived up here on this unforgiving hillside like beasts, working like beasts.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04And if you treat people like animals, they'll become one.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06There's an eyewitness tells one story
0:42:06 > 0:42:11about a man lending his wife out to his co-workers
0:42:11 > 0:42:13in return for a gallon of beer.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17It was an unimaginably harsh existence.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26'This is Woodhead, in the Cheshire Pennines.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31'No train could go over these hills, so a tunnel was needed,
0:42:31 > 0:42:33'500 feet below.'
0:42:36 > 0:42:38Three miles long,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40dug out inch by inch.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46You're in this merciless place
0:42:46 > 0:42:51until you've dug this tunnel or it breaks you and you're in a shallow grave.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54BELL TOLLS
0:43:00 > 0:43:03'After six years of miserable work,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06'a first Woodhead Tunnel was finished.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10'It cost the lives of more navvies than other dig in Britain.'
0:43:13 > 0:43:15Here, at the Parish Church Of St James,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18we know that something like 26 navvies were buried here,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22but not in the graveyard, but in this field next to it.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Over 30 navvies were killed during the building of this tunnel.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30Many more were wounded, lacerated, crippled for life.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33The ones buried here, we have a record in the parish register.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35We've got John Young,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38who was killed on the railway, he was aged 59.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41John Thorpe, killed on the railway, 24 years old.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43And four days later,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46what appears to be another John Thorpe, probably his son,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48who dies as an infant.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54And now, they lie here in unmarked graves beneath this field.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59It's not much of a monument to the men who made modern Britain.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05All right, that's it! Tools down.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10What do you reckon that is, that tiny pot here?
0:44:10 > 0:44:14- I'd say you've got a good tonne there.- That's not bad.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17- For a novice.- Not bad for a novice. - Not bad for a novice.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19We could start you on half wages.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22- More than I deserve. Thank you. - No problem at all.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37'It took just four and a half years for George Stephenson
0:44:37 > 0:44:41'to complete the Liverpool And Manchester Railway.'
0:44:41 > 0:44:43Here, you get an incredible view,
0:44:43 > 0:44:45but you also get a sense of the achievement.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49'64 bridges and viaducts.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53'On the peat bog, he piled on tonnes of rubble
0:44:53 > 0:44:57'to squeeze out the moisture like water from a sponge.'
0:45:05 > 0:45:07Topping that with a bed of rushes and wood,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11he was able to float the tracks across acres of wetland.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17Stephenson conquered Chat Moss
0:45:17 > 0:45:20and this line now runs like an arrow across the countryside,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23still being used today.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38The moment had now arrived for a final stroke of genius.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44Our museums are filled with the foundations of our civilisation.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Beautiful works of art, ancient texts
0:45:47 > 0:45:50and moments of scientific breakthrough.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53But here, there's one piece of extraordinary innovation
0:45:53 > 0:45:55that is second to none.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07The last piece of the railway jigsaw
0:46:07 > 0:46:09was arguably the most important of all.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13It was built partly by George,
0:46:13 > 0:46:18but mostly by his son, Robert Stephenson,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21who would prove to be an equally talented engineer.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33This wasn't Britain's first steam locomotive.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37There were others, like Stephenson's own Locomotion One,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41which served on the Stockton And Darlington Railway.
0:46:41 > 0:46:42But this was different.
0:46:42 > 0:46:48The others were slower, less reliable, more dangerous.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52The Rocket was a watershed.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03The Stephensons were faced with such scepticism about steam locomotives
0:47:03 > 0:47:06that the railway was originally designed
0:47:06 > 0:47:10to be powered by old static steam engines or even horses.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19The Rocket's power and performance changed everything.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25There are so many small improvements in the Rocket,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29which, taken together, represent a giant leap forward.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32One of my particular favourites are these tubes here.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35The fire would have been the big box that was here.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38That's where the energy's coming from, a huge amount of heat.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40This is full of water.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42To make steam, you've got to heat this water up,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45so you need to suck the hot air from this fire
0:47:45 > 0:47:48deep into this container full of water,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52and that's what these 25 so-called fire tubes are for.
0:47:52 > 0:47:53On previous engines,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56there would only have been one big tube.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58The fact that there's now 25 of these tubes
0:47:58 > 0:48:01means much more of the heat from this fire here
0:48:01 > 0:48:04is being dragged in and exposed to the water,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07creating more steam and more power.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23Rival locomotives were slow, and they frequently broke down,
0:48:23 > 0:48:28whereas the Rocket was superbly reliable and consistently fast.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34And it was the speed that was shocking.
0:48:40 > 0:48:4429 miles per hour on a steady run.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48Twice as fast as the older locomotives.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01The Rocket could go faster than anything else ever built by humans
0:49:01 > 0:49:03in the history of the world.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08No chariot, no sailing ship could possibly keep up with it.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13It was the start of our enduring obsession with speed.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15And the Rocket was so well designed
0:49:15 > 0:49:19that it would go on to become the blueprint for all steam engines
0:49:19 > 0:49:21for the next 130 years.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23That's how good it was.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36September 15th 1830,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39the opening of the Liverpool And Manchester Railway.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43It was a triumphant occasion,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47not least for a man who'd backed railways from the start,
0:49:47 > 0:49:50the Liverpool MP William Huskisson.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53He must have been the proudest man alive that morning.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05But sadly, horribly,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08by the evening, the railway would kill him.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14'This momentous day is marked
0:50:14 > 0:50:17'by one of the loneliest monuments in Britain.'
0:50:17 > 0:50:19Usually, it can only be seen
0:50:19 > 0:50:22by people working down here on the railway
0:50:22 > 0:50:24or passengers as they scream past,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28they can snatch a glimpse as they come past on this busy line.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32As it says, "A moment of the noblest exultation and triumph
0:50:32 > 0:50:35"that science and genius have ever achieved
0:50:35 > 0:50:37"becomes one of desolation and mourning."
0:50:51 > 0:50:54For Huskisson, the day started perfectly.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Tens of thousands were on the streets of Liverpool,
0:50:59 > 0:51:02astonished at the magnificence of this new railway.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13There were seats for 600 passengers on eight special trains,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15including one pulled by the Rocket.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22This was such an important occasion
0:51:22 > 0:51:25that Britain's greatest military hero and Prime Minister,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29the Duke of Wellington, had been invited as the guest of honour.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36The trains set off from Liverpool.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Making a noisy, colourful spectacle for the crowds
0:51:44 > 0:51:46as they headed towards Manchester.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Thousands more spectators packed into grandstands
0:51:50 > 0:51:53that had been quickly built alongside the track.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56People were eating, drinking, it was a carnival atmosphere.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01'Things were going well.'
0:52:03 > 0:52:05They were halfway to Manchester...
0:52:08 > 0:52:10..when the trains needed to stop to take on water.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16Since hardly any of the dignitaries had ever been near a train before,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20they didn't really know what to do. So when the train came to a stop,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23they decided to completely ignore the railway staff,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26jump down on the tracks and have a bit of a mingle.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28Huskisson followed suit.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34With the day going so well,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38this was now his big chance to approach the Prime Minister.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49Nobody quite knows what happened next.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51Moments like this,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54there's chaos and eyewitnesses differ as to what happened.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57A cry is heard.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00They see the Rocket approaching on the other track.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The crowd scatters. Huskisson staggers back across the track
0:53:05 > 0:53:09and tries to go and see the Duke of Wellington in the train.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13It seems that he clambers up onto the door, which then swings open,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16putting him into the path of the Rocket.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24As he lay there, sprawled across the track,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27four and a half tonnes of railway locomotive
0:53:27 > 0:53:30passed right over his leg, from thigh to ankle.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34The noise must have been awful,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37as pretty much every bone in Huskisson's leg
0:53:37 > 0:53:40was sickeningly crushed. Even the Duke of Wellington,
0:53:40 > 0:53:43who'd witnessed the butchery on the battlefields of Europe,
0:53:43 > 0:53:44must have been shocked.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49As for Huskisson, he just stared down at his ruined leg in disbelief.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59'Huskisson was carried as quickly as possible to a surgeon's house.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10'But he was well beyond medical help.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16'He died that evening.'
0:54:26 > 0:54:29William Huskisson would never know it,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32but from that very first day in 1830,
0:54:32 > 0:54:37railways would capture the imagination of the British public.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42The Liverpool And Manchester itself was wildly successful...
0:54:46 > 0:54:49Inspiring a nationwide thirst for travel.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59People wanted to explore their country as they'd never done before.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04That would lead to a frenzy of rail construction,
0:55:04 > 0:55:09connecting the whole of Britain for the first time in its history.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21We think of human beings as land animals,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24but most of our history, that's not really true.
0:55:24 > 0:55:25We were waterborne.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29Nearly everybody lived near the seashore or rivers and canals.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33If you wanted to move things around, heavy things, you've got to do it on the water.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36This coastline would have been teeming with ships
0:55:36 > 0:55:38carrying food, trade goods, people.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41And that's why the world's great cities are all ports.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44It would have been unimaginable
0:55:44 > 0:55:46to try and move heavy goods over the land.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52And then the railways came along and changed everything.
0:56:10 > 0:56:11Thanks to the railways,
0:56:11 > 0:56:14people started to see dry land as the bridge
0:56:14 > 0:56:17and the sea as a barrier.
0:56:17 > 0:56:22The British started to turn their gaze away from the oceans and look inland.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25Thousands of years of human experience was reversed
0:56:25 > 0:56:28in just a few decades.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31And I think that's the true meaning of the railway revolution.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03Nowadays, we expect to travel wherever, whenever,
0:57:03 > 0:57:04and to go at speed.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11And all our modern inventions are designed to increase that speed.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16That all began with the steam locomotives and the metal tracks.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Railways changed the way that we live,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22but more importantly, they created the modern state of mind.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Next time, it's London.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41The railways come south.
0:57:44 > 0:57:45Mania...
0:57:48 > 0:57:50..the country goes mad for railways.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57And empire - railways go global.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd