Brooklyn to Montauk Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America...

with a new travelling companion.

Published in 1879,

my Appletons' General Guide

will steer me to everything that's novel...

beautiful...

memorable or curious in the United States.

ALL: Amen!

As I cross the continent,

I'll discover America's gilded age,

when powerful tycoons launched a railway boom that tied

the nation together and carved out its future as a superpower.

I'm continuing my American adventure through New York state,

where, in Appletons' time, an industrial revolution was underway.

I began in Manhattan and I'll head north towards Poughkeepsie

and the state capital, Albany.

I'll turn west to the Great Lakes, taking in Rochester and Buffalo

and finish at the tourist hot spot of Niagara Falls.

My journey through New York state continues on Long Island,

180 miles long with a population of eight million.

It hosts two of New York City's boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens.

It was often the first sighting of the United States for immigrants

and, even today, air passengers survey its streets and houses

before landing at Kennedy Airport.

The Long Island Rail Road daily ferries its commuters to the city,

and, at weekends, carries the city's holiday-makers to its beaches.

On today's leg, I cross the East River to New York City's

most populous borough, Brooklyn, and its holiday hot spot, Coney Island.

I'll take in Queens, the largest of the five boroughs,

then head east to the 19th-century haven of Garden City,

before continuing on the Long Island Railroad to the Gold Coast.

From there, I'll cross the island to The Hamptons.

My final stop will be the island's most easterly tip, Montauk.

Along the way,

I'll see how tourists following my guidebook enjoyed heady views.

People felt like they were just flying with the birds

walking across this bridge.

I'll witness how America's biggest infrastructure project

is reshaping both Manhattan and Long Island.

You were literally blasting?

-We were literally blasting.

-Wow. And their martinis didn't even shake?

There was enough that James Bond would have liked it.

I'll relive the fun and decadence of the Roaring Twenties...

CHARLESTON PLAYS

..and discover the legacy of a lighthouse.

It gives us a warm feeling,

because this was the first sign of America for immigrants.

"Brooklyn," says Appletons',

"is the third largest city in the United States."

That's before it was absorbed into New York

to become one of the conurbation's five boroughs.

But, if it were independent and on its own today, it would still

rank alongside all but the very largest cities on earth.

By the 1860s, Brooklyn's population had swollen,

with huge numbers of immigrants from Europe.

Industry and commerce were booming.

Around a third of Brooklyn's working population commuted across

the East River to Manhattan,

and ferries were reaching capacity.

A long-term solution was needed.

And, in 1865, plans were put forward to build

a permanent link between the two cities.

The Brooklyn Bridge was under construction when

my Appletons' was published and it remarks that the massive towers

on ponderous cables are "conspicuous objects."

"The distance across the river is nearly 1,600 feet,

"affording space for two railroad tracks,

"four wagonways, and two footpaths."

With those colossal towers

and being the first steel suspension bridge in the world,

it was soon known as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

It's easy to see why.

The bridge, with its elegant steel cabling, suspended against

the 19th-century skyline, was an historic engineering achievement.

I'm meeting Brooklyn-born historian and tour guide, Seth Cunnell,

under the now-iconic structure.

-Hello, Seth.

-Michael, good to see you. Welcome to Brooklyn.

Thank you very much. And what a very beautiful bridge.

What were the challenges in building it?

The challenges were numerous.

There were financial challenges,

the fact the bridge cost more than 12 million.

Technically, no-one had ever built a suspension bridge

with a centre span of 1,600 feet.

This is doubling anything that had come before it.

It's built, I think, with granite towers.

How does it work beneath the water?

Beneath the water are wooden caissons,

which are extremely large boxes flipped upside down,

about 100 feet by roughly 70 feet.

Floated into place, sunk into the sand, they pumped out the air,

sent workers inside to dig from inside to lower them while

they built the granite towers upwards at the same time.

A workforce of 600 built the bridge over 14 years, starting in 1869.

The designer was John Augustus Roebling,

a German immigrant living in Pennsylvania.

Then 61 years old, he was a pioneer of suspension bridges.

But, while he was surveying the site,

Roebling's foot was crushed by a boat coming into dock.

Tetanus set in.

And, three weeks later, he died.

His son, Washington Roebling,

took over the project and saw his father's bridge as far

as he could go, until he, too, was crippled in the process.

With John dead and Washington crippled, who took over the work?

Washington's wife, Emily Warren Roebling, finishes the bridge.

In those days, a woman?

It's unbelievable.

This is nearly 50 years before an American woman has the vote.

And she begins by simply running messages from the office

in Brooklyn Heights to the job site.

But she's so intelligent and begins to understand the process

so quickly, that she's able to make decisions on her own.

'Construction was dangerous and two dozen workers lost their lives.

'But on May the 24th, 1883, the great East River was spanned.

'The brilliant design and scale of this piece of engineering

'expressed America's growing self-confidence.'

It was spectacular.

You had Emily Warren Roebling leading the procession,

the president of the United States,

the mayors of Brooklyn and Manhattan meeting and shaking hands,

a magnificent fireworks display at sundown.

It was incredible and memorable for decades.

The day it opened,

150,000 pedestrians and 1,800 vehicles crossed the bridge.

Within months, passengers on cable cars were crossing

for a five-cent fare.

There are no aeroplanes, there are no tall buildings.

People felt like they were just flying with the birds

walking across this bridge.

It's been called the Eighth Wonder of the World. What do you say?

I live here and I think it should be the FIRST wonder of the world.

But I'll accept eighth.

While Brooklyn led the world with its sky-high engineering,

underground train travel, which began in London in 1863,

reached New York City only in 1904.

The New York transit Museum is

a short walk south from the end of the bridge.

Polly Desjarlais can tell me about the history of the subway.

What a very enviable transport museum this is.

-I take it it's a disused subway station.

-It is.

It's a decommissioned subway station built in 1936 and then

decommissioned in 1946.

How, why, and when did New York decide that it needed

an underground railway?

New York had been talking about underground railway since

London built their Underground.

But we went above the ground before we went below the ground, really,

and elevator trains were the first form of rapid transportation here.

When New York eventually did go underground,

did it copy the example of London?

Actually, the chief engineer who spent quite

a long time in London, decided to do the opposite.

He said, "Let's be shallow. That'll be much nicer for the passengers."

So, the earliest railways in New York, actually like the earliest

ones in London, were cut and cover, where they went along avenues,

making a groove, and then covered over the top.

Yeah, cut and cover was how they built most of the first subway line.

What about getting under the rivers?

-They must have used deeper tunnels for that.

-Yes, they did.

The workers that did the under river tunnelling were called sandhogs.

'The sandhogs were the unsung heroes of turn of the century

'New York City.

'These now legendary urban miners

'were predominantly immigrant labourers,

'who dug and blasted through sand and rock to build the bridges and

'tunnels, sewers and subways, that are the icons of the city today.'

There's one particular sandhog who stands out above all the rest,

an English miner by the name of Marshall Mabey who came

to New York in 1913.

He was tunnelling and a crack appeared in front of him.

"Blow out," he shouts.

Most of the men working behind him

in the tunnel got back to the airlock.

Unfortunately, Marshall and two other co-workers were out of time

and the force of the compressed air inside the tunnel that

they were building forced Marshall and his two workers through

this crack, through about 20 feet of riverbed,

through about 25 feet of the East River, and then they were spinning

around on the top of a water geyser about 25 feet above the river's

surface, before they fell back and landed in the surface of the river.

-He was dead, of course.

-He survived.

His two co-workers unfortunately did not survive,

but Marshall survived with only a bruise to his left side of his body.

'New York City's first subway line ran from City Hall,

'close to the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge,

'to 145th Street and Broadway, nine miles uptown in Harlem.'

When did the subway system reach Brooklyn?

The subway system reached Brooklyn...

Trains started to run underneath Brooklyn in 1915,

and we are standing on what would have been one of the very first

subway trains to have run in Brooklyn.

And were they hygienic?

I've just spotted that notice that says you mustn't spit on the floor

of the car, and, if you do, you get a year in prison.

-A year in prison!

-I know. It was a tough fine.

They were very concerned about becoming places where people

got sick, and when tuberculosis was running rife,

they were very concerned about that, so they offered heavy,

heavy penalties if you were caught spitting on a subway train.

And I feel rather nostalgic for this sort of car.

Am I wrong to be nostalgic?

No. Everybody that gets onto our old train cars are definitely nostalgic.

People often think that they're more comfortable

and more attractive than the trains that we ride on today.

But I don't think they would stand up to the wear and tear

of 5 million rides a day.

The completion of the bridge and Brooklyn's rail links brought

even more immigrants to the borough,

which, in 1898, had been incorporated into New York City.

Immigrants from northern, eastern and southern Europe made up

around a third of the newly amalgamated city.

Italians were one of the largest groups to settle in Brooklyn,

and their influence has left a lasting culinary mark that

I'm keen to experience.

Good evening, sir. How are you?

I'm very well indeed. Very well. I was thinking of having a pizza.

I think you mean a pie.

-A pie?

-Yes.

-OK. Can I have just a piece or two of pie?

-Well, I think you mean a slice.

-A slice?

Divided by a common language, eh?

OK. I think I'll have a margarita pie.

You mean a pizza?

-Do I? I give up.

-I'm just kidding. It's a pie.

-Thank you.

You're welcome. Coming right up.

A slice of pie

is infinitely superior to a piece of pizza.

It's a new day and I'm heading to a bend on the East River

called Wallabout Bay,

where my guidebook tells me I will find the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

According to Appletons',

"The United States Navy Yard in Brooklyn

"is the chief naval station of the Republic.

"It covers about 45 acres. Representative vessels of every

"kind used in our Navy may be seen at the yard."

Many of the great warships in US naval history were Brooklyn lines.

'A short walk takes me to the 300 acre site,

'which is now an industrial park,

'but most of the yard's heritage remains.

'Eileen Shumard is custodian of the yard's history and can

'help me to understand just how important shipbuilding here

'has been to the United States' Navy.'

I guess we can just about see it through the rain.

I mean, this is obviously a very important part of history

-we're looking at here.

-For sure. This is dry dock 1.

It is the oldest continually operating dry dock in the country.

It's a New York City landmark.

It was constructed here between 1836 and 1851 and, amazingly,

it's still in use.

Who was it who established the Navy Yard here in Brooklyn?

The Navy Yard was one of the first five naval shipyards

established by President John Adams at the end of his presidency,

when we were a young nation looking to the future and thinking

about our defence and our need to protect our commercial interests

and the private shipyards that we had just weren't going to cut it.

We needed that sort of federal backing to create what we needed.

Protect your commercial interests against the British?

Well, I mean, I wouldn't... Maybe.

And so these shipyards have been here since the beginning of

the 19th century.

So, around the time of my Appletons' guide, late 19th century,

what would the scene have been like here?

What kind of ships were you building?

It's a really interesting time, actually,

because, in the 1870s, we've seen a dip in employment,

a dip in activity,

and we're in-between the Civil War and we haven't quite gotten

to World War I, but in the Civil War there's this dramatic shift from

centres and centres of wooden shipbuilding to ironclads,

and that kind of technology changed naval warfare forever.

And, at the same time, we were kind of slow on it.

By the 1880s, we really started making armoured cruisers and

battleships that are constructed of steel and we really catch up

in a major way.

Some of America's most historic naval vessels were built here,

including, in 1855, the Niagara,

the ship which laid the first successful transatlantic cable,

and the ill-fated USS Maine,

which exploded in Havana harbour in 1898, sparking war with Spain.

In World War II, this really was an extraordinarily important place.

Why so?

Absolutely. We were America's premier naval shipyard at that time.

We're the busiest shipyard. We constructed, for example,

the USS Arizona, which sparked our engagement in World War II

when it's bombed in Pearl Harbor, and we constructed the USS Missouri,

where the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender,

so we bookend the entire war with ships that

are constructed here.

And. during that time period, you have 70,000 men and women who are

just serving the country through

just massive, massive production here.

So, really an enormous contribution to America's war effort

-is made right here?

-Absolutely.

The federal government

decommissioned the Navy Yard in 1966.

Some private shipbuilding and repairs continued,

but it wasn't until the 1990s that the yard's fortunes revived

as the city began to transform it into a hub

that now employs 7,000 people in 300 businesses.

This is a very beautiful distillery.

What's it got to do with the US Navy?

Well, this is actually a very historic building.

This is the former paymaster of the Brooklyn Navy Yard,

so this is where the men would come and line up out in the street

to get their cheques and go out in the neighbourhood,

but the reason I brought you here is because there's really

a brilliant story, which is related to your time period

and your travel guide called the Whiskey Wars.

So, that refers to a time period here in the late 1860s,

early 1870s. You're having immigrants from around the world

that are being drawn to the Navy Yard and not just the Navy Yard,

all the different types of industries and factories

and warehouses and ironworks that are all along New York City

and supporting all this commerce and industry.

And they've established a neighbourhood right outside

the Navy Yard, right outside the gates, called Vinegar Hill,

which is also called Irishtown,

and so they brought their traditions of whiskey distilling over

with them, but they are distilling illegally out in the neighbourhood,

and so the marines that are located at the yard

at that time are often dispatched to go out there and break up

their stills and flow that whiskey

as a river into the streets and never consume a drop for themselves,

I assume, and so it's a real beautiful irony that today

this building is home to Kings County Distillery.

In this building, in what was a century ago the distillery

district of New York City, Colin Spoelman is using traditional

copper stills and wooden fermenters to produce the kind of whiskey

that the US government tried in vain to stamp out during

the prohibition era of the early 20th century.

How do you do? Good to see you.

So, are you making traditional whiskeys?

So, what we have here is a moonshine. It's an un-aged whiskey.

Whiskey before it goes into the barrel.

Moonshine traditionally was illegal.

What was the difference between moonshine and regular whiskey?

Well, if you were making moonshine, you didn't have time to age it

in a barrel and you wanted to get it to the customer

as quickly as possible. So, that is this style of whiskey,

which has more or less been forgotten for 100 years,

is experiencing a little bit of a resurgence as

people kind of discover this much older style of whiskey.

And, of course, the most obvious visual difference is that

it's clear, not browned, but why the difference?

So, when it goes in the barrel, it picks up sugars and

caramelised sugars that give it sort of spice and colour.

I'm just wondering...

Whoo!

-..could we have a little taste?

-Sure, sure.

-I hope you'll join me. I'll feel very lonely if you don't.

-All right.

-I think I'll abstain.

-You'll abstain.

Got a very powerful nose.

It's reminding me, you know those Italian liqueurs you get when

you're on holiday called grappa.

-It's kind of reminding me of that a bit.

-Yeah.

A lot of people compare it to Silver Tequila, or grappa,

-which are other pot distilled whiskeys.

-Here we go.

-Ooh, your good health, I should have said.

-Cheers.

Ah!

That is fierce. Oh!

-You'd fight a war after you drank that.

-Yeah!

With a fire in my belly, I'm boarding the F train again

to the seaside of the southernmost tip of Brooklyn.

Appletons' tells me that Coney Island is the most popular of

all resorts near New York

and lies just outside the entrance to New York Bay,

about 10 miles from the city by water, and consists of

a very narrow island, 4.5 miles long,

with a hard, gently sloping beach,

affording unsurpassed facilities for sea bathing.

I'm meeting local guide Michael Wynne

on the resort's famous Boardwalk.

Michael, when did Coney Island and the surrounds become a resort?

It dates back to 1829, when the Coney Island House opened up.

It was the first hotel in Coney Island.

Such notable people such as Edgar Allan Poe,

you had people such as the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,

Walt Whitman, would check in,

and he would spew Homer and Shakespeare into the surf.

Also, Herman Melville would spend some time here

at Coney Island's first hotel, the Coney Island House.

'By the 1870s,

'steam locomotives were bringing up to 30,000 holiday-makers on

'four railroad lines to the island

'at weekends during the summer months.

'And, after 1915,

'when the subway line opened across the Brooklyn Bridge, thousands

'of day-trippers used it to escape the squalor of Manhattan tenements.

'Coney Island was entering its heyday.'

Appletons' talks about Brighton beach and Manhattan beach

being for the better class of people,

but I think Coney Island eventually opened up to all classes, didn't it?

Oh, absolutely. All along the strip here.

This area we're walking right now is considered West Brighton,

so it was more middle-class. The western end was Norton's Point,

where you had a little more of a rough-and-tumble crowd.

And, further out on the eastern end,

Manhattan beach and Brighton beach, it was a more affluent area.

How rough did it get?

Often on the western end,

sometimes dead bodies would be found on the beach.

Prostitution, gambling.

And when do we get things like the Boardwalk, and the iconic

rollercoasters, and the parachute jump, and so on?

Well, you know, this truly is the birthplace of the amusement

industry and the rollercoaster itself debuted here in 1884.

A man by the name of LaMarcus Thompson

invented the first rollercoaster

and was inspired by the coal-mining tracks in Pennsylvania.

Give me an idea of how big and important resort

this was in its heyday.

Oh, you know, if modern-day Dubai and Las Vegas had a child,

it would have looked like Coney Island in 1904.

It completely was the most extravagant playground in the world

and probably the number one vacation spot in Western civilisation

during the turn of the 20th century.

'Between 1880 and the Second World War, Coney Island was

'America's playground, the largest amusement area in the United States,

'with three rival entertainment parks

'attracting millions of visitors.

'And, like those holiday-makers before me,

'I've worked up an appetite.'

-Hello, there.

-Hello. Welcome to Nathan's.

-Thank you very much.

May I have an original hot dog, please?

-You'd like a Nathan's original hot dog?

-Yes, please.

-I'll get you one of them now.

-Thank you very much.

-Original Nathan's hot dog.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-OK.

So, I saw outside your building that the business is 100 years old.

-Yes, we've been here since 1916.

-How did it start?

Well, it started with a couple.

They were Polish immigrants and they started Nathan's on

a very small stand in this building.

And they started selling hot dogs at five cents.

So, without giving away secrets, what makes a really good hot dog?

Well, what makes a really good hot dog and what really makes

our hot dog special is that it's all beef,

and it has a secret spice formula, which I can't reveal to you,

but it gives it a certain flavour,

and we bring it to a certain temperature where all that

flavour kind of explodes and mixes with that beef and that's

how you get a Nathan's hot dog.

You certainly know how to sell a hot dog, I must give you that.

Well, we've been selling it for a while. We've been here a while,

-so I know about it.

-Now, I gather

some people eat rather large numbers at a go.

You've got some sort of contest that goes on?

Yes, we have the famous Nathan's famous international hot dog

eating contest on July 4th, Independence Day.

We do it right here on the side of the restaurant.

-We have about 40,000 people watch the contest.

-No.

Yes. You have to eat the hot dog and the roll.

And you have to do that within ten minutes.

And, so, what was the result last July 4th?

The winner, he ate 62 hot dogs and rolls,

and you've just got to eat one to really get the feel for it.

So, last July 4th,

maybe in celebration of America's independence

from the United Kingdom, a man ate 62 hot dogs.

I'm going to see now how long it takes me to eat one.

So that man ate six hot dogs every minute for ten minutes,

and it just took me three minutes to eat one.

I guess I'm not an all-American guy.

Coney Island began to decline during the Great Depression of the 1930s,

but some of the attractions from its heyday remain,

including the Wonder Wheel, which opened in 1920.

It belongs today to Dennis Vourderis.

-You must be Dennis.

-And you must be Michael.

-That is very true.

-Yeah.

Dennis, the Wonder Wheel is one of the iconic sites of Coney Island.

How old is it?

The Wonder Wheel is 95 years old this year.

It screams Coney Island. It's all about Coney Island.

But the main attraction of the Wonder Wheel is the fact

that 16 of its vehicles swing back and forth on tracks.

That's what makes the Wonder Wheel unique.

How did it pass into your family?

My father was always interested in purchasing the Wonder Wheel

ever since he visited Coney Island in the early '40s.

He was then a hot dog vendor in Manhattan with a pushcart.

And my mother was as well.

They met selling hot dogs on opposite corners and my dad

and her used to come to the beach all the time and

he said to her one day, he says, "You know,

"you stick it out with me, I'm going to own that wheel.

"And you're going to be my wife and that's going to be your gift,

"your wedding ring, your engagement ring, your wedding ring,

"all in one, to symbolise my unending love for you."

And so it came to be?

So it came to be.

In 1983, my parents wound up buying that wheel.

It was quite a remarkable story.

-His life came full circle at that point.

-Full circle.

-Yeah.

-No pun intended.

-It's a very American story, isn't it?

Well, it is. It's definitely an American dream come true, for sure.

As the sun begins to set over Coney Island, I shall finish my day

with sand beneath my toes.

It's a new day

and I'm continuing my journey east through Long Island.

Using the Long Island Rail Road,

I'll head from Queens to Garden City,

turn northeast to the Gold Coast,

then cross the island to take in The Hamptons.

I'll finish at Long Island's most easterly tip, Montauk.

Before the tunnels were built to Manhattan Island in 1910,

Queens was the terminus of the railroad,

and passengers crossed by ferry.

After the first branch of the Long Island Rail Road was opened

in 1836, the mainly rural island was quickly developed with suburbs.

Today, it's the busiest commuter railroad in America

with over 700 miles of track.

It's also the site of an ambitious engineering project

that will transform New York City's rail network.

By one of the oddities of railroad history,

many commuters who come from Long Island,

which lies to the east of Manhattan,

have to cross all the way across the island to almost the west side,

to Pennsylvania Central Station,

and, then, if their jobs are in the business district

back on the east side,

they have to make a subway journey, wasting time and money every day.

The solution, then, is to put a station

on the east side of Manhattan -

in fact, deep under Grand Central Terminal.

But that project involves creating a new terminal with eight tracks

and building 11 miles of tunnel

and absolutely turning the system upside down.

It's said to be the biggest project in the United States right now.

Dr Michael Horodniceanu is the chief engineer

at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

and the man responsible for delivering

the East Side Access scheme.

Michael, you are in charge of the biggest construction project

in the United States today. What do you feel about that?

Well, humbled...by the experience,

and lucky to be able to do that.

Michael is taking me to survey the ongoing works.

-Hello. You must be Chris.

-Yes, I am.

-How are you? I'm Michael.

-Good to see.

-Pleasure.

So, right here, basically Tunnel D will come out to the right.

B, C will be built right here in the middle.

So, you'll come out of the ground right here,

and there you're going to see Tunnel A,

which will be on the north side.

'Four new tunnels will run from Queens on Long Island

'straight to New York's railway cathedral,

'Grand Central Terminal,

'opening access to the east side of Manhattan.'

What benefit will the commuters see when it's all over?

The commuters from Long Island will see

a reduction in travel time of up to 40 minutes per day.

And they will have a direct shot without having to transfer

into Grand Central.

The great thing about the construction of the terminal

is that no-one knew that we were there.

We've blasted away these huge caverns and people upstairs

were sipping wine in a restaurant

and they never knew they were down there.

-You were literally blasting?

-We were literally blasting.

-Wow. And their Martinis didn't even shake.

-No.

There was enough that James Bond would have liked it.

THEY LAUGH

'The extension is due to open in 2023

'and is projected to cost around 10 billion.

'It will transform the working lives of millions of New York commuters.

'It's another example of how the city's infrastructure

'is being revitalised after 9/11.'

It represents a kind of a renaissance for New York,

-doesn't it?

-Yes, it does.

Without public transport, cities like New York,

cities like London...cannot exist.

And that's something...

I've been in London and I've seen the work being done there.

And we're trying to keep up with you guys.

That's a very flattering way of putting it. I'm impressed by this.

As New York City grew wealthy, many of its more prosperous citizens

took advantage of improving transport links

to leave its crowded confines for the leafier outskirts.

Long Island's population swelled with commuters

and they needed homes in which to live.

"Garden City", says Appletons',

"is the residents' city built by AT Stewart

"as a sort of model for suburban homes."

Here's an opportunity to see how one visionary idealist

envisaged the ideal life.

Alexander Turney Stewart was an Irish immigrant

who built a retail empire.

He opened the first American department store in Manhattan

in 1848 and became one of the richest men in America.

In 1869, when he was 66 years old,

he bought a 12-mile stretch of land on Long Island

where he planned to build a model town for his employees.

He called it Garden City.

Suzanne Alvey is Garden City's Assistant Village Historian.

She's invited me to tea in the beautiful Apostle House

built during Stewart's lifetime with middle managers in mind.

It's now a museum.

What put him in mind of creating a model city or village?

Well, one of the reasons why

was because he had two children who died very young.

So he needed something else to do with his life.

There was attractive land available in the middle of Long Island

called the Hempstead Plains

that was not being used for anything.

It was rather abandoned at that point.

So he decided to buy the property at 55 an acre

and told everybody how he was going to build this model town.

And everybody thought he was crazy. They called it Stewart's Folly.

But, as it turns out, he had his architect John Kellum

and they laid everything out,

and, within a very, very short period of time,

he had quite a few buildings done.

'Stewart transformed the barren plains,

'building all that a town could require.

'His Garden City boasted 60 spacious home

'on wide, tree-lined avenues,

'a handsome hotel

'and a 30-acre park.

'He built a waterworks and a gasworks,

'and a railroad line -

'the Central Railroad of Long Island -

'to ferry residents to work in New York City.

'But not everything went to plan.'

So, I'm imagining this thriving community that he established,

and the first train arriving, and the commuters pouring on to it.

-Is that how it was?

-No, I wouldn't say it was too crowded.

It only had about seven people who commuted from here,

because nobody wanted to rent these houses that he built,

so, until he offered them for sale,

we didn't have a very big population.

'Six years after he began his grand project,

'Garden City remained little more than a shell,

'and, in 1876, Stewart died at the age of 72.'

-So, did he not really see his dream fulfilled?

-He saw enough of it.

I think he knew it was going to be a success,

but the one who really got it on the map

was his wife, Cornelia Clinch Stewart.

'Cornelia persuaded the Episcopal diocese of Long Island

'to move out of Brooklyn and make Garden City its new base.

'She did it by promising to build and endow a cathedral,

'two schools and a residence for the bishop.

'The cathedral was to be a memorial to her husband.

'Garden City became America's first cathedral town.'

Would the Stewarts recognise the Garden City of today?

Em...I would say probably not.

Obviously first because of the cars,

and they'd be amazed that it was so crowded.

We have about 22,000 people now, up from a very few back then.

But I think they would appreciate

how we still have a number of homes that are still in existence,

and we also try to keep in mind the idea

of a planned community, like he had.

During the 19th century, trains increased the prosperity

of Long Island's workers,

shuttling daily to and from New York City.

But the railroads created fortunes

beyond the comprehension of ordinary commuters.

You might think that the Gold Coast is in Australia,

but there's one here on Long Island -

of course, not where gold was discovered,

but where enormous wealth was displayed, flaunted,

squandered.

From Queens, it's a journey of just over an hour northeast

to Cold Spring Harbor -

the nearest station to Oheka Castle.

Ha-ha! This is Oheka Castle!

Unbelievably big for what was once a private residence.

It has the look of a French chateaux,

but it's built on the foundations of a solid American fortune.

'Completed in 1919

'and costing the equivalent of 110 million in today's money,

'the castle was the private home

'of banker and rail magnate Otto Kahn.

'At the time, it was the second-largest residence

'in the entire United States,

'bettered only by George Vanderbilt's Biltmore House

'in North Carolina.

'Today, Oheka Castle is a hotel,

'and historian Paul Mateyunas is taking me on a tour

'of these once exclusive grounds.'

Paul, I believe this part of Long Island

was known as the Gold Coast. Why so?

Yes, well, after the Industrial Revolution,

American families living in New York City

wanted a pastoral country setting,

and so this was really the perfect place

for them to build their country houses.

And which names were involved here?

JP Morgan, Vanderbilt, Roosevelt...

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Prince of Wales were all coming here

for the polo season...

and staying the summers on Long Island.

When I think about this era and this place,

-my thoughts are dominated by the parties.

-Sure.

F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby in 1924

may have taken parties to a new level,

but it really was not an exaggeration

of what was going on here at the time.

I imagine the ponds here

are probably clogged with champagne corks.

PAUL LAUGHS

'Like many tycoons of the era,

'Kahn made much of his fortune in the railroads.'

This is Otto Kahn.

-Otto Kahn was also known as the figure for Mr Monopoly.

-Really?

-That's correct.

-How did he make his money in the railroads?

He teamed up with great railroad giants of the time

and he would reorganise the facilities

and make them more streamlined and more profitable.

Was he a big party-giver?

He was known for throwing parties.

There were men like Charlie Chaplin here, Douglas Fairbanks,

many industrialists of the day, so it was a home always filled...

And what happened to the home after he died?

After Otto Kahn passed away in the '30s,

his wife sold it to the New York Department of Sanitation,

which renamed it Sanita, and it became the weekend retreat

and retirement home for the New York City garbage men.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

-So, from riches to rags?

-Correct.

'Sensing the ghosts of the bankers and tycoons,

'and the stars of stage and screen,

'I decide to relive for a moment

'the heady decadence of those years

'by taking to the dance floor.'

-Hello, Nancy.

-Hello, Michael! Welcome.

-You look divine.

-Thank you very much. You look very handsome.

-What a beautiful dress.

-Thank you.

-Um... So how does one do the Charleston?

-OK.

So, it's a very easy dance.

Forward on the left.

And tap front with the right...

Right, left.

Right, right, left, and swing the arms.

Left, forward, right, forward.

Oh, I think you've got it.

Cue music.

FAST JOLLY MUSIC PLAYS

Maybe it's a little fast.

'Named after the city of Charleston in South Carolina,

'the dance became one of the musical sensations of the roaring '20s.

'The mansions of the North Shore once echoed to the Charleston

'and popping champagne corks.'

How about this?

MUSIC STOPS

THEY LAUGH

'But...for me, the party's over.'

On many a bright morning like this,

Otto Kahn must have surveyed his beautiful gardens and thought,

"All that hard work amalgamating railroads...

"Here I stand upon the hill that I made

"in the castle that I built,

"and it was all worthwhile."

The wealthy titans of New York City

are no longer drawn to the North Shore of Long Island.

And while the elites of the past

made their money in industry and infrastructure,

their counterparts today are the so-called

'Masters of the Universe' -

the bankers, traders, and hedge-fund managers

who prowl the canyons of Wall Street.

Their summer retreat lies some 75 miles southeast

in the Hamptons.

"East Hampton," says Appletons',

"is the quietest of all quiet towns, with quaint, old houses."

Its Old World charm has seduced many a broker,

derivatives trader, and venture capitalist.

I may not meet many of them on the Long Island Rail Road,

but their helicopters are much in evidence.

East Hampton, and its sister village of Southampton,

was almost entirely undeveloped

until the arrival of the railroad in 1895.

Today, the permanent population of the town is around 21,000,

but, in summer, that swells to over 70,000.

East Hampton is extraordinarily clean and tidy. Very well-kept.

Manicured, you might say.

'I'm meeting Diana of the Ladies' Village Improvement Society,

'founded in 1895.

'She's invited me to one of the thrift stores,

'where they raise funds for the preservation of the town.'

What brought about the foundation

of the Ladies' Village Improvement Society?

Well, one of the issues in the 1890s were unpaved streets.

And there was a lot of dust any time a cart or the early

automobiles would drive by. The LVIS felt their mission was to

sprinkle the streets and to keep the dust down.

Once that was done,

they started just overall beautifying these East Hampton.

'Today, as well as preserving East Hampton's history,

'the LVIS funds student scholarships, including one

'for a woman over 25 years old returning to higher education.'

What's it like to live in East Hampton?

SHE LAUGHS

Well, it has a little bit of a rollercoaster feel because

things are nonstop between June and September,

but then it does quiet down.

I guess people outside might have the impression of East Hampton

-as being populated with the wolves of Wall Street.

-Right.

-Now would that be inaccurate?

-No.

It's not inaccurate.

But I just feel that the Women's Village Improvement Society is about

as far from the wolves of Wall Street as I can imagine.

Well, I think there's definitely a sense of trying to maintain

the historical character and the natural beauty, and the LVIS

is one of those groups that just want to keep it the way it is,

and that's why they work so hard.

Before the arrival of the Wall Street set,

East Hampton was home to Jacqueline Bouvier,

later to become Mrs Kennedy and then Mrs Onassis, and the haunt of

artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.

On the village green, there's an 18th-century house that would

have been familiar to followers of my Appletons'.

It's a striking example of colonial architecture and

has a connection to one of America's first great actors.

Hugh R King looks after the house, which is now a museum.

This is the most exquisite house. Beautifully preserved.

Tell me about it.

Well, it was preserved because it was bought by the village of

East Hampton in 1927, and when they bought the house, not only did

they buy the house, they bought everything in it.

And, so, we have been able to recreate the house

just the way it was in 1916.

But the house, how old is that? It's much, much older.

1720, but you're looking at a 1750 version of the house.

Like, the panelling, that was all put in in 1750.

'The house is dedicated to John Howard Payne, American actor,

'playwright, and lyricist.'

If he had stayed in America,

he would have been our first great actor in this country.

John Howard Payne was the first American actor to play Hamlet.

He was the first American actor to be successful because

he went to England in 1813 and was successful on the English stage.

The first American actor to ever do that.

Then he was the first American playwright to have his plays

done at the Drury Lane and the Covent Garden Theatre.

-Really?

-Yes.

Very, very important literary and dramatic figure,

who gets lost because of the song. You know, the song.

'Amid pleasures and palaces though we may roam

'Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.'

It came from the pen of John Howard Payne.

But he only wrote the words, not the music.

The great English composer Henry Rowley Bishop wrote the music.

Do you know the song was sung during the American Civil War until

the generals had to finally stop the song from being played at night

because the men all wanted to go home after they heard it?

So, I mean, it really plays quite an important part in American history.

Yes.

'From 1907 until 1927, this house was owned by

'Mr and Mrs Gustave Buck,

'who turned it into a shrine to Payne.

'But there's a decidedly odd twist. Payne himself never lived here.'

He wasn't born in the house. His grandfather didn't live here.

His cousin and aunt lived here, OK?

And his mother and grandmother were born in East Hampton and

he visited East Hampton. He knew all about East Hampton.

He just was not born in this house. And the Bucks didn't care.

-Imagine that. I don't think I do, either.

-Good. I hear you.

I hear you.

15 miles and two stops further east from the pristine Hamptons,

the Montauk branch of the Long Island Rail Road

reaches its terminus.

"Montauk Point," Appletons' tells me,

"is the eastern extremity of Long Island.

"On it is a lighthouse with a powerful revolving light."

The village of Montauk, which clings limpet-like to the tip of

Long Island, is popularly nicknamed The End.

We've reached the end of the line. We've reached the end of the island.

There's nothing beyond. And so we crawl gently to a halt.

Montauk is a fishing and surfing town.

Like the Hamptons, it's a popular weekend getaway,

but prides itself on being more rustic than chic.

Its lighthouse, the first built in New York state,

stands guard over treacherous waters.

Hello.

For the lighthouse, please.

One adult. How much is that?

10?

'Here we go. Have a good visit, sir.'

Thank you very much indeed.

I'm told there are 137 steps to the top of this tower,

which stands at just over 110 feet.

The walls are extraordinarily thick. Six feet at the bottom,

tapering to three feet by the time you get to the top.

For many years, before immigrants were greeted in New York Harbor

by the Statue of Liberty with her representation of

a lamp, they were greeted here at Montauk with a real light.

And the symbolism would not have been lost on those who came

from persecution, intimidation,

and even murder in the dark continent of Europe.

I've arranged to meet Henry Osmus,

local historian and author,

to find out more about the history of the lighthouse.

Henry, such a beautiful lighthouse.

What is its importance in history?

Well, it was...when it was built in 1796, the purpose of it was to

guide ships safely from England and France to New York City.

Prior to that being built, there had been

no lighthouses on Long Island at all,

so it became very difficult for ships navigating these waters,

so it came to the ears of President George Washington and

authorisation was passed to build the lighthouse here.

-Did it do a good job?

-It did.

Apparently, the number of ships that had mishaps dropped

dramatically, so this lighthouse did its job very well.

'For the many new arrivals who hoped to settle in America,

'this light was the first glimpse of their new home.

'And if one man's vision had prevailed, Montauk,

'rather than New York City,

'might have been where they first set foot in the New World.'

Now, there was a gentleman named Austin Corbin, who was the president

of the Long Island Rail Road from the early 1880s until

the mid-1890s, and he had a dream of creating a port of entry in Montauk

that was going to be the docking place for transatlantic steamers,

and they would continue the journey to New York by his railroad line,

and save about five or six hours in travel time.

This idea sounded outlandish to some

but he extended his railroad to Montauk in December of 1895,

and the first passenger train officially rolled into Montauk

on December 17th.

But, only six months after that first train came into Montauk,

Austin Corbin was dead.

He was killed in a freak accident.

And, unfortunately, there was no-one else with the drive,

the stamina that he had for this project,

so, officially, by 1900, the idea was considered dead.

-And the dream?

-The dream went with him.

'Had Austin Corbin's plan succeeded,

'Montauk would have become one of the world's busiest ports.

'As it is, it's been left with extraordinary serenity.'

Americans have often thought of themselves as exceptional.

The City on the Hill. A new Jerusalem.

A country with a manifest destiny.

The perfect natural harbour of New York,

with the East River protectively flanked by Brooklyn,

must have seemed like a gift from God.

And, following that logic,

the beauty of Long Island's surf and beaches would merely confirm

the limitless blessings heaped upon this land and its people.

Next time - I'll be spooked by a famous American ghost story...

This sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow.

'..hear a new take on America's greatest turncoat.'

So, you think that Benedict Arnold was actually an American

-revolutionary hero?

-Absolutely, he was. Absolutely.

'I'll take a different sort of line.'

Argh!

Whoa!

Argh!

'And enjoy beautiful mountain scenery

'from an American iron horse...'

-Wow.

-Take it west.

'..before tapping into Albany's boozy past.'

Hey!

-Wow. That is strong.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.