0:00:02 > 0:00:04I have crossed the Atlantic
0:00:04 > 0:00:07to ride the railroads of North America
0:00:07 > 0:00:09with my reliable Appleton's Guide.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Published in the late 19th century,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17my Appleton's General Guide To North America
0:00:17 > 0:00:20will direct me to all that's novel...
0:00:20 > 0:00:21beautiful...
0:00:21 > 0:00:23memorable...
0:00:23 > 0:00:24and striking...
0:00:24 > 0:00:27in the United States.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30As I journey across this vast continent,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West...
0:00:35 > 0:00:39..and how the railroads tied this nation together,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43helping to create the global super state of today.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19As I continue my rail journey across the Midwest,
0:01:19 > 0:01:24I am still feeling the restless energy pumped out by Chicago.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27There's much more to explore in this towering city,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30reaching back to its origins.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34How the waterways were adapted, and the railways attracted.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43My railway journey tracks the birth of the industrial Midwest.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46I began in Minneapolis - a 19th-century powerhouse.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50Then headed south along the trade route of the Mississippi
0:01:50 > 0:01:52to La Crosse, in rural Wisconsin.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Striking out east, I beached at Lake Michigan's Milwaukee,
0:01:56 > 0:02:01then set a course for America's railroad capital, Chicago.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Next, I'll travel through fertile prairies in Illinois,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07whose agriculture fuelled the cities,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09en route to my final destination
0:02:09 > 0:02:11in Memphis, home of the blues.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18On this leg I'll start by exploring Chicago's rich railroad heritage
0:02:18 > 0:02:20in Bedford Park.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25It's then downtown to the lavish 19th century Palmer House Hotel,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28before I take in the city's largest civil engineering project
0:02:28 > 0:02:30in a century.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36'This time, I gravitate towards the ultimate marshalling yard...'
0:02:38 > 0:02:40So I call this the economy in motion.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43'..recreate the original brownie...'
0:02:43 > 0:02:45That is wicked. Well done, Chef.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49'..and discover the solution to the city's pollution.'
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Imagine when you have 30,000 cubic feet per second
0:02:52 > 0:02:54of sewage coming out into here. It will be beautiful.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56MICHAEL LAUGHS A great image.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Appleton's tells me that Chicago has, within 40 years,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15grown from a small Indian trading station
0:03:15 > 0:03:17to the position of metropolis
0:03:17 > 0:03:21and the greatest railway centre on the continent.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26In classical times, it was almost true that all roads lead to Rome.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32And today it's almost true that all railroads lead to Chicago.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46Chicago's first railroad arrived in 1848,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49when the Galena And Chicago Union line was built
0:03:49 > 0:03:52to serve Illinois' lead mines.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02170 years later
0:04:02 > 0:04:07Chicago is the nerve centre of the USA's vast freight network,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11handling roughly one third of the nation's total cargo.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17Trains from all corners of the country converge here.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21In huge rail yards, they are sorted and reconfigured,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24ready for their onward journeys.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27I'm marvelling at the Chicago Belt Railway's
0:04:27 > 0:04:30five-and-a-half mile long facility.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34Joe, what a pleasure and a privilege.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38'Joe Szabo is a fifth-generation railroad professional.'
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Joe, I'm so impressed by Chicago
0:04:41 > 0:04:45as the hub of America, the crossroads of America.
0:04:45 > 0:04:46How did it become so?
0:04:46 > 0:04:50The railroad boom in Chicago really didn't begin until
0:04:50 > 0:04:53the building of the River Bridge over the Mississippi River
0:04:53 > 0:04:54at Rock Island.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Rock Island is a good, long distance west of Chicago,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59why so significant?
0:04:59 > 0:05:03This was the key point in crossing the Mississippi River,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07and whoever crossed the Mississippi River was going to be the key city
0:05:07 > 0:05:10in the development of the railroad network,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13because this is where you were finally going to be able
0:05:13 > 0:05:16to connect East Coast with West Coast.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18And so this put Chicago at the centre
0:05:18 > 0:05:20of the transcontinental railroad,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22and the economy grew from there.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad opened in 1854,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30but not everyone was delighted.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34Mississippi steamboat owners saw the growth of long-distance rail
0:05:34 > 0:05:37as a threat to their river traffic.
0:05:37 > 0:05:4015 days after the Rock Island bridge opened,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43a steamer crashed into it and the owner sued,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46claiming that it posed an impediment to navigation.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50A little-known Illinois lawyer, Abraham Lincoln,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54successfully defended the railroad's legal right.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57A milestone in his career, and a victory for Chicago's railroads.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Once the rail network began developing,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Chicago began to explode.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08By 1890, they're the second largest city in the nation.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14Chicago finds itself at the centre of a transcontinental rail network.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17- What is the significance of that network?- It's absolutely critical,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21because before the construction of the transcontinental railroad,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23there was no national economy.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28All you had was a series of small, local economies that
0:06:28 > 0:06:31were no bigger than the distance a horse could walk in a day.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35And it was the transcontinental railroad that tied
0:06:35 > 0:06:37all those local economies together,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40and for the first time, we have a national economy,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43and Chicago was right at the centre of all this.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46How important are the railroads for freight in the United States today?
0:06:46 > 0:06:47It's critically important.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51And by most measurements, rail is the most efficient,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54safest way to move commodities.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Rail's a critical part of a multimodal network.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01And so foreign goods are coming into the ports by ship.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03They get transferred to rail,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06get brought, you know, 1,000 miles inland,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09and then, ultimately, distributed by truck.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14How significant is this place, the Belt Railway Company of Chicago,
0:07:14 > 0:07:16this enormous facility, to the USA?
0:07:16 > 0:07:19So I call this the economy in motion.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27On this site of 786 acres,
0:07:27 > 0:07:328,400 cars a day are sorted and assembled into new configurations
0:07:32 > 0:07:35for transcontinental transit.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38Using a technique that's barely changed
0:07:38 > 0:07:41since the days of my Appleton's Guide.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46At the heart of the operation is a 30 foot high double track hump,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49or mound, controlled by a yard tower.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02I'm standing above the place where individual cars are separated off,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07and allowed to roll into their new formation by the force of gravity -
0:08:07 > 0:08:11one of the most compelling sights I've ever seen on a railway.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14- Hello, I'm Michael.- Nick.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17- Nice to meet you.- It's a great operation you have here, Nick.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19I've never seen anything like it.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21These cars are descending by gravity.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23How is their destination determined?
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Well, each car has a code when it comes in,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28and it determines where we're going to route it.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32For example, all these cars in 37, we coded them as 740s,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34so as this train comes out,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36every car that is coded as a 740 will be humped into 37.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39You call this process humping, right, because, I mean,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42- literally, we're on a hump. - That's correct.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44And I'm amazed how far they travel by gravity.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Is that just cos the gradient of the track is perfectly calculated?
0:08:48 > 0:08:51That's correct. The track grade make the cars roll.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54They usually leave here about four, four-and-a-half miles per hour.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03This Chicago yard has been marshalling rail freight since 1902,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07and helping to keep the US economy rolling.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15We're talking here about materials and produce from all over America.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Yeah. We move our wheat, grain,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20we move frozen vegetables, lumber,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22flour, corn, petroleum oils.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25We have trains coming in from both the east and the west.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27We bring them all the way from Canada,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29and we re-route them back all over the US.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Is there any facility in the United States that compares to this one?
0:09:32 > 0:09:35No, no. We're the only facility with a two-way hump.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38- Meaning you can bring them up to this little summit?- That's correct.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40And then they can roll that way, or they can roll that way?
0:09:40 > 0:09:42- That is correct.- It's brilliant.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46- I mean, gravity is man's oldest friend, isn't it?- Yes, it is.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05I'm swapping suburban Chicago railyards
0:10:05 > 0:10:07for the urban "L".
0:10:16 > 0:10:21The city has a superb skyline, an unmistakable silhouette.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25And on the L, you feel like you're advancing towards Chicago.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31The nucleus of Chicago's L
0:10:31 > 0:10:34is a two-mile circuit of elevated track called The Loop.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38Between 1895 and 1897,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42this short stretch is at the heart of the L web.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47For the first time, workers and shoppers could travel seamlessly
0:10:47 > 0:10:51by rail to the heart of downtown Chicago.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Following in their tracks,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05I'm bound for a building described in my Appleton's Guide
0:11:05 > 0:11:08as one of the most imposing in the city.
0:11:19 > 0:11:25The lobby of the Palmer House Hotel is fantastic.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30The painted ceiling with allegories of love and fantastic animals.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Everywhere, candelabra -
0:11:32 > 0:11:34some borne aloft by semi-naked angels,
0:11:34 > 0:11:36others by mythical lions.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40The whole thing is just so over the top.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46This is the longest continuously operating hotel in North America,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49and Ken Price its official historian.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52We are in a glorious room in a glorious hotel.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55- Welcome, Michael.- Cheers. Thank you very much, indeed.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59- What is the origin of the hotel? - Well, it goes back 145 years.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01It started with a man by the name of Potter Palmer,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03who was neither educated or privileged,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06who came from a very small farm town in upstate New York.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10Most of the young men his age were essentially going west to Colorado
0:12:10 > 0:12:12and California, where the gold was.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16He saw the middleness of this area, and he was right on the money.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19And it made him incredibly successful.
0:12:19 > 0:12:25Potter Palmer made his fortune in retail and property development.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28The Palmer Hotel was his most lavish project,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32built as an extravagant wedding gift for his wife, Bertha.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36The two of them were two completely opposites
0:12:36 > 0:12:39in terms of where they came from, and their backgrounds.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42He was not educated, she had a college degree,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44during the Civil War,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47when a good education for a man was simply seventh-grade.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53But days after opening,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58the hotel was destroyed by Chicago's Great Fire of 1871.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Palmer rebuilt it in iron, brick and sandstone,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and relaunched it as the world's first fireproof hotel,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10while Bertha stamped her taste on the interior.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The hotel looks the way it does because of
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Bertha's great love of beauty.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19She introduced a form of painting
0:13:19 > 0:13:22that had never been seen before in this country.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26She loved the entire impressionistic movement so much,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29she travelled back and forth the Atlantic throughout her lifetime
0:13:29 > 0:13:32and acquired the 220 Monets, Manets,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Degas, Pissarros, Renoirs, Cassatts, Cezannes.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37When she died,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40she bequeathed the vast majority of those to the city of Chicago,
0:13:40 > 0:13:42which is why the city of Chicago has
0:13:42 > 0:13:46the largest collection of French Impressionism outside of France.
0:13:46 > 0:13:47Extraordinary.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52In 1893, millions descended on Chicago
0:13:52 > 0:13:55for the world's Columbian Exposition,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59celebrating 400 years since Columbus landed on American soil.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Bertha Palmer wanted to provide lady visitors to the fair
0:14:03 > 0:14:06with a delicious portable snack,
0:14:06 > 0:14:08and the result made culinary history.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12- Stephen, how lovely to see you. I'm Michael.- Good to see you, Michael.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14- How are you? - Great to see you, indeed.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17So I think Bertha Palmer caused the creation of the brownie here.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20- Have you refined it?- This is the actual recipe that the pastry chef
0:14:20 > 0:14:23back in 1893 produced for Bertha at the time.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27What I have in this bowl here is I've actually melted the chocolate
0:14:27 > 0:14:29and the butter, and I've placed it in here.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31What we have to do now is we have to whip this up.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33- If you could take care of that. - Under your supervision, Sir.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36Absolutely. It actually smells wonderful.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39- It smells like a brownie already.- It smells brilliant. It's pretty good.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41- Throw in our sugar.- That is an unbelievable amount of sugar.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43- Keep going, keep going. - Yeah, all right.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Yeah, keep mixing. Right, right, right.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48- Have you got them?- You're making me work quite hard here.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50I don't think you eat many of these, do you, looking at you?
0:14:50 > 0:14:52You know, I do actually eat quite a few.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55- In fact, we make about 10,000 of these a week.- Oh, my goodness!
0:14:55 > 0:14:57Brownies here at the Palmer House are pretty incredible.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59I really like it. You're getting a work out.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01You need to get the walnuts and put them on liberally, like this.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04- Oh, right.- Pat them down lightly with your hand.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08- Ready?- Little bit, yeah.- I'm a very happy bunny at the moment.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12'30 minutes later and I can hardly contain myself.'
0:15:12 > 0:15:15- Whoa, they look great. - Check that out.- Are they finished?
0:15:15 > 0:15:18No, there's one more step we have to take, Michael.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21We're going to brush them with some apricot glaze.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Was that happening in Bertha's day, too?
0:15:23 > 0:15:25Yes, it was. Yes, it was part of the original recipe.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28- Very inventive, weren't they? - They were. In fact, they were.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29Absolute heaven.
0:15:33 > 0:15:34That is wicked!
0:15:34 > 0:15:39- Well done, Chef. Well done, Chef. - Nice job. Nice job, Michael.
0:15:39 > 0:15:40I love it!
0:15:42 > 0:15:45I'm sold, but what will today's guests
0:15:45 > 0:15:47make of my authentic brownies?
0:15:48 > 0:15:49Surprise!
0:15:49 > 0:15:51Would you like a brownie?
0:15:51 > 0:15:53I've been down in the dungeons of the hotel
0:15:53 > 0:15:55making some brownies with the chef.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58- They were invented in this hotel. - I heard that.- Yeah, you heard that?
0:16:00 > 0:16:03- I'm not...- You don't look like a chef, so.- No, no. That's very true.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Those are some good brownies.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07- It's pretty good. - It is pretty good.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Delicious. I'm glad I don't have a nut allergy.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11Yeah, that's right. They're heavy on walnut.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Excellent.
0:16:13 > 0:16:14- Very good.- Yeah?
0:16:14 > 0:16:17- Do you make brownies yourselves? - Yeah, from a box!
0:16:17 > 0:16:18THEY ALL LAUGH
0:16:18 > 0:16:22- They won't be better than your mother's, I guess?- No.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Apparently, they're slimming.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27- Amazing.- Yes, the best of all - zero calories.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28- Enjoy Chicago.- Thank you very much.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31And I hope you'll remember it not least for its brownies.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58A new day, and the Windy City is rather more wet than blowy.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Many argue that Chicago's famous nickname
0:17:06 > 0:17:08has nothing to do with the weather.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13It teased the metropolis's boastful citizens, full of hot air.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18But Chicagoans had reason to be proud.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Appleton's remarks that the site of the business portion of Chicago
0:17:26 > 0:17:29is 14 foot above the lake.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31It was originally much lower,
0:17:31 > 0:17:36but has been built up by three to nine foot since 1856.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40It's an inclined plane, rising towards the west,
0:17:40 > 0:17:42to the height of 28 foot,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45giving slow, but sufficient drainage.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Just imagine the challenge of draining the waste of a population
0:17:49 > 0:17:52that was multiplying decade-by-decade.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Not to mention the volumes of rainwater!
0:17:59 > 0:18:03In the shelter of the Loop's Clark Street Bridge,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06author Libby Hill will tell me how Chicago
0:18:06 > 0:18:08dragged itself out of the mud.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11- Libby, hello.- Hello, Michael. It's so nice to meet you.
0:18:11 > 0:18:12Welcome to Chicago.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Libby, it strikes me that Chicago did not begin with many natural
0:18:15 > 0:18:19advantages. My guidebook tells me about the drainage problem
0:18:19 > 0:18:22- that the city had. - Well, Chicago was built on a marsh,
0:18:22 > 0:18:27and so when they finally hired a sewage director,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30he decided that the best thing to do was to get the city up
0:18:30 > 0:18:33out of the marsh, And so he raised the city.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37It took 20 years. He put sewers underneath the sloping streets,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41so that all these sewage would flow down to the Chicago River.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47Work began on that ambitious project in 1856,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49and soon the city was in turmoil
0:18:49 > 0:18:53as the streets were raised to accommodate the new sewers.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57It's hard to believe, if you were a citizen living here
0:18:57 > 0:19:01you would have seen sidewalks that were different levels.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04So the level might be like this,
0:19:04 > 0:19:06and then, because they were working right here,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09and then you'd be down here, and then you'd be up there.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12First floors had been turned into basements
0:19:12 > 0:19:15and the streets were running along what had been their second floor.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18It must have been a very dramatic time,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20but the city went on about its business.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Addressing this muddle and restoring Chicago's ground floors
0:19:26 > 0:19:29to street level fell to engineer George Pullman,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33later famous for his railroad sleeping cars.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37He recruited hundreds of men manually to jack up buildings.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Even as people went about their business inside.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42But despite this ingenuity,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Chicago's sewage troubles weren't finished.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Unfortunately, the Chicago River drains out into Lake Michigan,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53and that's where they were getting their water supply from.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56That must have given them an enormous public health problem.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Sometimes fish would come out of the faucets.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01You could tell that the water wasn't really very clean.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04People got sick from the drinking water.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08And so everybody was complaining that the city fathers drank water
0:20:08 > 0:20:11that they imported,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14but that they, the ordinary people,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17had to drink water from Lake Michigan.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22The city fathers finally listened to all the pleas of the people, and
0:20:22 > 0:20:25that's when they decided that they were going to reverse the river.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Reversing a river, I never heard of such a thing.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32A huge bit of engineering. How was this done?
0:20:32 > 0:20:36So what they did was to build this enormous canal,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38but built on the idea of gravity,
0:20:38 > 0:20:43would just pull the water westward if they just sloped the canal.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47However, it's one thing to understand that principle,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49it's another thing to accomplish it.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54Chicago's 28 mile long sanitary and ship canal remains
0:20:54 > 0:20:59one of the towering achievements of North American engineering.
0:20:59 > 0:21:0338 million cubic yards of soil and rock were moved
0:21:03 > 0:21:05in order to build it.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08As well as diverting Chicago's sewage away from Lake Michigan,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11the canal created a direct shipping channel
0:21:11 > 0:21:14from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20- Was it a success for Chicago? - Yes, it was a huge economic success,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23and a huge benefit to Chicago's health.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26What happened downstream, people didn't like it.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29St Louis was going to sue the state of Illinois
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and the city of Chicago for reversing the river
0:21:32 > 0:21:34and sending their sewage down to them.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37However, word got out that they were going to do that
0:21:37 > 0:21:39and so the canal was pretty much completed.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43So they opened the dams that were holding back the lake water
0:21:43 > 0:21:47and the river. They opened it surreptitiously one night,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51and the water flowed towards St Louis, and that was it.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04Following on from the impressive successes of 19th century engineers,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Chicago has continued to adapt to survive.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16There's a modern civil engineering project
0:22:16 > 0:22:19that rivals those of the 19th century.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22If you take a village on a swamp,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24and over decades you convert it into
0:22:24 > 0:22:27a megalopolis of nine million people,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30you're going to come across a big problem.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33And that will need a big solution.
0:22:33 > 0:22:34As big as this hole.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42To understand what has been built here at the McCook Reservoir,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44I'm heading deep underground.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47- Thank you.- You're welcome.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51This is one of the weirdest experiences I've ever had.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54I've just being picked up by a crane.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58And... Whoa! ..flown over an enormous hole.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05And I'm going to be dropped down here like, like a sack of grain.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09And it's a long way down.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15'It's an exhilarating 300 foot descent into the tunnels
0:23:15 > 0:23:17'that will eventually feed the new reservoir.'
0:23:19 > 0:23:21Going down pretty fast.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23So the shaft is closing in above me.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26I can still see the sky, but it's getting smaller and smaller.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30This is not like your average lift or elevator.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33The Eagle has landed.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35- Hello.- Welcome to the McCook Reservoir Main Tunnel.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37- You're Kevin, aren't you?- I am.
0:23:37 > 0:23:38Very good to see you indeed.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43'My guide is managing civil engineer, Kevin Fitzpatrick.'
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Kevin, we're entering here a huge diameter tunnel.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48What is the total project about?
0:23:48 > 0:23:51It's called the Deep Tunnel Project, or the Tunnel And Reservoir Plan.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55We started it in 1972 to try to solve the pollution and flood
0:23:55 > 0:23:58problems that have plagued Chicago for the last more than 50 years.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00And what is the nature of that problem?
0:24:00 > 0:24:03Well, the problem is Chicago, and several of the suburbs,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06their sewers were built over 100 years ago,
0:24:06 > 0:24:08and they're called combined sewers,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11in which rainwater that hits the streets is combined
0:24:11 > 0:24:15in the same sewer system as what's draining people's homes -
0:24:15 > 0:24:17their sinks, their toilets.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20So all that rainwater gets combined with the sewage,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24and during a storm event, it can overwhelm the treatment plant,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27and so it overflows into the waterways,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30or it backs up into people's basements, in their own homes.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32And so how is this the solution?
0:24:32 > 0:24:37So, once this is complete, all that water will have a new place to go.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39It will go out into the reservoir here,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and we'll be able to store it until after the storm has gone,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46and our waste water treatment plant has a capacity to clean the water
0:24:46 > 0:24:48before we put it back into the river.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50So that's a charming image for me.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54One day, this tunnel may be full of mildly diluted sewage.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Yes, it's been called the largest toilet in the world, sometimes!
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Costing some 3.5 billion,
0:25:01 > 0:25:06the system's capacity will be over 20 billion gallons
0:25:06 > 0:25:08when complete in 2029.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15109 miles of tunnels and two reservoirs
0:25:15 > 0:25:17are already up and running,
0:25:17 > 0:25:19and have reduced city flooding by half.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23It's the largest project we've had in Chicago since
0:25:23 > 0:25:25the reversal of the Chicago River over a century ago.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30And is there a connection between this and the reversal a century ago?
0:25:30 > 0:25:31They're completely connected.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33When they solved the problem of the polluted water supply
0:25:33 > 0:25:36in Lake Michigan by reversing the Chicago River,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39they created another problem of a polluted waterway
0:25:39 > 0:25:42heading downstream. Over the years
0:25:42 > 0:25:45all the sewage and rainwater was diverted to that waterway,
0:25:45 > 0:25:49causing pollution and decreasing the amount of biodiversity in the river.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52So we're trying to clean up those waterways and capture
0:25:52 > 0:25:54all that pollution here in the Deep Tunnel, and in the reservoir,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57preventing it from polluting communities downstream.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00So this project is really about restoring the waterways.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02Are you going to live to see it finished?
0:26:02 > 0:26:05- I sure hope so. They won't let me retire until it's done.- Ha!
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Ah, it's just vast.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10It's just enormous.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Imagine when you have 30,000 cubic feet per second
0:26:13 > 0:26:15of sewage coming out into here. It'll be beautiful.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17MICHAEL LAUGHS A great image.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23The McCook Reservoir will give the Chicago system the capacity
0:26:23 > 0:26:29to cope with an extra ten billion gallons of storm water and sewage.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32I was stunned when I heard about what was done in the 19th century.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35I mean, reversing the river. That is an extraordinary thing to do.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37And now I see what you're doing today.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Which of the two do you think is the more remarkable achievement?
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Wow, it's difficult to say.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46They're both historic engineering feats.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Er, they're both generations apart.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Very difficult to compare. But I'm a little biased,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54so I'm going to say this one's much more impressive.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58And I'm going to say it takes a city like Chicago to think on this scale.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Appleton's remarks that Chicago went from being an Indian trading station
0:27:14 > 0:27:18to a metropolis in about 40 years.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Whatever you think of the United States,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24the building of the railways, the cultivation of the prairies,
0:27:24 > 0:27:26the construction of the cities,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30is one of the greatest achievements in human history.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35And the rise of Chicago is the prime example of the speed of change
0:27:35 > 0:27:38in a capitalist society.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42And what's more - it's visually spectacular.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50'Next time... I get my hands on the hooter.'
0:27:50 > 0:27:54People often talk about the smell of steam locomotives.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56What about the sound of them?
0:27:57 > 0:28:00'I'm in full swing on the fairway.'
0:28:00 > 0:28:01Taking the club back...
0:28:04 > 0:28:06'And I party on the platform.'
0:28:06 > 0:28:12# I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done. #
0:28:12 > 0:28:14CHEERING