Memphis, Tennessee Great American Railroad Journeys


Memphis, Tennessee

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I have crossed the Atlantic,

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to ride the railroads of North America

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with my reliable Appletons' guide.

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Published in the late 19th century,

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my Appletons' General Guide to North America will direct me to all that's

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novel, beautiful, memorable and striking in the United States.

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THEY SHOUT

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As I journey across this vast continent,

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I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.

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GUNFIRE

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And how the railroads tied this nation together,

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hoping to create the global superstate of today.

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I'm nearing the end of a thousand mile railroad journey.

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It began on the mighty Mississippi

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and that is where I will also make my final stop.

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Great rivers bring fertility and prosperity all along their banks.

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So it was with the Nile, in Ancient Egypt,

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and its shimmering city of Memphis.

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So, with the Mississippi and its cotton fields.

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In 1826,

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a group of Tennessee entrepreneurs decided to name their river city

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Memphis, too.

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Appletons' tells me,

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"It's the largest city on the river between St Louis and New Orleans."

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Roughly translated, "Memphis" means "place of good abode".

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Or, more roughly still, "graceland".

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On this route I've been learning how waterways and railroads

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shaped the 19th century Midwest.

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Starting in Minneapolis,

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I explored the upper Mississippi as far as the Wisconsin border,

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then headed for Lake Michigan.

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From industrial Milwaukee, I continued south into Chicago,

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the nerve centre of the United States' rail network,

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before striking out across the Illinois prairie.

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Now I'm on the home straight,

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bound for Memphis, Tennessee.

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On this journey, I'll navigate the perilous Mississippi.

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How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?

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It was extremely hazardous.

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There was great danger of sinking,

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from boiler explosions, from fire.

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Get my ducks in a row.

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There they go. Don't let them get away!

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Oh! I think this is the bizarrest thing

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I have ever been involved in.

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And get a dose of the Blues.

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Ladies and gentlemen, now arriving in Memphis.

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Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis - now arriving.

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Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

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Memphis was a transport hub even before the arrival of the railroads,

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because of its strategic position on the Mississippi.

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SHIP HORN BLARES

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Then travellers would have caught their first glimpse of the city

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from one of the hundreds of paddle steamers that plied the waters.

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Appletons' remarks that,

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"The prevailing character of the lower Mississippi is of solemn gloom.

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"The dreary solitude, the trees with melancholy drapery of pendant moss,

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"the vast volume of dark and turbid waters through the wilderness form

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"the most dismal yet impressive landscape."

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And indeed, Memphis has inherited a kind of shabby soulfulness,

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which has been its making in modern times.

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I've come here mainly to think about a man who looked back wistfully on

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childhood days on the Mississippi.

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19th century writer Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain,

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cemented Mississippi life in American culture.

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Historian Dr Charles Crawford

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can tell me how the river shaped his life and work.

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-Hello, Charles.

-I'm glad to meet you, Michael.

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Tell me about Mark Twain. Who was he?

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Mark Twain was, in the opinion of many people,

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the greatest American author who ever lived.

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Because his novel Huckleberry Finn,

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about three boys on the river

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is one of the great travel adventures

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cos it is done with such simplicity.

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It can be read by children.

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But with more maturity,

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you see he's commenting on the social aspects

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and economic aspects of society at the time.

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And he's doing it

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through the view of two young boys and one slave.

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The Mississippi first captured Twain's imagination

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during his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, some 400 miles upriver.

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Then as a young man he experienced the thrills and spills of life

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as a Mississippi riverboat pilot.

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How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?

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It was extremely hazardous.

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There was great danger, sinking from boiler explosions, from fire,

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of boats running aground to simply sinking.

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Steamboats had a short life expectancy.

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Tell me what was the worst disaster that befell a steamboat on the river?

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The worst one occurred in 1865.

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The captain of that boat was being paid per person,

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so he admitted approximately perhaps 2,400 people to a boat

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that should have been limited to 600.

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During the night, several miles north of Memphis, it exploded

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and the loss of life was between 1,500 and 2,000.

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Mark Twain knew the risks all too well.

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His brother also travelled on the Mississippi River,

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and in 1858

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a steamboat explosion occurred near the city and his brother Henry

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was seriously wounded, was brought to Memphis for treatment.

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They were cared for by the people so much so that Mark Twain said after

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his brother had died said, "God bless Memphis,

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"there is no more noble city on the face of the earth."

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Late 19th century United States citizens had to endure danger,

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violence and disease.

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The civil war claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and fast-growing

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crowded cities were the perfect breeding ground for epidemics.

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In 1878,

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Memphis was gripped by a pestilence that threatened its very existence.

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This lovely spacious place is according to Appletons',

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"The principal of the six cemeteries and is known as Elmwood."

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It's the final resting place for 14 Confederate generals

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and for many dead from steamboat disasters,

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but lots of people buried here were not the victims of great events,

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but of something extraordinarily tiny.

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Executive director at Elmwood Kim McCollum

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works to raise awareness of the cemetery's history.

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So, Kim, why are the years just before my guide book was published

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so memorable for Memphis?

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Well, the 1870s brought a lot of turmoil to the city of Memphis

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in the form of a mosquito, the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

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She caused a lot of damage in the form of yellow fever.

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Did people know that the mosquito was to blame?

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No, no-one knew the mosquito was to blame, in fact,

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many believed that it was what Americans called a miasma,

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that was sort of a fog that floated over cities,

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that carried a foul air and infected people.

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17th century slave ships first brought yellow fever to the east coast of America.

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The disease spread,

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aided by the advent of steamboats and railroads.

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In the 1800s, it reached Memphis' crowded streets.

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Why was Memphis particularly badly hit, do you think?

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Memphis was a very unclean city during the yellow fever epidemics.

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There were no sewer systems and the Gayoso Bayou was located downtown,

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which was a large body of water that was stagnant and so the mosquito

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had a wonderful breeding ground in Memphis.

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The city was struck by a series of yellow fever outbreaks,

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each worse than the last.

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So when a case was reported in 1878, panic set in.

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In the year 1878,

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the population of the city of Memphis was approximately 50,000,

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so about 25,000 people chose to leave the city of Memphis

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and they headed up the Mississippi River towards St Louis.

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Most of those were Caucasian people who had the means to leave the city,

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those who remained in the city were largely African-American.

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We liken it to a modern-day Hurricane Katrina in its devastation.

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So what was the impact on the 25,000 who remained?

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Out of the 25,000 who remained in Memphis,

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about 5,000 of those died from the yellow fever.

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In the month of September of 1878,

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about 200 people were dying per day in the city of Memphis

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and about 50 of those people were brought to Elmwood for burial

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and they were buried in trench-style graves in this piece of land

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that we're standing on now, which is called No Man's Land.

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The epidemic upended the social order in Memphis.

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White flight made way for African-Americans to serve for

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the first time as police officers,

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while businessman Robert Reed Church,

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whose mother was a slave, made a fortune snapping up property,

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becoming reputedly the South's first black millionaire.

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Nowadays the people of Memphis remember those who stayed behind

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to serve the victims.

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One unlikely hero was a brothel owner

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who apparently still haunts the cemetery today,

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keeping her story alive.

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Well, Annie Cook, I presume!

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-Good afternoon.

-I'm Michael.

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Annie, what sort of business have you been running here in Memphis?

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I've been very successful in Memphis.

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I started out as a housemaid, but there's not a lot of money in that,

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so I knew what the sailors in a rough river town like Memphis needed

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was it something a little more exciting than a clean house.

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How did 1878 begin?

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Well, that terrible disease hit Memphis that was nicknamed "yellow fever"

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because you turned as yellow as a banana.

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It was burning you up from the inside out.

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You bled from everywhere, your ears, your eyes, your nose, your mouth.

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Luckily, I mean, mercifully, you died within three or four days.

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What did that do to your business?

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Well, I turned my palatial mansion into a hospital.

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-How did you do that?

-Well, we just pushed back the furniture,

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rolled up the carpets

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and filled every room with cots

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and they were full with the sick and the dying.

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Well, Annie, thank you very much for all of your services to Memphis.

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-Sure, thank y'all.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye.

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Appletons' recommends the Peabody Hotel,

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which first opened its doors in 1869.

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It moved to this site in 1925

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and soon after, a remarkable tradition was born.

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Mr Duck Master, I assume?

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Mr Portillo, great to have you with us.

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Thank you, it's lovely to be here. What's going to happen?

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Well, have you ever seen a duck march before?

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-Duck march? No.

-Well, that's all right.

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Have you ridden on an elevator with ducks before?

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-With ducks? No.

-That's fine.

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Have you ever seen a Royal Duck Palace?

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-No.

-That's all right.

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The Peabody ducks, these guys right here,

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they are a legend here in the city of Memphis and you, sir,

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have been nominated to act as our honorary Duck Master.

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Oh, that is a great honour, I'm humbled.

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Ducks have been a feature here since 1933,

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when an inebriated general manager

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positioned some of them in the fountain of the hotel,

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to the guests' delight.

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Nowadays the daily duck march draws a crowd.

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Here we go. All righty, ducks,

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wait for it, wait for it.

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Very good. I like what you're doing.

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Excellent. Very good, very nice.

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Very good, I think he's got it.

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Duckies, hup, hup.

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Very nice. Double back for you.

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Very good waddle, duckies.

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Look at you guys! Oh, excellent posing, ducks.

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Very nice. Very good!

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Great job!

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The ducks are going to go running right past you

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as soon as that door opens, just so you know,

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if just stay still. There they go.

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-Don't let them get away.

-Oh, right!

-We got work to do.

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Beautiful day for a duck march.

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I think this is the bizarrest thing I've ever been involved in!

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You're doing great. Pardon me, ducks.

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Pardon me. Thank you, good job.

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-Hooray!

-Great job, Duck Master! Thank you very much.

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Wow! Duck Master, what an honour to serve with you.

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It was a pleasure having you with us. Thank you so much.

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Look at this palace that they're in as well.

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Not bad for ducks, right?

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Well, I'm staying here slightly less time than they are

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and I think my room is not quite as big.

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Well, there's five of them!

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Before I turn in,

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I'm taking a stroll down the famous Beale Street

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to soak up a little Memphis nightlife.

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Around the time of my guidebook,

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this was where African-Americans gathered.

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I suppose Beale Street is what it is today because about 150 years ago,

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penniless black musicians came here

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who would have faced immense prejudice, I dare say and now,

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look at this.

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All the neon signs, all the tourism, and it's all down to those guys.

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How the wheel of fortune, how the wheel of fashion, turns.

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A new day and I've been invited to play with a big toy...

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Hi! May I come aboard?

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-Yes, sir.

-Thank you very much.

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..to get a feel of Memphis' modern rail story.

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Appletons' tells me that Memphis has an immense railroad

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and steamboat traffic. Of course it was a hub,

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having both the railroad and the Mississippi River,

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but perhaps more surprising is that even today,

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the big five railroads of North America all converge on Memphis.

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Railfreight today is a 60 billion industry

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and Memphis is America's third largest rail hub.

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And the city represents a cultural crossroads too.

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Since travelling black musicians first congregated on Beale Street,

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Memphis has been a musical melting pot.

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In the home of the blues,

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I'm meeting Grammy-nominated musician Cedric Burnside.

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Cedric, how did music begin in your life?

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My big daddy was a big part of my musical history.

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RL Burnside. I grew up with him.

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Because he grew up playing in the juke joints I kind of grew up too.

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That was the life we had, you know.

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What are you saying with your music?

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What is it you're communicating, do you think?

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Slaves, you know, really started the blues,

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they couldn't talk a whole lot, so they had to do code

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and I kind of think blues is sort that way still today.

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People go through things, you know,

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they talk about it through their blues.

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It's the roots.

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After the civil war,

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African-Americans made use of their new-found freedom and the growing

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railroad network to travel, taking their music with them.

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In 1912,

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the first commercially successful blues song was published by WC Handy,

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a Beale Street band leader,

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inspired by a lone musician whom he heard playing at a Mississippi rail station.

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During the Great Depression,

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blues men migrated north on the Illinois Central

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and the electrified Chicago blues was born.

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Cedric, there are different sorts of blues.

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How would I distinguish between, I don't know, between Delta blues...

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Chicago blues, hill country blues?

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-Tell me about that.

-Well, Delta blues, it's all bars, you know.

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I like to think of hill country blues as film music.

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It don't have any bars.

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It's just a straight beat that goes on through.

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You can't put hill country blues in front of somebody and say, "Play this,"

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because you can't write it, really.

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This is a hill country song I'm about to play you

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that my big daddy used to play all the time.

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And it don't really have too many changes,

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it just has a lot of finger picking and just a strong, hypnotic beat.

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This is called Skinny Woman.

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# Well, I don't want skinny woman

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# Well, I don't want skinny woman

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# Meat don't shake

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# Meat don't shake... #

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-Thank you, Cedric.

-You're very welcome, man. Thank y'all.

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In the mid-20th century,

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the blues helped to give birth to a new style of music here in Memphis.

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And a local boy was its king.

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I'm joining the 20 million people

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who've made the rock and roll pilgrimage

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to his home since it opened to the public in 1982.

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My guide is Libby Perry.

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-Hello, Libby, I'm Michael.

-Hey, Michael, welcome to Graceland.

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Thank you so much. It's really very exciting to be here.

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In what sort of circumstances was Elvis born?

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Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

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It's about an hour and a half south of Memphis.

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He was born to a poor family,

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they had a very small shack on the edge of a very poor historically

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African-American neighbourhood.

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Elvis moved to Memphis at the age of 13 and absorbed its musical influences.

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-Where was he going to hear his music?

-Beale Street.

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Everyone goes to Beale Street in Memphis to hear all sorts of music.

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It was the same for Elvis when he was growing up.

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And he really made a lot of connections at Stax and Sun Studio

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with so many up-and-coming Memphis musicians

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that would really help put Memphis on the map in terms of blues

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and gospel and eventually rock and roll.

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And does Elvis himself pick up the blues?

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Yes, absolutely.

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Big influences of Elvis in terms of blues are Big Mama Thornton,

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who actually came out with Hound Dog and that famous song of Elvis'

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is a cover of hers.

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Otis Blackwell was an amazing blues writer

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that Elvis loved to work with.

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He wrote, Don't Be Cruel and All Shook Up.

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So, Graceland, I've never been here before, big moment,

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but when does he acquire it?

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Elvis bought Graceland when he was 22.

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It's June 1957,

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came with about 13 acres of land and he paid about 100,000 for it.

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The poor boy from Mississippi had become

0:24:490:24:51

the first global rock and roll superstar,

0:24:510:24:54

thanks to his fusion of rhythm and blues, country and gospel.

0:24:540:24:59

He died aged just 42.

0:25:000:25:03

But it's as though he lives on at Graceland.

0:25:030:25:06

Well, it's a...

0:25:100:25:12

-a time capsule, isn't it?

-That's right.

0:25:120:25:14

When Elvis passed away in 1977,

0:25:160:25:18

he was kind of in a very masculine, '70s phase,

0:25:180:25:21

so most of what you see here that's white or blue

0:25:210:25:24

was actually red and black, lots of leather and fur.

0:25:240:25:28

So we kind of like to hedge the balance between what it was like when he passed away

0:25:280:25:32

and what it was like the majority of the time that he lived here.

0:25:320:25:35

What was the difference that he made to music?

0:25:350:25:37

He is credited with a lot.

0:25:370:25:39

At Sun Studio, downtown, he and Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash,

0:25:390:25:44

Jerry Lee Lewis really blended together blues, gospel, country, R&B,

0:25:440:25:48

soul and created what we now know as the infancy of rock and roll.

0:25:480:25:52

And so many current pop culture and musical artists today kind of attribute

0:25:520:25:56

some of their success, some of their musical stylings to the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

0:25:560:26:00

Despite his renown as a rebellious youth whose music and sensuality

0:26:060:26:11

divided generations and families, Elvis was devoted to his parents.

0:26:110:26:16

They lived with him off and on at Graceland and are buried beside him.

0:26:160:26:21

I've been thinking,

0:26:490:26:51

which figures most help you to understand American history?

0:26:510:26:54

Thomas Jefferson, "All men are created equal".

0:26:540:26:56

Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of slavery,

0:26:560:26:59

and Elvis Presley.

0:26:590:27:01

That's not far-fetched because from the second half of the 20th century onwards,

0:27:020:27:07

America, through its entertainment, has global, cultural domination

0:27:070:27:12

and Elvis is absolutely at the heart of that,

0:27:120:27:15

and the interesting thing is

0:27:150:27:17

that he draws his inspiration largely from black Americans.

0:27:170:27:21

Guided by my Appletons',

0:27:440:27:45

my train journey from Minneapolis to Memphis has left two strong impressions,

0:27:450:27:50

that the Mississippi tells the story of America up to

0:27:500:27:53

the late 19th century.

0:27:530:27:56

Native Americans, fur traders, settlers, steamboats,

0:27:560:28:02

industry and the civil war.

0:28:020:28:04

And that Chicago carries on the history of the United States,

0:28:040:28:09

sitting at the centre of a vast iron web,

0:28:090:28:13

spinning out new rail lines in every direction.

0:28:130:28:16

Growing fat and tall on the profits, because by then

0:28:160:28:21

access to a railroad was more important than proximity to a river.

0:28:210:28:26

Even to this one, the father of the waters.

0:28:260:28:30

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