The BEST episodes of Modern Marvels season 10

#1 - The Gunboats of Vietnam

Season 10 - Episode 46 - Aired 8/18/2003

Armored gunboats prowl rivers of Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

#2 - Inviting Disaster: Space Shuttles

Season 10 - Episode 58 - Aired 11/4/2003

No program better symbolizes human mastery of machines than does the space shuttle. But the breakups of Challenger and Columbia revealed the program is tragically flawed. Based on the James Chiles's book Inviting Disaster, we look at the 1930 crash of the R-101, a dirigible which, much like Challenger, was rushed into flight and met with disaster, and the Hindenburg, whose 1937 explosion ended dreams of commercial flights for an entire industry. Will the shuttle program go the way of the dirigible?

#3 - Trans-Siberian Railroad

Season 10 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/28/2003

It's the longest, most expensive and complicated railroad ever built. Ordered by the Tsar in an effort to save his empire and unify his country at the twilight of the 19th century, the Trans-Siberian Railroad nearly tore Russia apart. Intended in part for defense, the railroad provoked a war, crossed great lengths over treacherous terrain, and encountered logistical and economic failures. Ironically, "enemies of the state" built the railroad--men sentenced to hard labor in Siberian prisons.

#4 - Extreme Trucks

Season 10 - Episode 60 - Aired 11/12/2003

Hop into the cab for the ride of your life as we examine extreme trucks, including: a jet truck that can travel 300 mph; the Baltimore Technical Assistance Response Unit's mobile command truck; a garbage truck with an articulated arm; a concrete pumper truck with telescoping boom and pumping mechanism; and a 4-wheel-drive truck that can convert from mower to street sweeper to backhoe to snow blower in mere minutes. Learn how SWAT, bomb squad, HAZMAT, and crime scene specialty trucks are built.

#5 - Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

Season 10 - Episode 53 - Aired 10/15/2003

In the land of Mardi Gras, jambalaya, and zydeco, exits an engineering marvel called the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway that seems to go on forever. Two ribbons of concrete span the largest inland body of water in Louisiana, and at nearly 23.87 and 23.88 miles long, these two spans form the world's longest automobile bridge. At midpoint--12 miles out--water surrounds travelers who are unable to see either shoreline. The bridge is so long, it actually transverses 1/1000th of the earth's circumference!

#6 - Space Shuttle Columbia

Season 10 - Episode 49 - Aired 8/26/2003

Combination rocket, spacecraft, and airplane, the space shuttle is the most complex vehicle ever built. Long before it ever flew, the shuttle was nearly scuttled due to political pressures, technological challenges, and cost overruns. The program not only overcame these challenges, but opened space to an international community of scientists, explorers, and dreamers. This is the story of the Columbia, the first shuttle to fly outer space, from inception to tragic demise in January 2003.

#7 - Castles and Dungeons

Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2003

Some of the most imposing structures ever built, medieval castles withstood both bloody assaults and the test of time. Designed like machines with nearly every architectural detail devoted to defense, castles represented the perfect fusion of form and function. Journey back to that unruly era as we examine the complexity of their construction and the multipurposes they served--homes to kings and nobles, economic centers, courthouses, treasuries, prisons, and torture chambers.

#8 - Dangerous Cargo

Season 10 - Episode 28 - Aired 6/25/2003

Toxic traffic is everywhere! An average of 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials hit our highways and railways daily. From Wild West wooden crates filled with explosives to HAZMAT containers of nuclear waste, we shadow dangerous cargo. We ride shotgun on a hazardous material shipment that's tracked by satellites; hunt down the hush-hush "ghost fleet"--trucks carrying classified government materials; and board a Con-Air flight moving another kind of nasty stuff--dangerous felons!

#9 - Military Movers

Season 10 - Episode 41 - Aired 8/6/2003

Military planners move millions of soldiers and tons of cargo halfway around the world and into the thick of action.

#10 - Overseas Highway

Season 10 - Episode 50 - Aired 9/3/2003

A spectacular roadway nearly 120 miles long, the Overseas Highway links mainland Florida with the Florida Keys, and contains 51 bridges, including the Seven-Mile Bridge. A boat was the only mode of travel from Miami to Key West until oil tycoon Henry Flagler completed his railroad line in 1912. After a 1935 hurricane destroyed 40 miles of track, the scenic highway was built using Flagler's bridges. A $175-million refurbishment that ended in 1982 resulted in today's remarkable Overseas Highway.

#11 - Toys

Season 10 - Episode 71 - Aired 12/23/2003

All aboard the nostalgia express as we take a trip through the past to enjoy toys of our youth--the ones we can't forget and those that some of use never gave up! This is the real toy story! We take a look at five categories of boys' toys and see what relationship they have had on the development of young minds; talk with collectors of antique and specialty toys; and visit companies that make electric trains, Matchbox Cars, GI Joe action figures, and LEGO Bricks, among others.

#12 - Engineering Disasters 4

Season 10 - Episode 30 - Aired 7/2/2003

Engineering disasters can result in personal tragedy, national humiliation, and economic ruin. But buried within their wreckage lie lessons that point the way to a safer future. The fire at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel, the collapse of Seattle's Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge, the car that spurred creation of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and the flaw that grounded the first commercial jet are among the engineering disasters that led to improvements in design and safety.

#13 - Egyptian Pyramids

Season 10 - Episode 69 - Aired 12/18/2003

Constructed as tombs for the ancient pharaohs, over 100 pyramids remain in Egypt. Built during a span of well over 1,000 years, they stand as cultural and engineering marvels of staggering proportions. But many things about these monuments, including the exact methods used to construct them, remain tantalizingly obscure. Travel back in time as we investigate their evolution--from the earlier mastaba to the Step Pyramid, Bent Pyramid, and of course, the magnificent necropolis at Giza.

#14 - Inviting Disaster: Three Mile Island

Season 10 - Episode 54 - Aired 10/21/2003

They make our lives more comfortable, more rewarding, and more secure. They are the magical machines that have brought us to the edge of the new frontier of limitless possibilities. But it is a hinterland filled with dangers and demons of our own creation. Based on the popular book Inviting Disaster by James Chiles, in this episode we explore the nuclear nightmares of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

#15 - Technology of Kitty Hawk

Season 10 - Episode 68 - Aired 12/17/2003

Two brainy bicycle makers...a remote North Carolina moonscape...and an impossible dream. On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright took wing at Kitty Hawk and flew--as none before had--unraveling a complex problem that had defied history's most inventive minds, from Leonard da Vinci to Edison. How did these high-school dropouts from Dayton, Ohio do it? Experts at the controls of full-scale replicas explain how they worked--or didn't--and historians recount the brothers' heated arguments.

#16 - Tailgating

Season 10 - Episode 66 - Aired 12/6/2003

At stadiums nationwide, thousands of football fans come together to show team spirit, eat incredible food, and join the community of tailgating. We journey around the U.S. to legendary tailgating colleges like Penn State, the University of Miami, and Louisiana State University, and visit the home-team parking lots of the Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles. We taste the food, revel with spectators, and reveal the evolution of tailgating--from horse and buggy to tricked-out RV.

#17 - Bullets

Season 10 - Episode 44 - Aired 8/13/2003

From "safe" bullets that stop hijackers but leave aircraft unscathed to bullets that chain-saw through steel and "smart" bullets computer-programmed to hit a target, this explosive hour examines the evolution of bullets from origin in the 1300s--stones and round lead balls shot from iron and bamboo tubes. Lead balls ruled until 1841 when a conical-shaped bullet changed ammo forever. We learn how to construct a modern cartridge, and at pistol and rifle ranges view demonstrations of modern firepower.

#18 - Logging Tech

Season 10 - Episode 32 - Aired 7/9/2003

When Paul Bunyan cried "Timber!", he never foresaw today's cutting-edge, controversial industry that feeds a ravenous, lumber-crazy world--a world striving to protect nature while devouring it. Come into the woods to see how he-men and hi-tech combine forces to topple 4-billion trees annually; journey to 19th-century America, when lumberjacks cut a legend as large as the timber they felled; and travel with a tree from stump to sawmill and learn its non-wood uses--from aspirin to film to toothpaste!

#19 - Machine Guns

Season 10 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/30/2003

A machine gun puts the power of 20 men into the hands of one. We review the history of the machine gun from the first Gatlings in the Civil War to today's high-speed automatic rifles.

#20 - Black Hawk: Night Stalker

Season 10 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/26/2003

The Black Hawk remains the world's most advanced twin-turbine military helicopter.

#21 - Failed Inventions

Season 10 - Episode 67 - Aired 12/10/2003

Dreamers and schemers try an odd assortment of flawed ideas for inventions. Start with the cars--cars that fly, cars that float, cars with jet engines. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Here are homes that look like nothing you've ever seen and clothes too strange for even the most radical fashion runway, including rocket belts and radium-infused garments. Some of these creations were too far ahead of their time, and others were just plain bad ideas, but there's a fascinating tale behind each one, and FAILED INVENTIONS celebrates those occasions when necessity mothers a notion that only its creator could love.

#22 - Engineering Disasters 5

Season 10 - Episode 72 - Aired 12/30/2003

#23 - Shipyards

Season 10 - Episode 59 - Aired 11/5/2003

Shipyards are waterside construction sites where some of the largest tools ever built help create the biggest machines on earth.

#24 - Ice Road Truckers

Season 10 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/30/2003

During the harsh winter of Canada's Northwest Territory, remote villages and work camps are cut off from the world. To keep them supplied, a tenacious group of long-haul truckers drive their rigs over hundreds of miles on ice roads cut across the surface of frozen lakes. Sometimes the ice cannot support the heavy rig, and driver and cargo plunge through the ice and sink to the bottom. Hitch a risky ride along with the Ice Road Truckers as they drive headlong into bone-chilling danger.

#25 - Loading Docks

Season 10 - Episode 38 - Aired 7/30/2003

Loading docks serve as the connecting point between products coming from the factory to reaching store shelves.