The BEST episodes of Modern Marvels season 2

#1 - Statue of Liberty

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/12/1995

It started as an idea at a French dinner party and became the symbol of the free world. The story of France's gift to the U.S. reveals a 20-year struggle to design and build the world's largest monument--using paper-thin copper sheets.

#2 - Las Vegas

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/15/1995

Careful design mixed with cutting-edge technology has made Las Vegas an intoxicating oasis in the middle of a desert.

#3 - Gothic Cathedrals

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/19/1995

Built of stone and glass, persistence and prayer, gothic cathedrals are an epiphany of imagination and an articulation of joy. Featured are such masterpieces as Chartres, Notre Dame and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

#4 - Eiffel Tower

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/22/1995

Completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower remains a symbolic icon of France's history and the industrial age. Modern Marvels takes you on a tour of this world famous monument from its inception to the present day.

#5 - Domed Stadiums

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/5/1995

From Houston's Astrodome to Toronto's stunning Skydome, follow the history of the revolutionary structures that have transformed sports in America.

#6 - Ocean Liners

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/15/1995

With technological advances, our ancient struggle against the sea has turned into a luxurious holiday. Come aboard for a peek at the elegant life on these floating resorts.

#7 - Tunnels

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/5/1995

There is no more potent demonstration of man’s resolve than the design and construction of tunnels–avenues that slice through a conspiracy of elements in the single-minded determination to connect two points. Whether underwater, blasted through solid rock, or negotiating the shifting strata of earth’s unstable crust, we explore the design and engineering of famous tunnels…and the motivation behind them.

#8 - Monuments to Freedom: The People's House"

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/21/1995

#9 - Silver Mines

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/14/1996

Used in technology, photography, and decorative arts, silver is one of the most versatile metals known to man. In this episode of Modern Marvels we’ll explore the methods, men and machines that extract this precious resource from the earth. In Northern Idaho’s Lucky Friday mine, workers toil more than a mile underground in an around-the-clock cycle of blasting and hauling silver laden rock. While in the wilds of northern Nevada, large machines and even larger ore loads make the vast Rochester open pit mine one of the most productive silver mines in the United States. Both these facilities owe their methods to the silver strike that started it all: Nevada’s famous Comstock Lode of the mid 19th Century. From some of the largest steam engines ever built, to robotic mining machines that work without human intervention, we’ll examine the past, present and future of silver mines.

#10 - The Tennessee Valley Authority

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/15/1995

Tennessee: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly hard hit by the Great Depression. The TVA was envisioned not only as an electricity provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy and society. It was the first large regional planning agency of the federal government and remains the largest.

#11 - Space Shuttle

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/23/1995

Considered by many to be the most astounding machine ever built, this reusable spaceship is the apex of flight technology. Explore the issues that led to NASA's decision to create an "airplane" to navigate space.

#12 - Oil

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 11/9/1995

From the first well in Pennsylvania to the gushing Spindletop and modern supertankers, the story of oil is the story of civilization as we know it. We’ll take a look at the ingenious and outrageous men who risked everything for “black gold” and unimaginable wealth.

#13 - Brooklyn Bridge

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/1/1995

It was an engineering feat of almost miraculous proportions and a design of spectacular elegance. Rare photographs and behind-the-scenes stories recall the politics, the struggles, and the tragedies that made possible “the Eighth Wonder of the World”.

#14 - Golden Gate Bridge

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/21/1995

Construction of the second-longest suspension bridge in the Unites States took 25 million man-hours and 80,000 miles of cable to complete but the cost in human life proved high.

#15 - Paving America

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 10/29/1995

The story of the construction of our grand national highway system, from its beginnings in 1912 (it was conceived by auto and headlight tycoons) to its completion in 1984 (when the last stoplight was removed–and buried).

#16 - The Computer

Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 11/24/1996

A look at the inventions that have revolutionized society as we know it. They began as behemoths which weighed over 2 tons!

#17 - The Camera

Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 12/15/1996

The history of photography and the camera from it's humble beginnings through the digital age.

#18 - The Phonograph

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 9/8/1996

Thomas Edison registered over 1,000 patents, but his favorite invention was one of his first. Rare photographs and early recordings show how the young inventor and his team outfoxed Alexander Graham Bell.

#19 - The Electric Light

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 9/8/1996

Considered one of Thomas Edison’s most famous innovations, the electric bulb changed the world we live in by literally putting the power to control light at our fingertips.

#20 - Television: Window to the World

Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 10/20/1996

An exploration of the world’s most popular entertainment, from the boy genius who invented it to the RCA General who made it a reality.

#21 - Stealth Technology

Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 2/16/1997

A look at the F-117 Stealth Fighter that led the pack for the Allies in the Gulf War and virtually decimated Baghdad. Find out how the technology allows it to approach its target without being detected by radar. Also, a look at the B-2 Stealth Bomber.

#22 - The Telephone

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 9/15/1996

Witness this invention's unbelievably dramatic true story: one of false starts, close calls, and a bitter rivalry.

#23 - The Motion Picture

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 9/8/1996

The complete story of the feuds, the mistakes, ingenuity, and successes that made movies possible–and kept Edison at the front of the inventor pack. Includes rare early films from the Edison Studios.

#24 - The Railroads that Tamed the West

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/4/1996

The year was 1869 and America had just completed the greatest building achievement in its history–the Transcontinental Railroad. A thin ribbon of steel and wood now connected East and West. But the fledgling country now faced an even greater challenge–how to harness the awesome potential of the railroad to tame the still wide-open and wild West.

#25 - Trans-Continental Railroad

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/4/1996

With California finally part of the United States, two rail companies raced to connect the monied East and the promising West. Along the way, fortunes would be made, lives lost, and adversity overcome. This is the story of the largest, most expensive challenge of the 19th century.