America: The Story of Us S1E7 - English Transcript

1 A new generation On a wild new frontier. Rising into the sky Leaning towers of steels A bold new urban landscape, may be America's greatest invention The modern vertical city We are pioneers and trailblazers We fight for freedom. We transform our dreams into the truth, Our struggles will become a nation. America Land of invention - Hot-dogs, jazz, the elevator, skyscrapers. This is the story of the greatest innovation of all The modern vertical city One world famous icon has come to symbolize it Amazingly, we very nearly didn't have it It's 1885 and New York City has a big problem. A magnificent gift but with some assembly required Scattered across Bedloe's Island in New York harbor in 214 crates(木箱) They contain the largest statue in the Western world It's been donated by the people of France to celebrate the centenary(100周年) of the Declaration of Independence Built in Paris, broken down into 350 massive pieces For the journey to America. That's the problem. The cost of reassembling it would be astronomical -- Money, New York does not have. At least 6 other US cities are jockeying(策をろうする) to give it a home(故郷) New York City is in danger of losing the Statue of Liberty. Not if this man can help it. Joseph Pulitzer, tenacious(粘り強い) newspaper magnate Immigrant, a self-made man He owns the biggest paper in the US: "The New York World". And he's determined to keep Liberty in New York harbor Through his chain of newspapers Pulitzer launches the biggest fund-raising campaign ever seen in North America "It would be an irrevocable(取り返しのつかない) disgrace to New York city and the American republic" "To have France send us this splendid gift" "Without our having provided even so much as a landing place for it." "We must raise the money!" More than a million people read Pulitzer's papers every day Enclosed please find 25 cents, is my contribution to It contains my little savings I resolved to send you the contents of the first jackpot You will find enclosed 4 dollar The money we saved to go to the circus with. Donations flood in from all across the country, Rich and poor, East and West. Pennies and nickels In all, a staggering 121,000 donations. More than enough to keep this iconic statue in New York I think a statue is not just a statue. I think symbols really matter I think they signify, in a big way In fact, may be they do more than reams(膨大な手紙) and reams and reams of Legislation and paper and print Now the real work begins. To hold a statue 150 feet high The pedestal will be the biggest concrete structure in the world Over 200 men work through a grueling winter to complete it. As the last of the cement dries Workers toss in their own silver dollars for good luck. Next, Liberty's enormous iron skeleton. It's designed by Gustave Eiffel Who will build famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. The skeleton is 151 feet tall And with the pedestal, it's the height of a 30-story office block Now for the outer layer. Wrapping around the skeletons are 60,000 pounds of hand-sculpted copper The sandal is 32 times bigger than a human foot. Equivalent of the size of 879 shoes It's all on the job training Often and 300 feet in the air It's as difficult, as it is dangerous They need to fix 300 pieces of copper shell to the framework With more than 300,000 rivets. Her robes have over 4,000 square yards to cover her Her outstretched arm is 42 feet long A finger nail weighs 3.5 pounds The scale of Liberty is unimaginable. After 6 months of hazardous construction There's no fatalities, the Liberties 17-feet face is finally winched(巻き上げる) to position It's bigger than Lincoln's on Mount Rushmore. It's said the sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, Modeled the face on his own mother It takes 25 years Liberty to acidize and turn green A functioning lighthouse until 1902 The statue's official name is: "Liberty, Enlightening the World." At first, the symbol of the alliance and friendships Between France, and the 13 colonies in the American Revolution. It will come to represent much more At the entrance to New York Harbor, The Statue of Liberty becomes a beacon to the world And a welcome to millions. Later, a poem by Emma Lazarus in her base, Celebrates America as a land of refugees: "Give me your tired, your poor," "Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free," "The wretched refuse of your teeming shore." "Send these, the homeless, tempest-toast to me," . "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Over the next two decades, more than 12 million immigrants Pass the statue of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island. The first stop for most new Americans. Imagine what it took for someone to leave eastern Poland or Lithuania, Or some village in the mountains of Northern Italy And come all the way to this strange place with nothing. Today, more than 100 million Americans can trace the roots back to ancestors Who came through Ellis Island. If you go back only 150 years In our 200-and-almost-50 years history They are no roots, they all came from someplace else So, to me, America represents The best of the human's sprit A guidebook prepares arrivals for a new life in a new world. "Forget your customs and ideals," "Select a goal and pursue it with all your might." "You would experience a bad time" "But sooner or later, you will achieve your goal." "Don't take a moment's rest. Run." And from Ellis Island, they spread out across the continent. For the most part, Irish, Russians and Italians to big cities. Germans to the Midwest. Scandinavians to farmland At the dawn of the 20th century Eventually, there will be more Italians in New York than in Rome. From 1880 to 1930 Nearly 24 million new immigrants arrive in the U.S A new era in US history is about to begin. By the early 20th century New urban megacities around America are bursting to the seams And look to expand in a new direction: Up. But building these great towers Demands a critical ingredient that's much too expensive Steel. One man will change all that And with it, the face of America He'll risk everything, and almost lose it all Its 1872, and Andrew Carnegie, A 5-feet-3 Scottish immigrant iron millionaire, Is in Sheffield, England. He's looking at the future. A revolutionary way to make steel. Steel has been around for thousands of years, But so expensive to produce, it's always been a luxury item, It is even used in designer jewelry But America stands at the brink of a new age To build it, they need steel-- and lots of it. It's the only material strong enough for the towers that will touch the sky An English bullet maker is showing Carnegie a new but simple method to producing steel. he's stunned(あぜんとする) Blast hot air through molten iron Carbon impurities burn off You get the wonder material Steel For the first time, it can be produced quickly and inexpensively If Carnegie can use this Bessemer process to mass-produce it, He'll own the future Carnegie returns to the states, To Pittsburgh, to start building the biggest steel plant in the world It'll be larger than 80 football fields It's a massive gamble Carnegie risks everything he's got on the new plant. But only months into construction Disaster. a catastrophic(壊滅的な) stock-market collapse. The economy is in free fall. he has to borrow even more money and barely scrapes through(擦り抜ける) August 1875. Against all odds Carnegie's giant furnaces are ready to test. steel production is phenomenally(非常に) dangerous. Inside, 5 tons of molten metal. Hot enough to vaporize a man in seconds. If it works, it will make Carnegie one of the richest men in the world But there's a lot more at stake. Skyscrapers, cars, washing machines, airplanes, Even space travel, None of it can happen if steel can't be mass-produced It's a success Carnegie is the first ever to mass-produce steel. Prices plummet by over 80%. Output rockets from a few thousand tons in 1860 To 11 million by 1900. So many American stories of success Are diligence, are perseverance, But there's an awful lot of luck involved too His timing couldn't have been better It was steel that built American cities, It was steel that built American railroads, It was steel that built American shipping. By the beginning of the 20th century, he was one of the wealthiest men in America Pittsburgh transforms from a sleepy town To the industrial heart of the nation. Its Population triples. Driven by a new steel railroad Millions of tons of steel are transported across America The raw material to build the modern city And the grandest of all is New York. It's an era of obscene(節度を欠いた) opulence(富裕). New York is a playground for super rich industrialists and financiers Widely extravagant, they smoke cigars rolled in 100 dollar bills. Their wives' hats - studded(ちりばめられている) with diamonds. this is the Gilded(金めっきした) Age. Land values are the highest in the world There's only one place to go Up. By 1902, 65 skyscrapers are being constructed in Manhattan This is one of them. It's called "Walking the steel." This man is 30 stories above the street. His first time at this height No harness or safety rope One slip And he's dead Veterans are called "Fixers." the novices(未熟者) are "Snakes" Because working with them can be deadly. The old hand knows just how dangerous it can be. "The thing I hate worse than poison "Is to take a new man when we're near the top" "They all get used to it or get killed." No hard hats, just a 280-foot drop A sudden gust(突風) of wind and it's all over They're up here 8 hours a day Meals when they can. No bath room breaks They're called roughnecks, European immigrants and Mohawk Indians Many were sailors and bridge workers So they're used to heights. The guys balancing on the beams I think it took a lot of bravery, I think it took a lot of skill, A lot of physically--physically challenging, But I also think it--you had to be a little crazy The stakes couldn't be higher It's a risk they're willing to take The pay is 4 dollars a day, twice the going rate for manual labor Foreman William Starrett sums up his dangerous job "Building skyscrapers is the nearest peacetime equivalent of war" "Even to the occasional grim reality of an accident" "Or a maimed(不具になった) body, even death" "Remind us that we are fighting a war of construction" "Against the forces of nature." He makes it, many aren't so lucky Two roughnecks out of five die or are disabled on the job Whether it's a builder or an architect Or whatever, whoever had the imagination to design and build Some of the great structures of New York, I'm inspired by In 1902, in New York, this is what the future looks like the Flatiron(こて) Building. Its triangular footprint Determined by the intersection of three streets, not two. The steel frame means the outside Can be hung in sections like a suit of clothes Now the walls don't take the weight, the steel does It's so radical, when people first see it they think it will blow over(風などが吹きやむ) and kill them A lawsuit is filed claiming "Winds focused by this Flatiron's extreme shape" "Damage a nearby shop" Today it's one of our best-loved buildings Inside, the other breakthrough That lets towers rise into the clouds. The elevator. Before it, the tallest buildings stop mostly at five floors No more walking up stairs now, so the sky's the limit. For the first time, the higher the floor, the higher the rent You think it's a fairly humble invention, But when Otis invented the first really safe elevator It enabled the growth of the modern city, where people could come in, Build much taller buildings, get a much higher density of people And sure enough, by the end of the 19th century, The urban population has increased 87 times over. In Chicago alone, in just 10 years, They built 50 steel-frame buildings And in 20 years, it's population more than doubles to almost 1.7 million American cities are exploding But for many, living in the shadow of these new towers Will prove even harder than buildings them. In America in 1890, crime and poverty are rife(はびこって) on the streets But these mavericks(反体åˆæ´¾ã€ç„¡å…šæ´¾ã®) are about to make a difference Gangsters, murders, thieves and fear are on the streets New tabloid newspapers splash crime all over the front pages In Chicago, you can rent a gun by the hour. In the Sears Catalog, you can buy one for 12 dollars In New York, a policeman finds a list on a murdered gangster-- his rate card(標準料金表) Punches: 2 dollars Nose and jaw broke: 10 dollars ear chewed off(かみ切る): 15 dollars The big job: 100 bucks and up Detective Bureau Chief Thomas Byrnes-- A man who follows his own set of rules he's shrewd(鋭敏な) And he's very tough Among his methods is a technique his detectives, call "The third degree." First degree: Persuasion. Second degree: Intimidation. Third degree: Pain. In 4 years, Byrnes claims he's arrested 3,300 Criminals he solved the biggest heist(強盗) of the 19th century Nearly a 3 million dollar Manhattan bank robbery Reporters called him the greatest crime buster In the history of the New York City police force "His very manner(礼節)." "The size of him" "His menacing(威嚇する) shoulders and arms" "The bark of his voice" Pickpockets! (すり) Forgers!(偽造者) Whoever cracked the safe, unscrupulous rogues "Crooks(悪党) are now afraid of their shadows." They lead double lives. But tracking down criminals isn't easy There's no official ID No birth certificates or driver's licenses. If a criminal is known in one town, he just moved to the next Criminals are anonymous Byrnes is tackling this problem head-on And bringing police work into a new age. This is his rogues(悪党) gallery, Mug shots(犯罪者の顔写真) of 7,000 known lawbreakers Using photography to identify criminals Will change detective work forever Annie Reilly. Alias(偽名): Middle Annie, Deceitful(うそつきの) servant The mug shots are distributed to police departments around the country But these are more than just pictures Byrnes is also building psychological profiles of criminals Rufus Minor. He comes from a very good family It's a pity he's a thief This is the first attempt to create a national crime register A city as diverse as ours Is going to have a significant crime problem that you've gotta be on top of Even today, mug shot still catch criminals That's more than the entire population of Ohio. And it all began with the rogue's gallery over 120 years ago Any questions? But crime isn't the only problem plaguing urban streets In many cities, slums are reaching epidemic proportions Multiple families crammed into one small room Human waste pours into the streets, alleys and open courtyards people were crowded in, there were windowless tenements(安アパート、長屋) Sometimes you had no internal plumbing Just provides in the basement, in the backyard And the Lower East Side during these years Was the single most crowded place in the entire world Jacob Riis, Danish immigrant, Crime reporter, photographer He gets leads for stories from Chief Inspector Byrnes. Now he's about to expose the hell of tenements. Jacob Riis knows what it's like to be poor. It's midnight, but Riis has a new technology That will change the public perception of poverty forever An explosive powder that produces enough light to photograph in the dark This is one of the first-ever photographs of slum life.Go It shocks millions Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Jacob A.Riis And this is how the other half live and die in New York City. Magazines refuse to print his work So Riis puts on his own "Magic lantern" Shows His mission: to show the nation's wealthy Something they've never seen before, filth(汚物) and desperation on their doorstep In this block, nine dead were carried out this year alone. Five in baby coffins. What he demonstrated was that there is another reality, That all that prosperity didn't trickle down all the way to the bottom, And there was some deplorable living conditions, and this country Was not just forced to confront those conditions But then was moved to begin to deal with them Riis publishes his pictures in a book called "How the Other Half Lives." It will sell more than 28 million copies Within 2 decades, the worst of New York's slums are torn down Tenements sell at auction for as a little as a dollar Riis' campaigning forces all New York schools to build playgrounds And landlords to install toilets inside apartments, not outside It is the first step in tackling the slums But as cities keep on growing, an even bigger challenge remains In New York alone, nearly 40,000 die in one year from diseases Because of this Filth. But one clean crusader is about to change everything Into the New York streets every day Wagons are blocked by 3-foot-high piles Of human and animal waste Into this world steps a man on a white horse Colonel George Waring. Civil War veteran, Legendary sewer engineer, "Apostle of Cleanliness" He's the Head of New York Sanitation Department "The city's stinks(悪臭を放つ) with the emanations(発散物) of putrefying(腐敗する) organic matter" "Black rottenness(腐敗) is seen and smelled on every hand(四方八方に)" "The crowded streets are a veritable(本当の) hell." Wearing recruits an army of Some dismiss(退ける) him as a crank(変人) They call his men "White Ducks" but Waring means business Tons of garbage, normally dumped into the river, is recycled Ash becomes land fill on Rikers Island Organic waste boiled into oil and grease. Waring is America's first "Eco-warrior" His men clean 433 miles of street Death rates decline, water quality improves. Waring save the lives of thousands The measure spread across America Just 16 years after Colonel Waring, Half of all cities have waste collection. And it's not just waste. By 1907, every large city in the nation has sewers. By 1909, there are 42,040 miles of sewers in America The battle against filth, crime and poverty has begun. But one of the city's greatest innovations is still in its infancy One man will change the urban landscape forever. Menlo Park, New Jersey, 1879. Thomas Edison: inventor, entrepreneur, showman He was taken out of school as a boy but that won't stop him from becoming synonymous(同意語の) With inventions that define the modern era He pushes his team hard, 24/7(24時間年中無休で) In one of the world's first R&D labs It will generate more than 1,000 patents. America still lights the night In the dangers flick candles, gas and kerosene Edison thinks he has a better idea If he can get a filament to burn slowly in a vacuum The electric light bulb Platinum. Edison locks himself in his lab, doesn't sleep for days The stakes are high. His backers have sunk 130,000 dollars into his research, Millions in today's money. He claimed to have gone through 6000 materials from the plant world alone in his search for the perfect filament Turn on the lamp, Jack Spruce(《植物》トウヒ) Beard(《植物》芒) Fish line(釣り糸) Thread(糸) Teak(チーク材）. Boxwood(ツゲの木) Celluloid, parchment(羊皮紙) Then something extraordinary happens. Cardboard(段ボール紙) A piece of carbonized cardboard burns for 300 hours. It's going to change the way people live forever What Edison does is nothing less than to banish the darkness. Now think of meaning of that Think of what that means to daily life New Year's Eve 1879. Edison shows off his new invention Thousands of people flock to his lab To see the future take shape The Pennsylvania Railroad arranges special trains To accommodate the crowds. When Thomas Edison invented that light bulb, that electric light bulb, What a-- how magical that must have been You know, to sit there and just all of a sudden, Without a match, without kerosene or gas, and just flip a switch and Light. In just 2 years, Edison builds more than Generating electricity for cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and New Orleans. Over the next 5 years, he builds over 127,000 more By 1902, 18 million bulbs in use. The impact is massive. Sports, entertainment, factories, stores, All can now operate at night And as electricity comes to the cities More and more people arrive with it By 1900, nearly 4 million women are working in US cities In just 40 years, that figure has more than quadrupled urban factories are pounding(バンバンたたく) out Places like this, modern steel-frame buildings Equipped with all the latest technology Otis electric elevators, Bell telephones, Singer sewing machines. But packing so many people into tall buildings Is a disaster waiting to happen The United States is hurtling into the modern age Symbolized by megacities rising up all across the continent. By 1909 Americans are spending nearly 23 Billion dollars a year On ready-made clothes This factory is producing Known as shirtwaists, they're the latest fashion for the working woman New York City, March 25, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 8th floor. Someone-- we don't know who-- Tosses a match, or maybe a cigarette into the scrap bin Eva Harris, a seamstress, smells burning. Fire. There's a fire, Mr. Bernstein Production manager Samuel Bernstein grabs one of the three fire pails But the fire is already spreading There's a mad dash for the exit, but it is too narrow. Only one at a time can pass through It's been designed that way so their bags can be checked for stolen fabric There's a fire hose But it's not working No water! The only way to warn the floors above is through the switchboard 2 floors up, on the 10th floor Hello, switchboard? 10th floor Fire, there's fire. Put me through to the 9th floor! She drops the phone and runs to get help The message never reaches the 9th floor. Samuel Bernstein Races up the main stairs to help the 160 workers trapped there But blocking the front door, there's a barrel of motor oil On the 9th floor, flames already shooting through the walls and windows The girls on 9 rush to the fire escape, but it's locked Only 2 escape routes are left on the 9th floor The elevator and the metal fire escape Kate *** makes it to the elevator door But she's lost her sister "Everyone was knocking and crying for the elevator comes up. "Suddenly the elevator came and the girls rushed in" "I was searching for my sister, Rose, but I couldn't find her" "The flames were coming toward me and I was being left behind" "I felt the elevator was leaving the 9th floor for the last time" She's the last person to get to the last elevator More than 100 girls are left behind to die The only escape route left Is the metal fire escape but it collapses. Firemen arrived with the biggest ladder in New York City But it's 30 feet too short. The girls trapped on the 9th floor are out of options, In desperation they jump The entire blaze is over in less than half an hour There's trial, but the owners walk free It remains the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City history Until September 11, 2001. But some good does come out of it This dramatic tragedy sparks a wave of reform, So you begin to get new restrictions and a new conversation about what to do To prevent this kind of tragedy from happening But it did not stop, of course, that tragedy itself Unions force management to take responsibility For the lives of their workers. The Life Safety Code now used in all 50 States Is a direct result of this fire Its why doors now open outwards in public buildings, Why automatic sprinkler systems or multiple exits are now the law The US and the modern city grew up together Typically new, enormous and fast-paced, The megacity is one of America's great inventions