In 1918, a mountain of death piled up across the world, as the Spanish Flu rampaged through country after country. The world almost came to a halt--in the last week of October, 21,000 died in the U.S. The flu could mutate in a breath.

Take a front row seat to a period of U.S. history from 1930-1940 when America's heartland was ravaged by a weather phenomenon that became known as a "black blizzard.

America's infrastructure is collapsing. Tens of thousands of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. A third of the nation's highways are in poor or mediocre shape. Massively leaking water and sewage systems are creating health hazards and contaminating rivers and streams. Weakened and under-maintained levees and dams tower over communities and schools. And the power grid is increasingly maxed out, disrupting millions of lives and putting entire cities in the dark. The Crumbling of America explores these problems using expert interviews, on location shooting, and computer generated animation to illustrate the kinds of infrastructure disasters that could be just around the bend.

Inflicting over $80 billion in damage, and causing the deaths of over 1,800 people, Hurricane Katrina was among the greatest engineering disasters in US history. But was Katrina the "big one" New Orleans had been waiting for? Many believe the "perfect storm" is yet to come. If and when the big one does hit, will New Orleans be ready? The answers are in the underground. From the Army Corps' latest levees to last-ditch efforts to save New Orleans' vanishing wetlands, we're going deep into New Orleans' underground to see where New Orleans stands, and if it stands a chance.

In the late 1800s, Chicago was a bustling metropolis. It was large, rich, industrial--and flammable! And on October 8, 1871, after a long, dry summer already plagued by fires, a mischievous cow kicked over a lantern and set the city on fire. But Chicago was well-versed in firefighting and the equipment was state-of-the art--no expense had been spared. We examine the Chicago Fire Department's methods to find out what went wrong on that fateful day when the windy and wooden city went up in flames.

An ordinary day in July 2002. Nine miners arrive to work. After they break into a water-filled abandoned mine due to an incorrect map, they become trapped 230-feet below the surface. As the water relentlessly rose, the miners wondered if rescue workers could reach them before they drowned. We examine this historical moment, when technology affected the outcome, and examine the innovations that led up to that moment, 77 hours later, when all nine miners returned to the surface alive.

How have massive geological events helped create the American map? Long before the Founding Fathers drew the map, mother nature shaped some states.    

In 1918, a mountain of death piled up across the world, as the Spanish Flu rampaged through country after country. The world almost came to a halt--in the last week of October, 21,000 died in the U.S. The flu could mutate in a breath.

Take a front row seat to a period of U.S. history from 1930-1940 when America's heartland was ravaged by a weather phenomenon that became known as a "black blizzard.

America's infrastructure is collapsing. Tens of thousands of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. A third of the nation's highways are in poor or mediocre shape. Massively leaking water and sewage systems are creating health hazards and contaminating rivers and streams. Weakened and under-maintained levees and dams tower over communities and schools. And the power grid is increasingly maxed out, disrupting millions of lives and putting entire cities in the dark. The Crumbling of America explores these problems using expert interviews, on location shooting, and computer generated animation to illustrate the kinds of infrastructure disasters that could be just around the bend.

Inflicting over $80 billion in damage, and causing the deaths of over 1,800 people, Hurricane Katrina was among the greatest engineering disasters in US history. But was Katrina the "big one" New Orleans had been waiting for? Many believe the "perfect storm" is yet to come. If and when the big one does hit, will New Orleans be ready? The answers are in the underground. From the Army Corps' latest levees to last-ditch efforts to save New Orleans' vanishing wetlands, we're going deep into New Orleans' underground to see where New Orleans stands, and if it stands a chance.

In the late 1800s, Chicago was a bustling metropolis. It was large, rich, industrial--and flammable! And on October 8, 1871, after a long, dry summer already plagued by fires, a mischievous cow kicked over a lantern and set the city on fire. But Chicago was well-versed in firefighting and the equipment was state-of-the art--no expense had been spared. We examine the Chicago Fire Department's methods to find out what went wrong on that fateful day when the windy and wooden city went up in flames.

An ordinary day in July 2002. Nine miners arrive to work. After they break into a water-filled abandoned mine due to an incorrect map, they become trapped 230-feet below the surface. As the water relentlessly rose, the miners wondered if rescue workers could reach them before they drowned. We examine this historical moment, when technology affected the outcome, and examine the innovations that led up to that moment, 77 hours later, when all nine miners returned to the surface alive.

How have massive geological events helped create the American map? Long before the Founding Fathers drew the map, mother nature shaped some states.    

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.

Though now considered a country cousin when compared to the sophisticated television, merely a century ago, the radio galvanized communications as it linked the world without wires. The program examines the long life of the radio.

An exploration of the intense competition, the romance, the success, and disappointment that led to the miracle of long distance communication.        

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.

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.              

From colossal devices designed to save the world to mind-expanding, world-shrinking machines, we trace the evolution of mice and menus. Learn about the world's most powerful computer, IBM's ASCI White, that operates at 12-trillion calculations a second. See how the first room-sized computers, such as ENIAC, changed the world. Bite into Apple's history and rediscover the machine that made computers a household appliance. And peer through a microscope to see the molecular computers of the future.

In the late 1800s, Chicago was a bustling metropolis. It was large, rich, industrial--and flammable! And on October 8, 1871, after a long, dry summer already plagued by fires, a mischievous cow kicked over a lantern and set the city on fire. But Chicago was well-versed in firefighting and the equipment was state-of-the art--no expense had been spared. We examine the Chicago Fire Department's methods to find out what went wrong on that fateful day when the windy and wooden city went up in flames.

An ordinary day in July 2002. Nine miners arrive to work. After they break into a water-filled abandoned mine due to an incorrect map, they become trapped 230-feet below the surface. As the water relentlessly rose, the miners wondered if rescue workers could reach them before they drowned. We examine this historical moment, when technology affected the outcome, and examine the innovations that led up to that moment, 77 hours later, when all nine miners returned to the surface alive.

How have massive geological events helped create the American map? Long before the Founding Fathers drew the map, mother nature shaped some states.