Aerial.America.S02E08.Maryland.&.Delaware
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00:00Maryland and Delaware, two states bordered by the Atlantic and the Great Bays of the
00:09eastern seaboard. States with great cities that tell the story of America's industrial
00:16history, while marvels of modern engineering span their bays, and famous tributes to the
00:24age of sail and steam. States with a history of terrible division, a land stained with
00:34the blood of brother fighting brother during one of the worst battles of the Civil War,
00:40and a land of winding rivers and creeks that helped slaves escape to freedom. Away from
00:48the towns and cities, Maryland and Delaware offer ridge after ridge of mountains, miles
00:55of coastline, and quiet reserves where serenity is guaranteed. They have a shared history
01:03and a rich and varied landscape, and although they are among the smallest states in the
01:08Union, our aerial journey reveals their giant stature in the history of America.
01:38In a daily ritual nearly 200 years old, volunteers raise a giant 15-star flag on a blustery morning
02:03in Maryland. It's a replica of the original flag, sewn by widow Mary Pickerskill, which
02:09survived a ferocious battle in the War of 1812 and is now enshrined as a national icon
02:15in the Smithsonian Institution. On September 13, 1814, the star-shaped Fort McHenry was
02:24all that stood between the British and Maryland's greatest city, Baltimore. Against overwhelming
02:32odds, the fort withstood 25 hours of bombardment by British warships and a rocket vessel. On
02:40a boat on the Patapsco River, a young poet witnessed the battle throughout the night.
02:44When he saw the flag still flying after the onslaught, he wrote these famous lines,
02:51Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home
02:57of the brave? Francis Scott Key named his poem, The Defense of Fort McHenry. It was
03:11later renamed The Star-Spangled Banner. In 1931, it became America's national anthem.
03:33During the Civil War, Maryland was one of the most contested states in the Union. Here
03:42at Antietam, in the far west of the state, are the somber memorials to the scene of the
03:47single bloodiest day of fighting in American history. With a view extending all the way
03:54to the Blue Ridge Mountains, General Robert E. Lee gathered his Confederate forces on
03:59the high ground west of Antietam Creek as the Union Army advanced from the east. Dawn
04:06broke on September 17, 1862, with the roar of 500 cannons. Through the day, smoke filled
04:14the air. The old stone bridge crossing at Antietam Creek was the scene of major combat
04:23as Union forces tried to take the bridge from the Confederates. Fighting was so bitter
04:34on this day, nearly 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. One soldier
04:46later wrote, the whole landscape for an instant turned red. The massive losses halted Lee's
04:54advanced north and allowed the Union to claim a strategic victory. Today, Maryland remembers
05:06the sacrifices made by these young Americans and how a turning point in the nation's history
05:11happened on her soil. Maryland is a state defined as much by water as it is by land,
05:25separated by the largest freshwater estuary in the United States, the Chesapeake Bay.
05:32With its maze of tributaries, creeks, and ponds, the bay covers more than 4,000 square
05:38miles, an area so vast it could swallow the entire state of Delaware with room to spare.
05:51For centuries, the only way to cross the bay was by boat, but in 1952, a marvel of engineering
05:58emerged, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Although many groups opposed the bridge as bringing
06:06unwanted development, it provided a fast link between the rural areas of eastern Maryland
06:12and the city of Baltimore. Today, 27 million vehicles a year travel under the suspension
06:21bridge towers, which soar 379 feet skyward. When the original span opened at a length
06:29of 4.3 miles, it was the longest continuous overwater steel structure and the third longest
06:36bridge in the world. A few miles west of the bridge, a neat flotilla of dinghies lies
06:47ready for training the nation's latest midshipmen. Founded in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy dominates
06:55the city of Annapolis, and shouts of, Go Navy! rally the faithful each fall. Generations
07:02of U.S. naval officers have slept and studied within these austere buildings. Annapolis
07:09was founded at the mouth of the Severn River in 1649 by Puritans who were fleeing persecution
07:15in Virginia. First called Providence, it quickly established itself as a prosperous port for
07:21exporting Maryland tobacco to London. By the end of the 17th century, Providence was made
07:28state capital and renamed Annapolis in honor of Princess Anne, heir to the British throne.
07:36In the center of town is one of the most unique structures in America, the dome of the Maryland
07:41State House. Completed in 1797, it's made entirely of wood without a single metal nail
07:49and is the largest of its kind in the country. It's thought to be modeled after a church
07:55dome in Germany. Around the State House is one of the greatest concentrations of 18th
08:01century homes still standing anywhere in America.
08:09Heading south, a Navy jet trainer performs textbook maneuvers along the western shoreline
08:14of Chesapeake Bay. It's an F-5 Tiger, the same type that masqueraded as the Soviet planes
08:20in the movie Top Gun. It's from the Naval Air Station at the mouth of the Patuxent River.
08:29Here, young pilots gain their first taste of supersonic flight and target practice on
08:35Old Hannibal. This World War II Liberty ship is grounded on the seafloor just 20 feet below.
08:42The holes you see in its side come from being riddled with .50 caliber bullets.
08:48Seventy years old, it's still ready for a few more years of machine gun fire.
09:00A few miles southeast of Old Hannibal lies Smith Island, a tiny spot of land in the middle
09:06of Chesapeake Bay.
09:09Only half of its total area is made up of dry or usable land, and more is lost to the
09:15bay every year.
09:20260 full-time residents, most of them descendants of the island's original settlers, still
09:25cling to a way of life here that has existed for centuries.
09:39Today's islanders still speak a brogue-like dialect that contains remnants of speech suggesting
09:44its Elizabethan origins.
09:49Over the last century, 3,300 acres of its wetlands have been lost to the bay, the victims
09:55of erosion and, scientists say, rising sea levels.
10:02For islanders, the days of making a living from the sea around them may soon be gone,
10:07with the next big hurricane, the island and its long heritage could disappear forever.
10:21The Ash Wednesday storm of 1962 was one of the most destructive ever to hit Maryland.
10:28The storm caused millions of dollars in property damage along the state's barrier island
10:33coastline.
10:38As a result of the storm, Maryland decided to protect this 37-mile stretch of pristine
10:44beach from future development.
10:48It is now called Assateague Island National Refuge.
10:52There are no houses here, just campsites.
10:55This one becomes a tent city during the summer months.
10:58And even though the beach continues to be threatened by storms, thousands of migrating
11:03birds still call it home every year.
11:08But not all of Maryland's seashore is wild.
11:13At the north tip of the Assateague Island National Refuge lies one of the most popular
11:17resort towns in the country, Ocean City.
11:22Though its permanent population is less than 8,000, it's home to more than 300,000 people
11:28on most summer weekends.
11:30Located on the boardwalk, Trimper's Rides has been in business for over a century.
11:36When Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge was finished in 1952, vacationers flocked here
11:41from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
11:54Developers have since built more than 10,000 condominiums close to the water to keep up
11:59with demand.
12:01But the problem is, Ocean City's famous sandy beach is shrinking.
12:06Rising sea levels are threatening the town.
12:09Although many oppose replenishing a naturally eroding barrier island, millions of dollars
12:14are spent each year to pump sand back onto the beach.
12:23And Maryland's sandy Atlantic shoreline isn't the only coastal area under threat.
12:28In some places on the Chesapeake Bay, water levels rose one foot over the 20th century.
12:38Here, legendary explorer Captain John Smith undertook a 3,000-mile odyssey around the
12:44bay in 1608.
12:47Today, modern-day sailors can follow in the wake of Smith's epic voyage along the first
12:53national water trail in the country.
12:56In his journals, Smith described the land around the bay as the most pleasant place
13:01ever known.
13:04On the west side of Chesapeake Bay, Point Lookout is a haven for migrating birds.
13:11Built in 1830, the Point Lookout Light stands at the entrance of the Potomac River.
13:18The lighthouse was run for 17 years by Ann Davis, the daughter of the light's original
13:24keeper, who died just three months after taking the job.
13:29Point Lookout also served as a Civil War prison.
13:33More than 4,000 Confederate prisoners died here under awful conditions.
13:38The lighthouse was finally closed in 1965.
13:41Now, it's popular with ghost hunters who claim the light is haunted.
13:55A few miles to the north, a town looks trapped in time.
14:02St. Mary's City was established in 1634.
14:07For more than 60 years, it served as capital of the colony of Maryland.
14:15But in 1695, the seat of government was moved to Annapolis, and St. Mary's City was abandoned.
14:25For three centuries, the town's remains lay concealed but preserved beneath fields of corn and wheat.
14:35Today, reconstructions of those remains provide unique insight into the values of the early colonists.
14:45When they planned their new town, they placed a new church at one end and the State House at the other,
14:53evidence of the importance of the separation of church and state for the town's founders.
15:01Despite being the capital, few families actually lived in St. Mary's City year-round.
15:06They spent most of their time living and working on their tobacco plantations.
15:12Today, St. Mary's City is one of the finest 17th century colonial archaeology sites in the nation.
15:19And it's still bordered by farmland.
15:25Agriculture is Maryland's largest commercial industry today, powered in part by fields of wheat, soybeans, and corn.
15:35But for centuries, the only crop growing in fields like these was tobacco.
15:42And just as in Virginia, slave labor powered Maryland's plantations.
15:50In this Dorchester County field, a plaque marks the birthplace of a young girl born into slavery around 1820.
15:59Her name was Harriet Tubman.
16:03She would go on to become one of the most celebrated conductors of the Underground Railroad.
16:09Even today, the exact roots of the Underground Railroad remain unknown.
16:14But at a time when everything moved by boat, the rivers and creeks along Maryland's eastern shore were key links in the route to freedom.
16:27Well-traveled roads were far too dangerous for fugitive slaves.
16:32But the rivers and swamps provided safe transport and the chance to cover one's tracks.
16:37Tubman came to know the watery terrain as a girl, because she was often hired out to neighboring farms.
16:45Her knowledge of the backwater trails would later help her guide hundreds of slaves to freedom.
16:53One route she may have used was the Choptank River, a water highway that connected Maryland to the U.S.
16:59Tubman made her own escape to freedom in 1849.
17:03While most never looked back after their escape, Harriet Tubman made the perilous journey back to the South 19 times to lead more slaves to freedom.
17:13She was a woman of many talents.
17:16She was a woman of many talents.
17:19She was a woman of many talents.
17:21While most never looked back after their escape, Harriet Tubman made the perilous journey back to the South 19 times to lead more than 300 slaves to freedom.
17:35By 1856, there was a $40,000 bounty on her head.
17:40Tubman became known as Moses, the name given to her by the slaves she helped deliver to the Promised Land.
17:48Frederick Douglass wrote,
17:51Accepting John Brown, I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than Harriet Tubman.
18:00Accepting John Brown, I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than Harriet Tubman.
18:11Away to the west of the state, the countryside opens into woodlands and the gently rolling hills of Washington County.
18:21The best views of the area can be had atop a stone tower known as the Washington Monument.
18:27This rugged stone edifice, the first monument erected in honor of George Washington, was dedicated in 1827, almost 60 years before the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
18:39As a young man, Washington was a frequent traveler here, first in his job as a surveyor, and later as a leader of the Colonial Army.
18:59Moving west, the rolling hills give way to ridge after ridge of the Allegheny Mountains.
19:05A landscape of stunning forest, still in full leaf.
19:10Here, Maryland is sandwiched by West Virginia to the south, and Pennsylvania to the north.
19:18At one point, the state is just a mile and a half wide. No other state in the U.S. is so narrow.
19:27For early pioneers, these mountains made their journey west tough.
19:31Today, U.S. Route 40 cuts right through these hills and follows the route of the first federally funded turnpike in America.
19:42Built in 1811 and called the National Road, it's regarded as the road that built America.
19:49The 620-mile highway offered settlers a gateway through the mountains to the fertile Ohio Valley.
19:56The road originated here, in the town of Cumberland, on the state border with West Virginia.
20:02It came to be known as the Gateway to the West.
20:06But in the 1840s, the railway arrived in Cumberland, and the National Road was overtaken by the Iron Horse.
20:15Cumberland became a major railway station and a major railroad station.
20:19Trains also arrived from Maryland's largest city, and the birthplace of the American Railroad, Baltimore.
20:31In the southwest of the city by the bay, enthusiasts take the William Mason along the tracks to the railroad tracks.
20:38The railroad tracks are the most important part of the city's history.
20:43In the southwest of the city by the bay, enthusiasts take the William Mason along the tracks to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.
20:54This is the oldest steam train operating in the nation.
20:58You may have seen it in the Will Smith movie, Wild Wild West, painted in black and named The Wanderer.
21:04The museum collection sits comfortably within this impressive roundhouse, once the largest circular industrial building in the world.
21:18Inside, 15,000 individual artifacts tell the story of America's railroad history, in a city considered to be the birthplace of railroading.
21:34Baltimore's history is the tale of a tough port city, built by generations of immigrants.
21:41Its architecture, a mix of elegance and grit.
21:48From the air, Baltimore appears as a grid of tens of thousands of brick row houses.
21:54But on the ground, invisible boundaries still define the ethnic neighborhoods established by immigrants who came to work in the shipyards and steelworks.
22:03During World War II, Baltimore's Bethlehem Steel was one of the largest steel mills in the world, employing 300,000 workers and producing steel for guns and warships.
22:24It was here that the steel girders of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge were made.
22:29But by 2001, demand for U.S. steel was so low that Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy and its assets were sold off.
22:40The Sparrows Point plant now works at far below capacity, but for the moment, steel continues to be made in Baltimore.
22:48One reason steel plants and other industries flock to Baltimore was its port.
22:54Ever since the town was founded in 1729, the deep, sheltered waters of the Patapsco River have made it an ideal arrival point for cargo ships.
23:04Modern container vessels unload their cargo just as they have for centuries, although the scale today might amaze the city's forebears.
23:14Just off the docks, row after neat row of cars and trucks await transport throughout America.
23:21Each year, a staggering half a million automobiles from around the world arrive in Baltimore.
23:26But it's not just cars and goods that have crossed these piers in numbers.
23:31After New York, Baltimore was once the second-largest point of immigration in the nation.
23:38The striking gold domes of St. Michael the Archangel are now home to more than 1,000 cars and trucks.
23:45After New York, Baltimore was once the second-largest point of immigration in the nation.
23:53The striking gold domes of St. Michael the Archangel, the church for Ukrainian Catholics, is evidence of just one community that settled here.
24:04But over the last century, Baltimore's bustling neighborhoods have fallen on hard times as jobs and residents have moved steadily away.
24:15Today, there are currently 30,000 vacant lots across the city.
24:22Some of them were featured in HBO's cult crime series, The Wire, which was filmed in and around West Baltimore.
24:33A small two-and-a-half-story house stands out among empty lots and a low-income housing complex.
24:41203 Amity Street was once the home of Edgar Allan Poe.
24:47He described his Baltimore brick home as this little house in the lowly street with the lovely name.
24:54The Poe House is now a museum.
24:58In 1849, aged just 40, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore and never recovered from an illness that remains a mystery to this day.
25:10Stories abound of an unknown stranger who visited Poe's grave for 60 years to leave three roses and a partially drunk bottle of French cognac in his memory.
25:28No figure stands taller in Baltimore, Maryland's African-American community than the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
25:37Marshall was the civil rights lawyer who argued and won the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education that ended legal segregation in schools.
25:47A native Baltimorean, Marshall received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the city's airport has been named in his honor.
25:54Standing high in downtown Baltimore is the copper-roofed Bank of America building, which rises over 500 feet, and was the tallest building in the state when it was built in 1924.
26:13But today, it's medical care, not skyscrapers, that are putting Baltimore on the map.
26:20The city is home to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which has been ranked the top overall hospital in the U.S. for 20 years running.
26:29It's part of Johns Hopkins University, named for its founder, a philanthropist who built his fortune from investments in the B&O Railroad.
26:37Ever since the 1700s, the shallow waters of Baltimore's Inner Harbor have been restricted to smaller vessels.
26:45Today, the city's historic docks are finding new uses.
26:52One is now the site of Baltimore's National Aquarium.
26:5916,000 animals, from plankton to sharks, live inside these angular glass walls.
27:07Nearby, a silent hero emerges.
27:12A 19th century ship with a colorful past.
27:16The USS Constellation was built in 1855.
27:20Soon after, it was sent on a mission to intercept slave ships at the mouth of the Congo River in Africa.
27:26Later, she defended Union troops, and even carried supplies to famine victims in Ireland.
27:33Just a 10-minute walk from the Inner Harbor, a well-tended lawn marks the home of baseball's most legendary hero, George Herman Babe Ruth, who was born just a few blocks away.
27:47Ruth's father ran a saloon known as Ruth's Café.
27:52Ruth's father ran a saloon known as Ruth's Café.
27:57Ruth's father ran a saloon known as Ruth's Café.
28:03Some say that the saloon stood at the exact same location as center field at Oriel Park, the famous Camden Yards baseball stadium.
28:13Here, on just about any summer night, thousands of Marylanders rise to sing the Star-Spangled Banner, the anthem that traces its roots from just across the harbor at Fort McHenry.
28:27From Baltimore, we travel east to explore Delaware.
28:40President Thomas Jefferson is said to have described Delaware as a jewel, a tiny state with great historical importance.
28:48The second smallest in the nation, it is also known as the first state, because it was the first to ratify the Constitution and so became the first official state in the Union.
29:01In colonial times, the state's extensive coasts along the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic made it a tempting location for settlers.
29:10A sailing ship moored on the Christina River in Wilmington pays tribute to some of the state's earliest colonists.
29:18The original Kalmar Nickel brought some of Delaware's earliest white settlers in 1638.
29:25Neighboring states, such as New York, New Jersey, and New York City, brought their own settlers.
29:31The original Kalmar Nickel brought some of Delaware's earliest white settlers in 1638.
29:38Neighboring states were first colonized by the English and Dutch, but the Kalmar Nickel and its passengers came from Sweden.
29:45Built in 1997, and identical to the original, she can be seen sailing up and down the eastern seaboard, serving as a handsome ambassador of her state.
29:57But while some of Delaware's earliest settlers were Swedish, her most famous were originally French.
30:04It was here, in the Brandywine Valley, that Pierre-Samuel Dupont de Namur, a French sailor, was born.
30:12He was the first to sail on the Kalmar Nickel.
30:16He was the first to sail on the Kalmar Nickel.
30:20It was here, in the Brandywine Valley, that Pierre-Samuel Dupont de Namur first settled, after fleeing France during the French Revolution in 1799.
30:34In 1802, Pierre's son, Éluther Dupont, started a gunpowder factory at Hagley, using mills to grind the key ingredients, charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter.
30:49The family's business was so successful that Dupont would later become one of the largest chemical companies in the world, making Delaware a center of innovation for a diverse range of products.
31:02At the start of the 20th century, the Duponts were among the richest families in America.
31:08This 102-room château was built in 1910 by Éluther's great-grandson, Alfred.
31:15Named Namur, after the Dupont family's ancestral home in France, the 47,000-square-foot mansion has recently been restored at a cost of $39 million.
31:33Today, the mansion's 300-acre estate is also the site of the Alfred I. Dupont Hospital for Children.
31:45Dupont is one of the largest chemical companies in the world and has facilities worldwide, but its corporate headquarters remain in Wilmington, Delaware.
31:59The state's other traditional industries haven't fared as well.
32:04After World War II, many of Delaware's once-thriving shipbuilding and steel companies were replaced by empty factories.
32:15But in the 1980s, the state's fortunes were turned around when Governor Pierre Dupont passed the Financial Center Development Act, which effectively removed the cap on interest rates that banks could charge customers.
32:33Since then, Wilmington has become a financial center for the credit card industry.
32:38If your credit card is issued by Bank of America or Chase, chances are you send your payments to Wilmington.
32:46The arrival of the big banks helped revitalize the city's waning industrial economy, but economic downturns have brought fresh concerns for its citizens.
32:55Luckily, Delaware has friends in high places, and none more than Vice President Joe Biden, state senator since 1972.
33:14A resident of Wilmington, Biden resisted living in D.C. for 36 years, choosing instead to commute daily from the city's historic train station.
33:31A truck carrying Delaware girders rolls over a famous steel bridge to New Jersey.
33:37One of the longest twin-span suspension bridges in the world, the Delaware Memorial Bridge is dedicated to soldiers who gave their lives overseas.
33:50The first span opened in 1952, followed by the second in 1968.
33:57Just a few miles southwest of the bridge, the bustling modernity disappears, and the state's rich colonial past is revealed.
34:08The 17th-century town of Newcastle is home to 5,000 people.
34:15Its historic district spans three-and-a-half square miles, landing in the heart of New Jersey.
34:22Its historic district spans three-and-a-half square miles, land first settled by Peter Stuyvesant in 1651, and then fought over by the Dutch, Swedes, and the British, who eventually won.
34:41Here in 1682, William Penn, the proprietor of Pennsylvania, first set foot on American soil.
34:49Today, a statue stands in his honor on the old village green.
35:00In the 18th century, the old courthouse in Newcastle served as the colonial capital, and it was here that the Declaration of Independence was read.
35:10George Reed, Jr., the son of one of the Declaration's signers, built this 22-room home in 1801, intending it to be the largest home in Delaware.
35:21The Reed House, as it's known, is surrounded by the oldest formal gardens in the region.
35:40Moving south, a marshy island momentarily splits the Delaware River in two.
35:47According to legend, Pea Patch Island earned its name when a ship full of peas ran aground here, spilling its seeds and creating a patch of pea plants.
35:57But its pleasant name belies its main use, as the location for a fort and island prison.
36:04Fort Delaware began as a fortress built at the end of the War of 1812.
36:09Rebuilt in 1859, it gained notoriety as a prisoner of war camp for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.
36:17More than 30,000 were interned here, and conditions were so harsh, it became known among Confederate soldiers as the Fort Delaware Death Pen.
36:26More than 2,000 soldiers died within these walls.
36:31Afterwards, the star-shaped brick building reverted to being a fortress and continued to protect Delaware through both World Wars.
36:40It became a state park in 1951.
36:43Further down the Delaware River, the coast becomes a maze of rivers, ponds, and marshes.
36:49It's a mecca for hunters, but hunting isn't allowed everywhere.
36:54Since 1963, more than 10,000 acres of migratory bird habitat is now part of the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.
37:03A few miles to the north lies a peaceful place with a violent name.
37:08The Murder-Kill River is one of Delaware's great secrets, supposedly named after a massacre of Dutch traders by Native Americans in the 1640s.
37:18The headwaters of the Murder-Kill are here at Killens Pond.
37:23This 66-acre mill pond is home to a wide range of freshwater fish.
37:29It's also home to the largest fish tank in the world, the Killens Pond.
37:34The river is also home to the largest fish tank in the world, the Killens Pond.
37:39The headwaters of the Murder-Kill are here at Killens Pond.
37:43This 66-acre mill pond is home to a wide range of freshwater fish, including carp, perch, and catfish.
37:51And where there are fish, there are sharp-eyed predators scoping the water for an in-flight meal.
37:58Further down the Delaware, the river widens to a broad bay, where vast areas of marshland have been spared from development.
38:07But what may look like marsh has sometimes actually been sculpted by human hands.
38:13These neat rows of ditches date from the 1930s.
38:17They were dug to drain the marshes and control the swarms of mosquitoes that menaced beachgoers in nearby resorts.
38:23Lewis is one of the last towns on the bay, before it meets the Atlantic Ocean.
38:29It was also one of the earliest settlements in America.
38:33The Rives Hold House, a former inn reportedly built about 1665 and expanded in the 18th century, has been called the oldest house in Delaware.
38:45The town's location made it a target for some of the most famous film stars.
38:50The town's location made it a target for 17th century pirates and the British during the War of 1812.
38:57Every citizen was required to own a musket and ammunition to help fend off invaders.
39:04When the Atlantic storms of winter roll in, the Delaware town of Lewis is as exposed to the wind and rain as any town on the eastern seaboard.
39:16But thanks to two dramatic breakwaters just off the shoreline, houses and sheltering ships are protected from the worst of the waves.
39:24This is the National Harbor of Refuge, a place where any ship can seek calm waters in times of emergency.
39:33Made originally with nearly a million tons of stone that had been shipped down the Delaware, the harbor was the first of its kind in the 19th century.
39:42The harbor was the first of its kind in the 19th century.
39:46But when shipping got too big to drop anchor inside the old breakwater, a new one was built in 1901.
39:53As if to demonstrate the need for such a shelter, the original Harbor of Refuge light lasted just 17 years of battering.
40:01The new one was completed in 1903.
40:05As if to demonstrate the need for such a shelter, the original Harbor of Refuge light lasted just 17 years of battering.
40:13The new one was completed in 1926 and made like an old ship of cast iron.
40:18Far out in Delaware Bay, a ferry boat takes passengers and cars across the sometimes choppy waters to Cape May, New Jersey.
40:27Far out in Delaware Bay, a ferry boat takes passengers and cars across the sometimes choppy waters to Cape May, New Jersey.
40:36Since the ferry service began in 1964, over 34 million people and 11,000 ships have sailed the Delaware Bay.
40:44Since the ferry service began in 1964, over 34 million people and 11,000 ships have sailed the Delaware Bay.
40:52Making a much shorter and more scenic route along the Atlantic coast than the interstate.
41:04These waters can be calm or incredibly choppy.
41:08Either way, the MV New Jersey and her sister ships are built to weather the seasons, sailing all months of the year.
41:22Rounding Cape Henlopen, a string of curious-looking towers line the shore.
41:27They are a reminder that Delaware's coastline was once America's first line of defense.
41:33Fort Miles was built in the Second World War to help soldiers identify the exact positions of suspicious ships or submarines.
41:45They then sent precise firing coordinates to batteries, including this 12-inch gun, which has since been protected by glass walls.
41:54Fort Miles was ready for enemy attack, but the attack never came.
42:06Its 11 towers are now more than a half a century old and stand as extraordinary sentinels of a world war that never arrived on Delaware's shores.
42:24When the weather's fair, the Atlantic shoreline of Delaware offers miles of seaside pleasures.
42:35The resort town of Rehoboth, complete with boardwalk, arcades and saltwater taffy, is a popular weekend retreat for workers from DC to New York.
42:45A diverse lineup of musicians play free concerts at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand, but only during the summer months.
43:02To the south, developments line the coast.
43:06But then the shoreline opens up to a 20-mile stretch of Delaware's sandy beaches, over half of which are within state parks.
43:18Wherever there's development along this coast, there's an eternal battle against encroaching water.
43:25Take Fenwick Island, which has an extremely high flood risk.
43:30But for many, having the pleasures of the Atlantic at their doorstep is worth the gamble.
43:40And when migratory birds are on the prowl, there's no place like home.
43:54And when migratory geese can appear to outnumber humans, it's clear that nature reigns in this corner of the state.
44:11From its industrial and financial capital of Wilmington, to the towns that still cling to its coastline, Delaware is a small state.
44:20But rich in resources, and the legacies of those who settled its shores.
44:26In Maryland and Delaware, the states of a new nation began.
44:36At Fort McHenry, an anthem that paid tribute to the hard-fought freedom of its settlers who ventured to cross an ocean by wind and sail.
44:50Maryland and Delaware, two states that battled to forge a country's freedom, and fought a civil war to keep it united.
45:00They are lands of adventurers, entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, and an anti-slavery heroine, whose stories are painted across an ever-changing landscape of earth and water.
45:19And Maryland and Delaware, two states that battled to forge a country's freedom, and fought a civil war to keep it united.
45:29And Maryland and Delaware, two states that battled to forge a country's freedom, and fought a civil war to keep it united.
45:39And Maryland and Delaware, two states that battled to forge a country's freedom, and fought a civil war to keep it united.