Aerial.America.S03E08.Florida
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00:00It's home to miles of sun-bleached coast, but also one of the wildest wetlands in the
00:08world, where thousands of cold-blooded predators still stalk their prey.
00:15This is the journey of Florida, from a land of grassy waters to one with iconic candy-colored
00:22shores.
00:23It was an oil tycoon who helped turn hundreds of miles of mosquito-infested coast into the
00:29Florida that most know today, a state where tens of millions come each year, from MVPs
00:38to movie stars, including one who pulls his own private airliner right up to his house.
00:45But it's also in Florida that authorities battle drug lords seeking to make millions
00:51on one of the world's hottest nighttime strips, and where the tragic death of one of fashion's
00:57biggest icons is still remembered today.
01:03Aerial Florida journeys over islands that were once home to one of America's most powerful
01:09tribes, across early settlements where European powers battled for control of the New World,
01:16and down shimmering urban canyons that have lured thousands seeking refuge from communist
01:21rule.
01:23All this, soaring over the clear blue waters of a land called Florida.
01:53It's no wonder that Florida's state flower is the orange blossom.
02:09Here in Collier County, the sweet smell of citrus is everywhere.
02:15Row after row of orange trees, reaching as far as the eye can see.
02:21With so much citrus in Florida, this one state produces nearly a third of the world's
02:26orange juice.
02:27But getting these trees to grow their sweet, famous fruit takes a special colony of workers.
02:36Over the course of the year, beehives like these are moved from grove to grove across
02:41the state, so worker bees can pollinate the trees.
02:50When the fruit is finally ripe, it's time to start picking.
02:56Migrant laborers are hired by the thousands to clamber into the tree's high branches and
03:01pluck the fruit by hand.
03:04Each man is paid by the tub, which means he works quickly to pick as much as he can, and
03:11keep up with fees.
03:13Racing between the rows are trucks called goats that gather the fresh fruit from the
03:18workers, and ferry it to tractor trailers, each of which can hold more than 20 tons of
03:25oranges, enough for 2,700 gallons of juice.
03:34One reason Florida orange juice is so fresh is because processing plants like this one
03:39in Lake Wales are just a short drive from the groves.
03:46This factory is owned by growers themselves.
03:49Florida's Natural got its start in 1933 as a small co-op with six members.
03:54Now, it's one of the biggest orange juice producers in the country.
04:00During the harvest, a convoy of open trailers arrives at the plant.
04:04Eight at once can back up and roll off their cargo.
04:09Inside, 2.7 billion oranges a year are turned to pulp, and their juice pasteurized and bottled.
04:20One reason there's so much citrus in Florida is because there's enough sun for it to grow
04:24nearly year-round.
04:32But oranges aren't native to the Sunshine State.
04:36They originally came from China, carried in the pockets of Spanish sailors in the 16th
04:42century.
04:43From the air, it's easy to see the giant impact that those first orange seeds have had on
04:48this land.
04:49But to understand what Florida was like before the Spanish, and citrus, arrived, requires
04:56a trip to the state's southwest coast.
05:02These are the 10,000 islands, 35,000 acres of water and mangrove trees.
05:11They're part of the Everglades National Park.
05:18Once this watery land was home to some of the first Floridians, a prehistoric people
05:23called the Calusa.
05:26Evidence of their early settlements has been discovered in the wetlands here.
05:30Wooden masks, tools, and fishing nets, all thousands of years old, found in almost perfect
05:37condition in the mud.
05:40This richly artistic culture also held great political power.
05:45The Calusa controlled most of southern Florida up until the 1500s.
05:51Since then, the sandy shores where Florida's native tribes once lived and fished have been
05:56steadily transformed.
05:59And there may be no single stretch of Florida coast more changed than this one.
06:08Miami Beach, even though it's not natural at all.
06:14Until the 20th century, this was just a desolate sandbar.
06:19But in 1913, a developer named Carl Fisher began dredging sand from nearby Biscayne Bay
06:25to create Miami Beach.
06:28He then organized stunts with girls in swimsuits and a baby circus elephant to get people to
06:33invest.
06:35And finally, they did.
06:37Hotels sprang up along the beach.
06:40But not all were loved at first.
06:42When the Fountain Blue, designed by architect Morris Lapidus, rose in the 1950s, critics
06:48trashed it as too bold and luxurious, which is exactly why it was used in the James Bond
06:53classic Goldfinger.
06:56Recently, when the American Institute of Architects asked the public to vote on their favorite
07:00building in Florida, the Fountain Blue was the popular favorite.
07:05With its curved facade and beachside pool, the Fountain Blue has become a Miami landmark
07:11and a prime example of an architectural style known as MIMO, or Miami Modern.
07:20But it's not just modern hotels and condos that have transformed this once desolate sandbar
07:25into a tropical playground.
07:31It's also parking garages like this one, known as 1111 Lincoln Avenue.
07:38This $65 million garage was designed by Swiss architects for much more than just cars.
07:46Some levels are 30 feet high to accommodate weddings and parties.
07:51There's even a women's clothing boutique on the fifth floor.
07:55As night falls, the lights come on at 1111 Lincoln, proving that, in Miami, a simple
08:02parking garage can be a dazzling icon of contemporary design.
08:09But at night, it's Miami Beach's Art Deco District that draws the most crowds.
08:16There's more 1920s and 1930s tropical resort architecture here than anywhere else in the
08:21country.
08:22Stunning structures, like the 1939 Colony Hotel Line Ocean Drive, where glitzy clubs
08:29and their wealthy customers make it easy to see why Miami Beach has been called the billion
08:34dollar sandbar.
08:40But the action on Ocean Drive is just part of Miami's nighttime story.
08:45Just a quarter of a mile away, longshoremen are busy at work offloading container ships
08:50at the Port of Miami's giant cargo terminal.
08:56Thanks to some of the fastest port cranes in the world, offloading a container onto
09:00a waiting tractor-trailer takes mere seconds in Miami.
09:06It's why this port has become one of the busiest in the nation.
09:09But it's also been a major hub for smuggling narcotics into the U.S.
09:16Some longshoremen here have been known to be on the payroll of South American drug lords,
09:22offloading cocaine and marijuana-filled containers before they're checked by U.S. Customs, or
09:29boarding ships and simply walking off with drugs strapped to their bodies.
09:34One former dock worker, who later became an informant, told a local reporter that he had
09:39personally been responsible for smuggling $200 million worth of cocaine into Miami.
09:46A free flow of drugs have helped give this city a reputation as an international party town.
09:53But in days past, one of the best places to party in Miami wasn't on colorful Ocean Drive,
10:00or even anywhere on Miami Beach.
10:03It wasn't on land at all.
10:12From a distance, they look like fishing boats at the edge of Florida's Biscayne Bay.
10:18But they're actually homes in one of the most unusual neighborhoods in the country, Stiltsville.
10:28It began in the 1930s, when a man called Crawfish Eddie Walker turned a barge into
10:34a bait shop that also sold beer and chowder.
10:38Soon, others started building.
10:42More than a mile offshore, these structures became notorious for booze, gambling, and
10:48police raids through the 50s.
10:51Florida Governor Leroy Collins was known to visit this tiny abode owned by Jimmy Ellensburg,
10:56the unofficial mayor of Stiltsville.
10:59In a note to Jimmy, the governor wrote,
11:01When the time comes when I say so long to this life, I hope the great beyond seems a
11:06lot like your cabin in the sea.
11:11In its heyday, 27 houses stood here.
11:14But hurricanes, fire, and time have taken their toll.
11:18Now, just seven remain.
11:23Florida's journey from a land of wild shores controlled by powerful native tribes to one
11:29that's now known as a tropical playground with unique coastal communities and a colorful
11:35nighttime strip began five centuries ago.
11:41In 1513, a legendary Spanish explorer named Ponce de Leon first set eyes on Florida's
11:47coast.
11:51De Leon immediately laid claim to the new land for Spain and named it La Florida, Spanish
11:58for Place of Flowers.
12:02But soon, French settlers were vying for a piece of Florida.
12:07So in 1565, Spain sent a battle-tested officer named Pedro Menendez de Aviles with 2,000
12:14men on 11 ships to kick out the French.
12:18Menendez landed on Florida's northeast coast and established a Spanish colony that he named
12:23St. Augustine after the Catholic saint.
12:27Founded 42 years before the Jamestown colony and 55 years before Plymouth Rock, St. Augustine
12:34is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in America.
12:38It now lies between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach.
12:42This 70-ton stainless steel cross marks the spot where Menendez knelt upon his arrival
12:48and kissed a small wooden cross given to him by his expedition's chaplain.
12:55Converting the native Calusa Indians became one of his many missions, but other Europeans
13:01were the biggest threat.
13:03Soon after his arrival, Menendez took control of the area and slaughtered a group of French
13:08settlers here at Mantanza's inlet after they refused to convert to Catholicism.
13:15The Spanish stronghold at St. Augustine, a fort called Castillo de San Marcos, weathered
13:21many an attack from European enemies, including a major British assault in 1702.
13:29In 1763, Spain was finally forced to give up the fort and Florida to the British, but
13:37regained control decades later.
13:41It was therefore from Spain, not England, that the U.S. government finally purchased
13:45Florida after the American Revolution.
13:50Even today, the Spanish influence on St. Augustine is clearly evident from the air.
13:57In the center of town lies a vast and rambling building that was once the Posteleon Hotel.
14:05It was opened in 1888 by millionaire Henry Flagler, one of the co-founders of Standard
14:09Oil, better known today as ExxonMobil.
14:14Flagler wanted a Spanish-style design to pay tribute to St. Augustine's founders, but
14:19he chose modern construction techniques to build it.
14:24The Ponce was one of the first major structures in the U.S. to be built from poured concrete.
14:31Before it opened, Flagler sent booklets to potential guests in the U.S. and England that
14:36called St. Augustine the American Riviera.
14:42Thanks to the Ponce and its glitzy neighbor, the Alcazar, thousands flocked to St. Augustine,
14:48turning it into Florida's first major resort.
14:53The development of the Florida coast that most know today had begun.
14:57At the time, in the 1880s, it was possible to take a train from New York all the way
15:02to St. Augustine, but this was the end of the line.
15:09Hundreds of miles of coastline, all the way down to Miami, still remained largely undeveloped
15:15and very wild.
15:17Dense forests and miles of swamp lined the beaches.
15:22The only way to send mail down the coast was to give it to men who walked it down the beach.
15:29Known as the Barefoot Mailmen, they traveled on foot down the shore.
15:35En route, they encountered blazing sun, storms, mosquitoes, and other more dangerous creatures.
15:43One mailman, James Hamilton, died on the job, most likely devoured by one of Florida's many
15:49hungry alligators.
15:53The Barefoot Mailmen ended their service in 1892, and just four years later, trains were
15:59steaming all the way down the coast.
16:04The ever-ambitious developer Henry Flagler knew that the further south you go in Florida,
16:08the sunnier and warmer it gets.
16:12So he began laying track and building what would come to be known as the Florida East
16:17Coast Railway.
16:20This was no train to nowhere.
16:24Where Flagler's train stopped, he built lavish hotels, like this one in Palm Beach.
16:31The Palm Beach Inn, which was later renamed The Breakers, was a grand winter resort overlooking
16:37the Atlantic for members of the Gilded Age.
16:41A fire from a guest's curling iron destroyed the hotel in 1925, but it was rebuilt and
16:47is still owned by Flagler's descendants.
16:52His own home in Palm Beach was every bit as grand.
16:56Known as Whitehall, this 75-room mansion cost $4 million to build and furnish, equivalent
17:02to about $100 million today.
17:06The house was designed by John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, architects who would go on
17:11to design the New York Public Library.
17:15Even today, great wealth continues to transform this stretch of coast.
17:20Nearby, just feet from the water on Jupiter Island, stands the recently finished home
17:25of Tiger Woods, complete with its own three-and-a-half-acre golf course.
17:30Few details about the home's budget or interior design have been made public.
17:35But on his blog, Woods has revealed that he has a spot on the second floor from where
17:40he can drive golf balls onto his green.
17:46For those who can't afford their own golf course, air-conditioned condos line Florida's
17:50eastern shore, like these on Pompano Beach, just north of Fort Lauderdale.
17:56These beachgoers, like millions across the state, are continuing to enjoy the fruits
18:00of the labors of the state's early pioneers.
18:04In the 1890s, just a few families lived here, forging a community out of the swamp and battling
18:10horseflies, hurricanes, and alligators to eke out a living.
18:14They helped transform Florida into a winter paradise, and paved the way for the building
18:21of Florida's biggest and most loved eastern city, Miami.
18:30Soaring over Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami has one of the most modern and iconic skylines
18:37in the world.
18:41Shimmering towers of colorful glass, designed by some of the world's best-known architects.
18:48It's a city of extremes of poverty and excess that's ridden great cycles of boom and bust.
18:57Soaring past today's glass-coated skyline, it's hard to believe that Miami was once the
19:01fourth poorest city in America.
19:07But during the savings and loans scandal in the late 1980s, one S&L here even built a
19:13new headquarters with bathroom fixtures plated in gold.
19:20The city's proximity to Latin America has meant that Miami's fortunes have long been
19:24tied to the economic health of countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina.
19:31Today, Miami-Dade County calls itself the gateway to the Americas, and not just for
19:39economic reasons.
19:45This is how many Miami residents first arrived in the city.
19:49As soon as dictator Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in 1959, a steady stream of Cuban
19:55refugees started landing here in Miami.
19:58For many, one of the first stops in town was the Freedom Tower, otherwise known as the
20:04Cuban Assistance Center, which opened in 1962.
20:08This former newspaper building was used to register new Cuban arrivals, earning it the
20:12nickname the Ellis Island of the South.
20:17In 1980, more than 125,000 additional Cubans arrived in Miami during the famous Mariel
20:23Boat Lift, when Fidel Castro permitted those who wanted to flee the country by boat.
20:29Today, nearly 70% of the population of Miami-Dade County is of Hispanic or Latino origin, and
20:36about half of those are Cuban.
20:40These days, Miami's Little Havana is easy to spot from the air.
20:47That's because it's home to a brand new $600 million park for Miami's baseball team, the
20:53Marlins.
20:57Completed in 2012, the stadium has a retractable roof, even though the park is air-conditioned.
21:05While hot days in Miami may not stop a Marlins game, a Cuban controversy almost did.
21:13Just before its maiden game, Marlins manager Ozzy Guillen was quoted as saying he loved
21:18and respected Fidel Castro, which earned him a five-game suspension and the wrath of many
21:24in Miami's Cuban community.
21:27But thanks to the popularity of the Marlins, come opening day, 36,000 fans still turned
21:32out to see a good game, even though the Marlins lost 4-1 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
21:40The Cuban community was not so forgiving in 1983, when Al Pacino came to town to shoot
21:46the Hollywood classic, Scarface.
21:49It was rumored that one of the film's key scenes was set to be shot in this white mansion
21:54on Miami's Star Island.
21:57In the film, Pacino stars as Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant turned violent coke smuggler.
22:03But as filming got underway, Cuban-Americans protested, claiming Pacino's character wrongly
22:09stereotyped Cubans in America.
22:12The producers were forced to pull the plug and ended up shooting most of Scarface in
22:17and around Los Angeles instead.
22:20There isn't much in common between the character of Tony Montana and the real residents of
22:25Star Island.
22:28It lies between Miami and Miami Beach and is one of the most star-studded neighborhoods
22:33in the country.
22:35Two doors down from the Scarface house is the rambling Spanish-style mansion of Gloria
22:40Estefan, hidden beneath palms.
22:44And just down from that stands the pink former home of Elizabeth Taylor.
22:49It's said that the rabbit sculpture on the front lawn was a gift from Michael Jackson
22:53to Taylor, a playful symbol of her hopping between husbands.
22:58But not all of Miami's many celebrities have chosen to live on islands, largely protected
23:03from the public.
23:05In the early 1990s, Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace fell in love with Miami Beach
23:13and purchased a 1930s villa just steps from the shore, complete with its own observatory.
23:21One reason Versace wanted to live right on Miami Beach was because he loved to walk its
23:25streets.
23:28But on the morning of July 15, 1997, Versace returned from a nearby cafe and was walking
23:34up his own front steps when a man approached and shot him to death, a murder that shocked
23:40and captivated the world.
23:43The killer later took his own life, and his motive for killing Versace remains a mystery.
23:49The designer's family sold the mansion, which became a boutique hotel, and was later put
23:54on the market for $125 million.
23:57Today, the Versace house is one of the many reasons that more than 13 million visitors
24:02come to Miami each year.
24:06But this city hasn't always been the most popular place in Florida.
24:11In 1890, that honor belonged to a little island off the Florida coast, lying at the end of
24:19a chain of islands, springing off the state's southern tip.
24:26It's a place called Key West.
24:32According to legend, when the Spanish first came to Florida's Key West in the 1500s, they
24:38found the sun-bleached bones of Calusa Indians slain in battle and named the place Bone Key,
24:45or Keo Hueso, which sounded to Anglo ears like Key West.
24:51From the 16th through the 19th centuries, Blackbeard, Jean Lafitte, and other famous
24:56pirates plied the waters around this key, laying an ambush for treasure-laden Spanish
25:01ships arriving from Central and South America.
25:11Probably the most famous resident of Key West has been Ernest Hemingway, who bought this
25:16home on the island in 1931 at a tax sale.
25:21Hemingway lived here with his wife and two sons until 1940, when he moved to Cuba.
25:27Today, many in Key West are just here for the ride, and many of them get here thanks
25:33to one of the biggest engineering projects in American history.
25:38At the turn of the 20th century, the now-aging Henry Flagler was still dreaming of extending
25:44his East Coast Railway from Miami all the way down through the Keys.
25:50To do it, the tracks would have to skip like a pebble across 128 miles and more than 34
25:57islands to reach the last in the chain, Key West.
26:05Flagler even was willing to spend much of his own fortune to build it.
26:12In 1905, construction started, and soon 4,000 men were at work, digging out the seabed and
26:22building piling after piling to support the decks for the rails above.
26:28There was no greater challenge during the project than this, the Seven Mile Bridge,
26:34the longest overseas span in the world at the time.
26:41The dangers for the men were many.
26:45In 1906, a year after construction started, a hurricane struck, killing more than 100
26:52workers.
26:53Finally, in 1912, seven years after construction had started, and $20 million later, Flagler
27:00arrived in the first train to reach Key West.
27:04With tears in his eyes, the 82-year-old tycoon whispered to a friend,
27:10Now I can die happy. My dream is fulfilled.
27:15Flagler died the next year, and it wasn't long before his railway did too.
27:24On Labor Day, 1935, a train to Key West pulled into the station. But that evening, a Category
27:315 storm named the Labor Day Hurricane swept across the Keys, destroying miles of track.
27:38It would come to be known as the Storm of the Century.
27:42Flagler's company, already in financial ruin from the Great Depression, was unable to rebuild
27:47the tracks. No other train ever made it down the Keys.
27:52The state of Florida bought the tracks and turned them into a roadway for cars. Later,
27:58the original route was abandoned altogether when an entirely new highway to Key West was
28:03constructed with 37 new bridges.
28:07Today, sections of Flagler's original railway line still provide the public with evidence
28:12of the rich history of the Florida Keys.
28:23And the Seven Mile Bridge has made Hollywood history too.
28:28In the 1994 film True Lies, Arnold Schwarzenegger, hanging out of a helicopter, tries to rescue
28:34a character played by Jamie Lee Curtis as she hurtles in an out-of-control limousine
28:39toward a gap in the bridge.
28:44He finally pulls her to safety, just as the car plunges into the abyss.
28:53Millions of years ago, it would have taken a bridge just to reach the Florida mainland
28:59too. That's because Florida was once itself an island, a tiny landmass that geologists
29:07call Orange Island.
29:10But over the last ice age, as glaciers expanded, sea levels dropped, and Orange Island grew.
29:17In fact, it grew so large, it was once three times the size that Florida is today.
29:27Then everything reversed. The glaciers of the last ice age melted, and much of Florida
29:33ended up underwater, as ocean levels topped out 100 feet higher than they are now.
29:41When those waters finally receded, they left behind one of Florida's great treasures,
29:48the Everglades National Park.
29:53The park is just a small piece of the entire Everglades ecosystem.
30:00These giant wetlands once covered much of southern and central Florida, and even surrounded
30:07the state's largest body of freshwater, Lake Okeechobee.
30:12Luckily, Floridians have plenty of coastline for swimming, because Lake Okeechobee is no
30:18place to dangle your toes.
30:23It's home to more than 20,000 alligators. Most of them stay well camouflaged in Okeechobee's
30:30cool waters, but even these cold-blooded creatures enjoy a sunbath.
30:36With so many alligators in the Everglades, thousands come here from around the world
30:40just for a chance to spot one.
30:48These airboats act like hovercraft, skimming over shallow water and sawgrass on a cushion
30:53of air.
30:56It's a thrilling ride, for sure, but it's possible to visit the Everglades National
31:01Park and leave thinking that all's well in this watery land.
31:13Often where the tour routes end, vast stretches of scrub desert begin.
31:19This was once the wet and wild Everglades. Now this landscape looks more like New Mexico
31:25than Florida.
31:27The reason is, the Everglades' ecosystem has slowly been dying, and humans, not nature,
31:35are to blame.
31:38In the early 20th century, the government decided that the Everglades were a problem.
31:47Flooding destroyed crops and made central areas of the state hard to farm.
31:53Much of southern Florida was so soggy that settlers couldn't move in.
32:00So the government decided to control this ecosystem.
32:03It built the Tamiami Trail and Canal, a road and waterway which run from east to west across
32:13the state, and literally cut the Everglades' ecosystem in two.
32:21Before the canal, the Everglades acted like a giant river of water, which flowed slowly
32:26from north to south.
32:27But the Tamiami Trail blocked that flow and started causing the Everglades, once known
32:33as Pahioke or grassy waters, to dry up and die.
32:40Today the U.S. government is trying to turn back the clock.
32:44They're re-engineering sections of the Tamiami Trail to try and let water flow naturally
32:50through these wetlands again.
32:53And one of the most dramatic seasonal sights in the skies over Florida may soon disappear
32:58to help the Everglades' survival.
33:01A tower of smoke heads for the sky over central Florida.
33:07It's been lit by workers on some of the largest sugar plantations in the world.
33:13Sugar cane is Florida's biggest crop, after citrus.
33:17This field is ready for harvesting.
33:20But before it's cut, workers burn the crop to strip the leaves from the cane.
33:28It's so dry it lights in seconds.
33:32But these raging flames will burn out almost as fast as they were lit.
33:36It can take just 15 minutes to burn 40 acres.
33:44Even before the flames subside, harvesters move in to cut the cane.
33:52Then it's transferred to trucks that carry it to nearby mills.
33:58Enormous agricultural operations like these have helped damage the Everglades.
34:03Pesticides and agricultural runoff have destroyed the habitats of birds and fish.
34:14But oddly enough, the largest sugar manufacturer is now a part of the solution to fix the problems.
34:20U.S. Sugar Corp., the largest private landowner in central Florida,
34:25has sold portions of its land to the state, which many hope will help the Everglades to recover.
34:30If all goes to plan, burning fields like these across the region could soon be flooded again
34:36and home to a thriving ecosystem of plants and creatures.
34:41The Everglades may be Florida's most famous natural wonder,
34:45but east of Orlando is a place that's left millions awestruck around the world.
34:51Cape Canaveral, home of the Kennedy Space Center.
35:00No place in America has captured the awesome power of human ingenuity more than this one.
35:07Here at Pad 39A, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins lifted off to the moon.
35:15And 82 space shuttles have soared into space over three decades.
35:25Towering over this stunning stretch of coast is NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB,
35:33the largest single-story structure in the world.
35:37Inside, engineers assembled every single space shuttle.
35:41Once each shuttle was ready for launch, it rolled out of the VAB,
35:50down this 130-foot-wide path known as the crawlerway.
35:57Shuttles were mounted on giant crawler transporters that rolled along at less than one mile per hour.
36:05That's because the crawler and its space-bound cargo all weighed nearly 17 million pounds.
36:12Tracks from the last crawler to make this journey are still visible in the gravel today.
36:20Every time a shuttle headed towards the launch pad, millions around the world anxiously awaited liftoff.
36:34Cape Canaveral is also where America's astronauts return to Earth, and a hero's welcome.
36:42Two black strips on the middle of the tarmac identify their target touchdown site.
36:49The space shuttle program ended in 2011, and the only visible shuttle at Cape Canaveral today is this one,
36:57a full-size replica for journalists and visitors.
37:01With the shuttle program closed, NASA is now looking for new ways to put its historic infrastructure to use.
37:10Chances are, the Kennedy Space Center won't end up facing the same fate that another Florida launching site did in the 1970s.
37:20This is the HM-69 Nike Missile Base, just 160 miles from Cuba's shores.
37:30Once, 12 Nike Hercules missiles stood at the ready here, in above-ground missile barns.
37:36A Nike Hercules could be armed with a nuclear warhead and travel more than 2,700 miles per hour.
37:44All around the base were guards, barbed wire, and attack dogs.
37:50The Nike Missile Program was closed in 1975, and this base was decommissioned four years later.
37:59In Florida, even theme parks have been decommissioned, like the one that's home to this giant Buddha in Orlando.
38:07It lies in a former amusement park called Splendid China that the Chinese government spent $100 million to build,
38:15but shut down in 2003 after just 10 years because of low attendance.
38:22Flying low over Florida is a chance to discover a state with seemingly endless surprises, like this one.
38:31An airliner parked in the driveway of one of Hollywood's greatest stars, John Travolta.
38:38He's the only private citizen in the U.S. to fly his own Boeing 707.
38:44After he taxis in and shuts down the engines, Travolta can step from the cockpit and head right into his living room.
38:52He designed his own house in the style of a 1950s airport terminal.
38:57It's located on a new luxury aviation estate called Jumbo Lair, that has the largest private residential runway in the country.
39:08John Travolta is one of nearly 19 million others in Florida who call the state home year-round.
39:14But nearly 86 million more people flock to Florida each year.
39:18Many come here, to Orlando, for a theme park thrill ride like this one.
39:24A Hollywood-themed theme park.
39:27Nearly 86 million more people flock to Florida each year.
39:31Many come here, to Orlando, for a theme park thrill ride like this one.
39:36A Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket at Universal Studios.
39:40Or to visit the world's most famous mouse.
39:45But most come to Florida to escape the harsh winters of places like New York and Colorado.
39:51But most come to Florida to escape the harsh winters of places like New York and Colorado.
39:57A lucky few of those live here, in Port Royal, on the state's Gulf Coast.
40:03It's home to some of the most expensive property in Florida.
40:09And has streets named with pirate themes, like Treasure Lane and Rum Row.
40:14This area was once considered useless swamp.
40:18Until a savvy developer in the 1940s decided to sculpt it into 700 home sites and miles of navigable waterways.
40:26He was known to take potential buyers around in his Rolls Royce and 70-foot yacht.
40:32So he could carefully hand-pick the community's new members.
40:36Money alone, he said, won't buy a lot in Port Royal.
40:41But while Port Royal may be man-made, nature has made a comeback.
40:47Residents step out of their homes and paddle past wild mangrove forests.
40:51Just as people have been doing on the Florida coast for centuries.
41:07But not all winter residents of Florida come to enjoy the state's natural wonders.
41:12Some, like third baseman Alex Rodriguez, come here to trade.
41:17This is Steinbrenner Field, springtime home of the New York Yankees.
41:23Every March, 15 Major League Baseball teams descend on Florida for spring trading, also known as the Grapefruit League.
41:31It gives established stars like A-Rod a chance to get their timing back, and rookies a chance to make the team.
41:41George M. Steinbrenner Field, here in Tampa, is a direct copy of the original Yankees stadium, down to the millimeter.
41:49But with only 11,000 seats, fans can get right up close to their favorite players.
41:57Yankees captain Derek Jeter hangs his cap nearby, in a home reportedly appraised at $12 million, twice the price of any other home in the county.
42:07The seven-bedroom, nine-bath mansion here in Tampa has received its share of attention and ridicule over its extravagance.
42:15But while Major Leaguers come to Florida to train for the Major League,
42:21other Florida athletes are hoping their training will get them out of the state and into the big time.
42:27It was here, at the University of Florida at Gainesville, that quarterback Tim Tebow took college football by storm,
42:34winning a Heisman Trophy and two national championships for the Florida Gators.
42:40But this school is also famous for another contribution to the sports world.
42:46In 1965, an assistant coach and a group of researchers developed a new sports drink that they named after the team.
42:54The new hydrating drink, called Gatorade, propelled the Gators into the school's first Orange Bowl win.
43:02Since then, it's become the official sports drink of more than 70 Division I colleges.
43:10Northwest of Gainesville, on the Florida Panhandle, lies the political heart of Florida, the state capital, Tallahassee.
43:18A new statehouse was built here in 1845 after the Spanish ceded control of Florida to the U.S. government.
43:25The 22-story Executive Office Building was completed in 1977.
43:32It was in this capital complex that the nation kicked off the 21st century with one of the most divisive political events in history.
43:44On November 7, 2000, Tallahassee, Florida became ground zero in an ugly battle for the American presidency.
43:52With this state holding the largest number of remaining electoral votes,
43:58Floridians had the power to decide the outcome of the election.
44:04That night, major networks prematurely announced George W. Bush the winner, only to retract that statement soon after.
44:12The vote count was too close to call.
44:15A recount in Florida left Bush winning by just 537 votes and uncovered irregularities that put thousands more ballots into question.
44:25Bitter legal battles ensued, making once obscure voting terms like butterfly ballot and hanging chad household words overnight.
44:35Here, inside the Florida Supreme Court, judges finally voted to allow manual recounts of the ballots.
44:42But on December 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Florida court's decision.
44:48The next day, Al Gore conceded defeat.
44:54It was the third time in history that an American president lost a popular vote but still had enough electoral votes to win the highest office in the land.
45:03When the 2000 election was finally over, Tallahassee was quiet again, just like the Florida panhandle has always been.
45:15Just above the blue-green waters of Florida's panhandle, a flock of brown pelicans heads west.
45:25These birds can stay in the air for hours.
45:29With a few simple flaps of its wings, a pelican can glide for more than 100 feet.
45:38One reason they fly so low over water is because the air between their wings and the water's surface gets compressed and gives the birds lift to help them glide for longer.
45:52This flock is flying over one of the state's most distinctive landscapes, a place known as the Forgotten Coast, the white beaches of the Florida panhandle.
46:12This white sand is actually from the Appalachian Mountains.
46:19Over many thousands of years, rivers carried quartz and granite silt out of those mountains and deposited it here, along the panhandle.
46:31After the Civil War, Florida tried to sell off the panhandle to Alabama for a million dollars.
46:39But Alabama not so politely refused, saying it had no use for a sandbank and a gopher region.
46:47Today, that sandbank is a Florida treasure.
46:51Much of this coast has remained undeveloped and trapped in time.
46:58In the middle of the panhandle lies Apalachicola Bay, protected from the Gulf of Mexico by the islands of St. George and St. Vincent.
47:07This bay is one of the only places in America where fishermen called tongers still harvest oysters the old-fashioned way, using small boats and rake-like tongs to scrape the shellfish off the seafloor.
47:22Ninety percent of Florida's oysters are harvested here, enough every year to bury the Florida Gators football team up to their waists on the field.
47:35From here, the panhandle's beaches stretch for more than 200 miles, right up to Alabama.
47:42But not all of the panhandle is so wild, or at least so naturally wild.
47:51Each year, hundreds of thousands of college students flock onto the white sands of Panama City, the self-proclaimed spring break capital of the world.
48:04These party-goers have been known to pump up to $220 million into the local economy in a good year.
48:15It's all good fun until someone forgets to check IDs.
48:19That's what happened to Joe Francis, who made millions with his Girls Gone Wild videos.
48:24It was here on Panama City Beach in 2003 where he picked the wrong girl, with the wrong dad, and ended up in jail for featuring topless underage girls in his videos.
48:37But the spring break parties here never missed a beat.
48:42In a few weeks, this candy-colored crowd will be gone, replaced only by the natural white beauty of the panhandle's beaches.
48:55Ensuring that the lights stay on while spring break lasts can be a dangerous job.
49:01A lineman flies through the air, just down the coast in Apalachicola.
49:07But he's not on a rescue mission for a stranded jet skier or a beached porpoise.
49:12He's actually just going to work on the panhandle's power lines.
49:18Dangling below a helicopter, this daring worker is checking connections on a high-voltage power line.
49:23Equipped with a bag of tools, he has everything he needs to make immediate repairs.
49:29It takes great skill to pilot helicopters for power line work.
49:33One sudden movement and the lineman can be ripped from his line or sent crashing into the wires.
49:41All the doors on this Hughes 500 have been removed, helping the pilot see what's happening 100 feet below.
49:57It's a perfect job for those who savor a chance to see the world from the air.
50:03And take an aerial journey across the Sunshine State.