Aerial.America.S04E01.Amazing.Destinations
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TVTranscript
00:00From coast to coast, America is a land of amazing destinations.
00:10From Native American sites that have endured for centuries to geological ones that date
00:16to the age of dinosaurs, parts of the country have seen engineering feats few thought possible
00:24and space flights that didn't even seem probable.
00:28The land has inspired writers and painters, inventors and poets, moved by beauty, necessity
00:37or sometimes just their own ego.
00:41These are places both near and far with stories that just might surprise you.
00:58On a dirt road in the middle of the country, something remarkable emerges out of nowhere.
01:28Chalk formations stretching 70 feet high.
01:36These are the Monument Rocks in the remote plains of western Kansas.
01:41Around 80 million years ago, in the last age of the dinosaurs, this was the bottom of a great inland sea,
01:50home to fish, sharks and a ferocious marine reptile called the Mosasaur.
01:57As the animals died, their skeletons sank to the seafloor, decomposing into this soft limestone or chalk.
02:07When the sea retreated, the towers formed.
02:11They're hard to find today. They sit on an unmarked road about 30 miles from the closest town.
02:21But the towers were an important part of history.
02:25This nearby outcropping called Castle Rock was a landmark for stagecoach drivers and pioneers heading west.
02:33But the formations won't be around forever.
02:36With each passing year, a little more of the towers disappear in the winds and rain of the Kansas plains.
02:45Another far more recognized canyon became an American wonder thanks to the foresight of Teddy Roosevelt and a man named John Muir.
02:55In the early 1900s, few people had explored the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.
03:02Train service didn't start here until 1901.
03:07But in the spring of 1903, Roosevelt halted a political trip to visit it, along with Yosemite and Yellowstone.
03:18Muir, a naturalist who founded the Sierra Club, served as Roosevelt's guide for part of that trip.
03:26Their passionate talks about the American wilderness ultimately helped shape one of Roosevelt's greatest legacies—conservation.
03:35The American wilderness was a place of great interest to Roosevelt.
03:40It was a place of great interest to the American people.
03:45The President knew it would take years for Congress to approve the Grand Canyon as a national park.
03:51But Roosevelt was determined to preserve it.
03:55He was determined to preserve it for as long as he could.
03:59He was determined to preserve it for as long as he could.
04:03He was determined to preserve it for as long as he could.
04:07The President knew it would take years for Congress to approve the Grand Canyon as a national park.
04:14So, in 1908, he cut through the red tape by designating it a national monument—something that didn't need Congressional approval.
04:24That power came from the recently passed Antiquities Act, which was intended to preserve prehistoric Native American ruins and artifacts.
04:38The move protected 800,000 acres of the canyon, but still allowed private development and hunting in some parts.
04:48In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that turned the Grand Canyon into a national park.
04:57It finally was a place that, as Roosevelt said, could be a site of grandeur for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you.
05:12Roosevelt was also key in protecting another Arizona treasure—Montezuma Castle.
05:19Located in the center of the state, the 12th century building is one of the best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings in North America.
05:27White settlers, who erroneously thought the Aztecs built this and all other southwestern ruins, named it after one of their prominent rulers.
05:37Turns out, it was actually an ancient people called the Sinagua.
05:42But the name stuck.
05:45Archaeologists think the inhabitants reached the building with a series of ladders that they then pulled up to prevent enemy tribes from entering.
05:54The same cave that protected them has preserved this architectural site for more than nine centuries.
06:01Further west in Phoenix is an event that's managed to weather two world wars, the Great Depression, and some natural disasters.
06:10The Arizona State Fair is among the oldest in the country, dating back to 1884—28 years before Arizona even became a state.
06:25The very first fair was short-lived. A flood destroyed its site in 1891.
06:30Fourteen years later, a determined citizens' group revived it by purchasing this site.
06:37Today, more than a million people come out each fall for the dizzying rides and unusual foods, which include fried alligator tail and donut burgers.
06:51In central Colorado, a one-of-a-kind theme park is centered around a major engineering feat—the Royal Gorge Bridge.
07:01In the 1920s, a Texan named Lon Piper was mesmerized by the natural beauty of this Arizona River Canyon.
07:09Piper dreamt of building a bridge here to give visitors an unmatched view, and people in nearby Canyon City backed him, hoping it would generate some income.
07:22Piper's dream was to build a bridge that would connect Arizona River to the Grand Canyon.
07:27Piper dreamt of building a bridge here to give visitors an unmatched view, and people in nearby Canyon City backed him, hoping it would generate some income.
07:38Despite the inherent challenges, workers completed it in six months.
07:44When the bridge opened in 1929, it was the highest suspension bridge in the world.
07:50A title it held for 72 years.
07:54China finally built a taller one in 2001.
08:00Today, it's home to a host of rides, most of which involve swinging 956 feet over the Arkansas River.
08:08About the same time the bridge opened, a nearby attraction was gaining steam.
08:14This is the Cog Railway on Pikes Peak, just outside Colorado Springs.
08:20It was the brainchild of a man famous for his mattresses.
08:25Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:28Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:30Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:33Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:36Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:39Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:42Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:45Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:48Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:51Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:54Zip-a-doodle-doo!
08:56Soon, the world's highest cog railway was running.
09:02The train climbs 8.9 miles through Colorado Blue Spruce, and above the Timberline, where wild elk roam free.
09:15About the same time the train was getting up and running, a college professor named Catherine Lee Bates visited the summit by carriage and mule.
09:23Her visit inspired her to write the poem, America the Beautiful, which later became the lyrics to the popular anthem.
09:30A much different anthem took America by storm, thanks to Red Rocks just outside Denver.
09:57On a cold, misty night in 1983, this is where a young band named U2 gave their breakout performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday.
10:07Over the years, the natural and perfect acoustics here have attracted rock stars and opera stars alike.
10:14Their sounds reverberate off two 300-foot monoliths, both taller than Niagara Falls.
10:21Gradual earth movements raised these giants from the prehistoric ocean floor millions of years ago.
10:27Powerful geological forces also left a remarkable fossil record here.
10:32The 868-acre park features dinosaur tracks along with fossils from marine reptiles that swam here when it was covered by an ancient sea.
10:41Much of Colorado used to be underwater, including this surreal sight in southern Colorado.
10:49This is Great Sand Dunes National Park, at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
10:56Scientists believe the 750-foot dunes started forming about 440,000 years ago when the ancient Lake Alamosa began to disappear.
11:06Winds from the surrounding mountains blew the sand and sediment left behind, forming the dunes.
11:14The earliest visitors were nomadic people hunting mammoth and bison.
11:19Their spear points have been found here.
11:24Over the centuries, the dunes have served as a landmark for early explorers, a mining spot for men seeking gold.
11:31And now, as a playground for people of all ages.
11:36But Colorado's biggest and arguably best destination is the Rocky Mountains.
11:42Nestled at its northern end is Rocky Mountain National Park, which exists largely because of a teenage boy.
11:50In 1884, a sickly 14-year-old named Enos Mills left Kansas for Colorado.
11:56Hoping the climate would improve his health.
12:01His mother, who'd lived here, often told him incredible stories about the mountains.
12:07He climbed Long's Peak at 15 and fell in love.
12:13In the years that followed, he pushed for a national park, finally succeeding in 1915.
12:19In all, that once sick boy climbed Long's Peak more than 300 times, both alone and as a guide, and became one of the world's best-known naturalists.
12:36From the Colorado Rockies comes a powerful river that could only be tamed by an equally mighty dam.
12:43In a remarkable feat of ingenuity and engineering, the U.S. government built the Hoover Dam to tame the Colorado River, which devastated land by flooding in the spring, then drying up in the winter.
12:56Congress also hoped they could harness some of the river's power for electricity, irrigation, and drinking water.
13:02Fifty-two hundred men worked around the clock, completing the dam two years ahead of schedule, and $15 million under budget.
13:14Head architect Gordon Kaufman set about creating something that would complement the dam,
13:20and it was the Hoover Dam.
13:22His team put aside ornamental plans drafted by previous architects, instead creating a modern art-deco style.
13:36The Hoover Dam was built in the early 1900s.
13:40The dam was built in the early 1900s, and it was built in the early 1900s.
13:45Gothic construction amidst an art-deco style
13:52The four large intake towers sit in Lake Mead, the massive reservoir that provides water to much of the Southwest.
14:00The towers drive the water into massive turbines, which generate hydroelectric power, a clean,
14:14renewable source of energy that provides power to 29 million Americans in California, Nevada,
14:19and Arizona.
14:34Water is also a driving force in the northern reaches of the Midwest, along the Michigan
14:40coast.
14:53The state is surrounded by four Great Lakes, Erie to the southeast, Huron in the northeast,
14:59Superior to the north, and Michigan to the west.
15:06And that coastline is home to more lighthouses than any other state, with a history that
15:12dates back to 1825.
15:18Few are still in service, replaced by more modern navigational systems.
15:24Today, many are museums, homes, and B&Bs, giving people a taste of history, and sometimes
15:34even a creative way to make a future.
15:39Some of the ships guided by those lighthouses ended up here, at an amazing site called the
15:44Sioux Locks, the only passage between the lower Great Lakes and Lake Superior.
15:53Built in the 1800s, the Locks sit at the northernmost point of Michigan's Upper Peninsula,
15:58in the tiny town of Sioux St. Marie, often called the Sioux.
16:06They straddle the U.S.-Canadian border, where rapids once made ship passage impossible.
16:18Both-bound ships rise, as if on an elevator, 21 feet from Lake Huron to Lake Superior.
16:36When they complete the passage, the ships are in another Sioux St. Marie, in Ontario,
16:42Canada.
16:43The town was split as a result of the War of 1812.
16:59Another of Michigan's engineering marvels is also on the Upper Peninsula, the Mackinac
17:04Bridge.
17:05It opened in 1957, after years of debate over how to connect Michigan's two peninsulas.
17:14One far-fetched idea involved a floating tunnel.
17:19Its chief engineer, David Steinman, faced three main obstacles, high winds, deep water,
17:25and the pressure of ice accumulation.
17:28He came up with innovative solutions for each, setting standards still used in bridge building
17:33worldwide.
17:37Michigan's Lower Peninsula is home to a site that's captivated people for centuries, Sleeping
17:42Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a 35-mile stretch of sand and two neighboring islands.
17:51This area got its unique name from a Native American legend.
17:55The story goes that a forest fire drove a mother bear and her two cubs from the Wisconsin
18:00shoreline into Lake Michigan.
18:04When the mother made it across, she climbed a cliff to search for her cubs, but they drowned
18:09just offshore.
18:16The great Indian spirit, Manitou, was so moved, he let her fall asleep here, creating a solitary
18:23dune in her honor.
18:36Today families flock to the dunes year-round to hike, swim, and play, with some even attempting
18:42the Dune Climb, a 450-foot trek from bottom to top.
18:54In northwestern New Mexico is an amazing archaeological site where an ancient people once thrived.
19:02These ruins were part of a network of villages built by the ancestral Pueblo people called
19:07the Anasazis.
19:10After centuries of living in vulnerable pit houses, they started experimenting with stone
19:15and mud mortar in the 9th century, eventually building these great houses.
19:24The largest held multiple families, with hundreds of interlinked rooms.
19:32A network of roads and settlements connected the people until the 12th century, when drought
19:38likely drove them away.
19:46Some migrated to the nearby Frijole Canyon, home to the Bandelier National Monument.
19:57Ancestral Pueblo people arrived here in the 11th century and stayed for approximately
20:02400 years, constructing their homes with soft volcanic rock.
20:10In the 1500s, faced with overpopulation and a changing environment, the people moved again,
20:21toward Taros, New Mexico, where many descendants still live today.
20:26That area is also home to the much revered San Francisco de Assis Mission Church.
20:33Its sculptural lines have been celebrated for centuries, but the actual architect isn't
20:38known.
20:42Spanish colonists who settled here started building the church in 1772, a process that
20:48took more than four decades.
20:54The adobe building was a favorite subject of photographers Paul Strand and Ansel Adams,
20:59along with painter Georgia O'Keeffe, who returned to it again and again.
21:0960 miles southwest of the church is another site that inspired O'Keeffe, and many others,
21:17Ghost Ranch, home to Kitchen Mesa.
21:24The hill and surrounding 21,000 acres have been preserved thanks to an environmentalist
21:29named Arthur Pack.
21:33He bought this ranch in 1936 and let O'Keeffe rent a summer cottage here.
21:39In 1955, much to O'Keeffe's dismay, Pack donated the entire thing to the Presbyterian Church.
21:47Its leaders continued Pack's mission to preserve the land, which is also home to dinosaur fossils,
21:53Navajo relics, and the flat-topped mountain Pedernal, another beloved subject of O'Keeffe's.
22:04A famous southern figure also found inspiration in his surroundings, in Oxford, Mississippi.
22:14Novelist William Faulkner grew up in this small town and, in his writing, immortalized
22:20both the area and its social issues.
22:23The Lafayette County Courthouse appears in his book Requiem for a Nun, famous for the
22:28line, The past is never dead, it's not even past.
22:37Faulkner bought this home just outside Oxford in 1930.
22:41The year after, The Sound and the Fury was published.
22:46He named it Rowan Oak after a Scottish legend about the protective power of rowan trees.
22:53Faulkner remained largely unknown until 1949, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature,
23:00followed five years later by the Pulitzer.
23:07The South is also home to some of America's most legendary land, the swamps of Louisiana.
23:15Stretching from the Big Easy all the way to Texas, this rich ecosystem was vital to the
23:20early Cajuns, who survived by hunting, fishing, and trapping, though they also saw the bayous
23:27as a source of danger and evil spirits.
23:33Today, the swamps are home to flocks of white egrets, thousands of American alligators,
23:51and forests of bald cypress, which fend off rot with the oil in their trunks.
24:10A few hours west of New Orleans, nature also takes center stage at Bird City, a nesting
24:18spot for 20,000 birds, including snowy and great egrets, blue herons, wood ducks, and
24:25geese.
24:27The preserve came about in a rather unusual way.
24:32In 1895, Edward Ned McElhaney, the son of Tabasco founder Edmund McElhaney, was concerned
24:40that the high demand for feathered women's hats was driving Louisiana's snowy egret
24:45to extinction.
24:49Ned waded into the swamp, caught eight young egrets, and raised them himself in a rookery
24:54next to his house.
24:58It was Louisiana's first wildlife preserve.
25:161,100 miles northeast of Louisiana is the nation's first capital, Philadelphia.
25:35On July 4, 1776, the Founding Fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence here at Independence
25:42Hall.
25:49Four days later, the famous Liberty Bell rang out from this steeple, calling citizens to
25:54hear the Declaration read.
26:02Today, a replica called the Centennial Bell hangs here, while the Liberty Bell is on display
26:08across the green.
26:13Nine of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence lived in Pennsylvania, including
26:19a key figure in American history, Benjamin Franklin.
26:25Today, his home and print shop are marked by these simple frame girders.
26:32The original home was torn down in the 19th century, but archaeologists have uncovered
26:37wall foundations, wells, and more.
26:42Franklin spent his last years here, until his death at the age of 84.
26:4920,000 mourners came to his funeral in the city he loved.
26:55The southern state of Alabama is home to a surprising sight.
27:01This is the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, birthplace of the Saturn V,
27:07the type of rocket that put the first man on the moon.
27:17But America might not have developed that technology without World War II.
27:22Dr. Wernher von Braun designed rockets for the Nazis, until he surrendered to the Americans,
27:28who used his expertise to develop ballistic missiles in Huntsville.
27:34After the Cold War with Russia began, the space race started, with each country trying to prove its superiority.
27:42NASA was born in 1958, establishing the Marshall Space Center here two years later.
27:50Von Braun and his team began developing Saturn rockets, ultimately testing 32 designs.
27:58Each one worked.
28:01Finally, in 1969, powered by a Saturn V,
28:05Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins lifted off.
28:14Today, a crater is named after von Braun, one you can see very clearly.
28:22From a mountaintop more than 4,000 miles away, on the Big Island of Hawaii.
28:30This is the W.M. Keck Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea,
28:36a dormant volcano so remote, it's one of the best places on Earth to study outer space.
28:45Eleven nations have telescopes here, where they've made key discoveries about the formation of stars,
28:51and the origin of black holes.
28:55The volcano sits near the center of the Big Island,
28:58and on its southern end is the most active volcano in the world, Kilauea.
29:04Part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
29:13It's been emitting steam and lava since 1983, in what are called quiet eruptions,
29:19meaning gases escape slowly, instead of in one violent burst.
29:28The natural forces at work here help scientists study how land masses may have been formed millions of years ago,
29:38and are still being formed today, as cooling lava expands Hawaii's coastline bit by bit.
29:48Hawaii itself was born around 40 million years ago,
29:55from sea volcanoes and the shifting Earth,
29:58which helped mold this spectacular scenery on the Maui coast.
30:06The eight islands were annexed by the United States after decades of fighting between Native Hawaiians
30:11and American businessmen over who should govern them.
30:15The last monarch of the islands was overthrown in 1893,
30:20but many in Congress opposed annexation until the Spanish-American War in 1898,
30:26when the strategic importance of Pearl Harbor became clear.
30:31Two years later, Hawaii became a U.S. territory, and in 1959, it became a state.
30:39Over the years, its unique location, thousands of miles from any continent,
30:44has helped protect the diverse and stunning landscape.
30:49Another pristine set of islands was created by a far different geological force.
30:55Thousands of years ago, melting glaciers helped carve out the San Juan Islands,
31:01located north of Washington's Puget Sound.
31:06They sit in the state's far northwest corner,
31:09where four are reachable by ferry and the rest only by private boat.
31:21Thanks to their remoteness, many parts of the islands exist largely as they have for centuries,
31:27as a playground for sea lions, bald eagles, and other wildlife.
31:40One hundred miles south of the islands is a much-praised site,
31:45Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park.
31:51For decades, this was a drab petroleum facility.
31:55Then, in 1999, the Seattle Art Museum bought the land,
31:59the last stretch of undeveloped property on the waterfront.
32:05Over the next eight years, the museum and the Trust for Public Land
32:10transformed it into an oasis of art and green space.
32:20At its center, a 2,200-foot path through the four main ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest,
32:28an evergreen forest, a grass-filled meadow, an aspen grove, and a saltwater shore.
32:37Interspersed in the park are several sculptures, including Alexander Calder's The Eagle,
32:43which he created in 1971 at the apex of his career.
32:48The inspiration for the park came from the mountains that sit across the Puget Sound.
32:55This is the Olympic Range in Olympic National Park.
33:08The British mariner who named the mountain range was so awed by them,
33:13he thought Greek gods could live here.
33:18Covering an area bigger than Rhode Island, the park is actually made up of rainforests,
33:24beaches, glaciers, and the Olympic Mountain Range.
33:32The highest peak, Mount Olympus, is covered with glaciers, including the spectacular Blue Glacier.
33:48The park also protects some of the most pristine temperate rainforests in the U.S.
33:54and 73 miles of uninterrupted coastline.
34:04Across the country, a far different coastline with a remarkable natural resource,
34:10South Florida's Everglades National Park.
34:15The massive and complex ecosystem is actually a slow-moving, 40-mile-wide river,
34:22home to many endangered plants and animals.
34:26It's also the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist.
34:33The next spot is as far south as you can get in the U.S. by car,
34:38thanks to the engineering marvel of the Overseas Highway.
34:43From Miami, it takes you across the stretch of islands that make up the Florida Keys
34:49and ends 128 miles later on in the Atlantic Ocean.
34:54From Miami, it takes you across the stretch of islands that make up the Florida Keys
34:59and ends 128 miles later on in Key West.
35:06This town is famous for its bars and laid-back attitude, but there's a lot more to it than that.
35:13The 2,900 square nautical miles surrounding the Keys are a National Marine Sanctuary,
35:19home to thousands of species of wildlife, dozens of shipwrecks,
35:24and one of the world's largest reefs.
35:28Key West was also home to Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s.
35:34The Nobel Prize-winning author lived with his family in this Spanish colonial,
35:38where he wrote the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, among others.
35:44You can still find descendants of his six-toed cat, Snowball, on the property.
35:54The same year Hemingway published his first novel, America was taking on this,
35:59the first modern national highway, known as Route 66.
36:06In the 1920s, the United States was changing rapidly,
36:10in large part because of the increasingly affordable automobile.
36:15But roads in the country were a mess.
36:19In 1921, the government set about creating a highway,
36:24with wider lanes and fewer curves that could connect urban and rural areas.
36:31Officially commissioned in 1926, Route 66 relied largely on existing roads
36:37and wasn't even fully paved until 1938.
36:43But its route from Chicago through St. Louis and to Los Angeles soon started changing lives,
36:50allowing farmers to more easily transport goods,
36:54jump-starting the trucking industry, and creating mom-and-pop businesses along the way.
37:01Route 66 ended here, in the state of California,
37:06home of Big Sur and the Pacific Coast Highway.
37:12This dramatic 90-mile section, where the Santa Lucia Mountains meet the sea,
37:18is filled with sheer cliffs and waterfalls.
37:23And Highway 1 is the only way through.
37:29This dramatic 90-mile section, where the Santa Lucia Mountains meet the sea,
37:34is filled with sheer cliffs and waterfalls.
37:39And Highway 1 is the only way through.
37:44This road was the dream of a doctor and entrepreneur named John Roberts,
37:49who traversed this rocky terrain on horseback to reach patients.
37:53In 1894, after a trip to reach shipwreck victims took him four grueling hours,
37:59Roberts finally photographed this stretch between San Simeon and Carmel,
38:04becoming the land's first surveyor.
38:07It took years to secure funding, but in 1919, construction began.
38:14One stretch heads over another modern marvel, Bixby Creek Bridge,
38:20one of the highest single-arch bridges in the world.
38:34As the highway twists north, it takes you to what golf enthusiasts would certainly call
38:39an amazing destination, Pebble Beach.
38:52In the early 1900s, a man named Samuel F.B. Morse, named after his great-uncle,
38:57inventor of the Morse Code, was told by his developer bosses
39:01to make the California peninsula profitable.
39:07At the time, they were having a hard time selling lots here,
39:11and wanted to unload them all for $1.3 million.
39:16Morse decided to put in a golf course, and got two amateurs to design it with him for free.
39:27When it was done, Morse bought the land himself,
39:32then owned and operated it for the rest of his life.
39:36His family eventually sold it for $72 million.
39:43Up the coast in San Francisco is green space of a different kind, Golden Gate Park.
39:53But 150 years ago, this land wasn't even green.
39:57It was all sand and rolling dunes, with no water.
40:01The land was covered in sand.
40:06But 150 years ago, this land wasn't even green.
40:10It was all sand and rolling dunes, with barely any trees.
40:15The park's planners changed that when they planted a strain of grass
40:19that anchored the sandy soil.
40:27In the western end of the park is one of the park's newest additions,
40:32the new green home of the California Academy of the Sciences.
40:37The massive $500 million facility includes a natural history museum,
40:42a planetarium, an aquarium, and a rainforest.
40:49For a true sense of America's amazing wilderness, few states can compete with Oregon.
40:57In the foothills of the Ochoco Mountains, up the Crooked River,
41:01is the rock climbing mecca of Smith Rock State Park.
41:10Millions of years ago, a massive volcanic eruption spewed hot ash, lava, and chunks of rock here,
41:16which cooled and weathered into these great stone pinnacles.
41:25The soft rock, or welded tuff, is part of the draw for rock climbers,
41:30who started flocking here in the 1960s.
41:51But no one knows exactly who discovered the park.
41:55It might have been a former sheriff named John Smith traveling here in 1867,
42:00or it could have been Private Volk Smith, a U.S. Cavalry member,
42:05who fell to his death here fighting Native Americans in 1863.
42:12Climbers do agree this is one of the premier places in the world for their sport,
42:17particularly this outcropping called Monkey Face,
42:21which is among the hardest descents in the world.
42:26Oregon is also home to the Columbia River Highway, the first planned scenic highway in the country.
42:33It was the dream of an industrialist named Sam Hill,
42:37who believed a good road would help the area prosper.
42:41Hill's own farm failed, but the highway didn't.
42:46Completed in 1922, it was hailed as an engineering masterpiece
42:50for its integration into the surrounding landscape.
42:54Hill went on to help build the Pacific Coast Highway.
42:57Today, kite surfers and tourists can enjoy all the river has to offer,
43:02thanks to one man's dogged determination.
43:08A lumber baron named Simon Benson was also a proponent of the road,
43:13and one-time owner of this, Multnomah Falls, which sits just off the highway.
43:20A Native American legend says the waterfall was created to win the love of a young princess
43:25who wanted a hidden place to bathe.
43:28Benson, a passionate philanthropist, believed the site was so spectacular,
43:32it ought to be enjoyed by everyone.
43:35So in the early 1900s, he bought the waterfall, along with 400 additional acres,
43:41then donated the whole lot to the city of Portland.
43:45The pedestrian bridge at the bottom of the falls was built by and named for Benson.
43:50Today, the waterfall is among Oregon's most visited sites.
43:55This part of Oregon was breathtaking to two of its earliest visitors, Lewis and Clark.
44:01They traversed the state with a small party of men and a woman named Sacagawea,
44:07emerging at the Pacific in 1805.
44:10They'd started their exploration of the uncharted west from St. Louis a year and a half earlier.
44:18Today, the camp they set up in these evergreens, which they named Fort Clatsam,
44:23is part of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.
44:28From here, the intrepid explorers continued to travel the Oregon coast,
44:34at one point climbing the 1,000-foot peak of Tillamook Head
44:38on an expedition to find whale blubber.
44:47It was a long, difficult climb, but from the top, Clark said,
44:52I behold the grandest and most pleasing prospect which my eyes ever surveyed.
45:04That same sense of wonder has helped define America,
45:09motivating some men to conquer the country's highest peaks
45:15and others to travel beyond the Earth's atmosphere, all the way to the moon.
45:24It's driven engineers to build bridges in what seemed like impossible places,
45:29and helped artists create some of the country's most celebrated works.
45:43Remarkable people and places in a country that continues to inspire.
45:59For more UN videos visit www.un.org