Aerial.America.S08E01.New.York.City.24
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00:00There's nothing like a day in the life of New York City from above.
00:07When you soar across towers that boggle the mind, discover the surprising ways that New
00:13Yorkers live, work, and play, and find out what it really takes to keep a mega city like
00:20this one running 24-7.
00:25All across New York City, people do the unimaginable every day.
00:31They blast through bedrock, 15 stories underground, commute high into the sky, and risk their
00:39lives dangling from the very top of one of America's highest spires.
00:44In a city that suffered tremendous tragedy, New York's bravest have to train hard, while
00:51others spend their days hovering high above to keep an eye on the streets below.
00:57There's no end to the hard work and ingenuity that enables New York City to thrive, and
01:03the vast systems that make life here possible never sleep.
01:10A famous writer once called it a magnificent jewel, a city whose streets pulse through
01:16the night with enough power to dazzle millions around the world, and rival towers that compete
01:23for the spotlight with their signature crowns.
01:27All this in just one day in the life of America's biggest metropolis, the City of New York.
01:46It's 5.30 a.m.
02:16And some of New York City's earliest commuters are already on the move, making their way
02:21across New York Harbor on the Staten Island Ferry.
02:29There's a magical spirit to the start of each day in this city, when the waters that surround
02:35it are still calm, and the great potential of life here towers on the horizon.
02:45For many on board this ferry, their morning ride is like the quiet before a storm.
02:58As soon as they reach the dock at Whitehall Terminal, they pour off, as another day in
03:03the remarkable life of New York City begins.
03:09This city is home to over 8 million people, more than the populations of Los Angeles,
03:14Dallas, Chicago, and Miami combined.
03:19It also covers more than 300 square miles, and is divided into five separate boroughs.
03:26The borough of Staten Island lies in the south at the entrance to New York Bay.
03:31To the east are the most populated boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.
03:36To the north is the Bronx, and then there's the long, narrow island of Manhattan, which
03:42lies along the Hudson River.
03:45With one and a half million permanent residents, Manhattan is not New York City's most crowded
03:50borough.
03:51But during weekdays, Manhattan's population doubles, as commuters and others flood in
03:56from across the city, as well as from Connecticut, New Jersey, and other towns in New York State.
04:06One of these workers is crane operator John Schaffner.
04:10Every day at 6.30 a.m. near One World Trade Center, John starts his more than 10-story
04:16climb up to the top of one of the highest construction cranes in America.
04:23He does it without a harness or safety rope, more than 60 floors above the street.
04:30John's crane is one of two, perched on top of Three World Trade Center, an 80-story skyscraper
04:37That's the last of the major towers to rise above Ground Zero, 15 years after 9-11.
04:44Both of the cranes on this building are operated by skilled members of Operating Engineers
04:48Local 14.
04:51Eighty feet above John, fellow engineer Dave Brown is heading up an even higher crane.
04:58Once he gets to the top, he'll spend the day at about the same height as the observation
05:02deck on the Empire State Building.
05:13Most New Yorkers don't get a chance to see crane operators making their morning commutes,
05:17and it's easy to understand why.
05:20From the ground, they are just tiny specks, clambering into the sky.
05:26Every day before he puts this towering machine into motion, John heads up to the crow's nest
05:31above the cab to check the crane's steel cables and pulleys.
05:36Still unsecured, he's now about 1,000 feet above the street.
05:41Some of the best Operating Engineers won't even work at this height because of the risks.
05:47Dave's not one of them.
05:49In the crane above John, he's ready to go with his first assignment.
05:53He needs to pluck more than 10 tons of steel off of a trailer that's parked hundreds of
05:57feet down on the street below.
06:01He lowers the crane's massive hook.
06:04On the ground, two ironworkers, known as connectors, attach the girders to the hook.
06:09Safely balancing a heavy load like this one on a cable that's just 33 millimeters thick
06:15is one of the most skilled jobs in ironwork.
06:21As soon as it's ready, a signalman on the street gives Dave the okay on the radio to
06:25lift away.
06:28Lifting construction cranes on skyscrapers takes a steady hand.
06:33Sometimes, the loads Dave and John lift are completely out of their line of sight.
06:38They have to rely on load charts, computer screens, and workers below to make sure everything
06:43remains okay as the steel rises through the air.
06:48It takes about five minutes for 25,000 pounds of steel to climb 70 stories.
06:55These massive forms will be used to frame out the tower's upper floors.
06:59Now, Dave can see what he's lifting with his own eyes as he brings them in to ironworkers
07:05below.
07:06They disconnect the load and free up the crane as fast as they can.
07:13When the weather's good, cranes like these have to remain in almost constant motion.
07:18They are responsible for lifting almost every tool, machine, and new piece of the building
07:23as it grows higher and higher.
07:26On crane number two, John is now in the middle of another lift.
07:31One of the biggest dangers of crane work is rough weather.
07:35An unexpected blast of wind could send these massive columns crashing through the windows
07:39of the neighboring office tower.
07:41It's one reason tower cranes aren't allowed to operate in New York City if the wind speed
07:46tops 35 miles per hour.
07:49There are also strict regulations on where they can position their hook on the boom based
07:54on the weight of the load.
07:55Get it wrong and the entire crane could topple over.
08:00Every single move Dave and John make has potentially deadly consequences for people below.
08:06They have to maintain laser-like focus every second their load is in the air.
08:12Building New York City's skyline wouldn't be possible without a carefully choreographed
08:17dance of skilled workers and towering machines like these.
08:26Every morning at 7 a.m., just as John and Dave are setting their cranes in motion, millions
08:31of Americans across the country are starting their day right here on the streets of New
08:35York City as they tune in to the morning shows of the big three major networks.
08:42The Today Show first aired more than 60 years ago, and crowds still gather every morning
08:48outside its street-side studio at Rockefeller Center, hoping to see themselves on television.
08:53Meanwhile, residents of Roosevelt Island, in the middle of the East River, are just
08:58setting out for one of the most unique commutes in the city.
09:02They're heading into Manhattan by aerial tramway.
09:06When it began operating in 1976, this was the only tram of its kind in the nation.
09:13Those who live on this narrow New York City island have relied on it ever since.
09:22In New York City, some people start their day up high.
09:26But there are others who have to prepare to spend an entire eight-hour shift drilling
09:31through bedrock deep underground.
09:35This massive pit in Long Island City, Queens, is how they get there.
09:41It's the entrance to the largest transportation infrastructure project in the nation, a series
09:46of new rail tunnels into the city called East Side Access.
09:51It will enable commuter trains, for the first time ever, to travel directly from Long Island
09:56to Grand Central Station on Manhattan's East Side by passing under Roosevelt Island.
10:03This $10 billion project is being built by one of New York's most legendary labor unions,
10:10Local 147, better known as the Sandhogs.
10:14For more than a century, the Sandhogs have been blasting through bedrock under New York
10:18to build the bridges and tunnels that connect the city's five boroughs.
10:22They got their name while building the Brooklyn Bridge back in the 1870s.
10:27To create firm foundations for the bridge's towers, they had to work in air chambers underwater
10:32and dig dozens of feet straight down through sand until they reached solid bedrock.
10:38They've been called Sandhogs ever since.
10:45More than any other workers, the Sandhogs have been responsible for turning New York
10:49City into one giant metropolis.
10:53They carved out the vast system of tunnels that carry fresh drinking water from the city's
10:58reservoirs into all of the five boroughs.
11:03They drilled out more than six major train tunnels that lead in and out of Manhattan.
11:09They built most of New York City's underground subway lines, and they've dug out the largest
11:14of the sewer and storm water tunnels that keep New York clean.
11:19But the East Side Access Rail project that starts here in Long Island City, Queens, is
11:24their biggest yet.
11:29The Sandhogs are a tight-knit family.
11:32Over the years, dozens of their members have died or been injured in tunnel collapses,
11:37explosions, and crane accidents.
11:40But the risks have never stopped them.
11:43Every weekday morning at 7 a.m., rain or shine, they head right back underground.
11:49The Sandhogs' slogan is, The Men Who Make New York Work.
11:54But things are starting to change.
11:56There's already at least one woman member of the Sandhogs' union.
12:00Passing commuters or the owners of nearby condominiums might catch a quick glimpse of
12:05these tough tunnel builders, but most of the time, the Sandhogs remain out of sight.
12:11After they reach the floor of the tunnel, they head inside, where enormous machines
12:15called moles have been chewing their way through bedrock for more than 10 years, carving
12:20out new rail tunnels side by side.
12:24When this project is done, hundreds of thousands of workers from Long Island will spend the
12:29last minutes of their commute racing through a state-of-the-art tunnel more than 13 stories
12:34under Manhattan's streets.
12:42From its outer boroughs, the sight of New York City's skyline on the horizon inspires
12:50awe.
12:52With its two clusters of office towers, centered around Wall Street and Midtown, New York almost
12:57looks like two separate cities.
13:01There's a good reason Manhattan is not a single wall of skyscrapers.
13:08Wall buildings are normally built on top of bedrock for stability.
13:13Under Times Square, the bedrock layer is just 18 feet below ground.
13:18But further south, this layer of rock, known as Manhattan Schist, suddenly plunges to a
13:24depth of 260 feet below the streets.
13:28That's too far down for developers to reach and build on, which is why buildings in much
13:33of Manhattan are not very tall.
13:37New York still has the most skyscrapers of any city in America, and they help make Manhattan
13:43the city's most densely populated borough.
13:47With so many apartments stacked on top of each other, there are simply more people on
13:51average here per square foot than in the other boroughs.
13:57And every day, the buildings on New York City's skyline are getting skinnier and taller.
14:04When 432 Park Avenue was completed in 2015, it forever changed the New York City skyline.
14:12This 96-story tower has a penthouse that recently sold for $95 million.
14:19It's just one of many residential skyscrapers that are shooting up just south of Central
14:23Park in an area that's been nicknamed Billionaire's Road.
14:29The chance to look out over this mind-boggling achievement of engineering and design from
14:33high above is part of what lures 10,000 people each day, on average, to the observation deck
14:40of the Empire State Building.
14:44From up here, it can seem like New York City is just a landscape of endless buildings,
14:50maybe because there are close to one million of them in the five boroughs.
14:57But when you start peering down into New York's streets, you begin to realize that this city
15:02has a surprising number of open spaces.
15:06One of them is Bryant Park at 42nd Street and 6th Avenue.
15:11At 10 a.m., hundreds gather here and fill the lawn for group yoga, New York-style, surrounded
15:18by office towers.
15:23But one of the most interesting open spaces lies on Manhattan's west side.
15:29It's an old elevated railway track that's been transformed into a public park.
15:34It winds for one and a half miles through the city, just above the streets.
15:40This rail line was originally constructed in the 1930s to protect New Yorkers from being
15:45injured and even killed by the steam engines that used to roll right down the middle of
15:4910th Avenue.
15:51After freight trains stopped running on the west side line in the 1980s, the elevated
15:56track fell into disrepair.
15:59New Yorkers initially shunned the idea of repurposing this industrial structure.
16:03But today, the high line is a ribbon of green space that practically hovers over the busy
16:08streets below.
16:09It's often hailed as one of the top 10 places to visit in New York City.
16:19New Yorkers have been repurposing industrial and waterfront land for centuries.
16:23But since 2002 alone, the city has added more than 850 acres of new parkland.
16:32Here in Brooklyn, along the East River, old docks are being reborn as public space.
16:38They're just some of the places that New Yorkers go to escape from their tough, daily grinds.
16:51It's swimming laps in the middle of Central Park.
16:57Or heading to the Metropolitan Museum.
17:00Here on the museum's roof, exhibits draw big crowds.
17:03Today, they've come to see a work by British artist Cornelia Parker.
17:08It's a temporary installation inspired by the creepy house featured in the Alfred Hitchcock
17:12thriller, Psycho.
17:20But there's probably no place to escape to in New York City that's more colorful than
17:24this.
17:25The beach and boardwalk of Coney Island in Brooklyn.
17:29During the summer, the rides at Coney Island's Luna Park are busy all day long.
17:34And the lines at the more than a century old Nathan's Hot Dog stand seem to never end.
17:40New York City has a staggering 520 miles of shoreline, all across the five boroughs.
17:47Fourteen of those miles are beaches.
17:50Coney Island's maybe the most famous, but it's actually one of many.
17:55Nearby in the Rockaways, in Queens, is the largest urban beach in the nation.
18:00It's the only one in New York City with surfable waves.
18:06It's also home to one of the city's last surviving beach clubs, a legendary place called
18:11the Silver Gull.
18:17Members here are known for their elaborately decorated cabanas, which are stacked on two
18:21floors right in the sand.
18:30The Silver Gull is a perfect example of how New Yorkers find ways to create tight-knit
18:34communities in this city of millions.
18:40One member described what it's like after the Silver Gull closes its doors every fall.
18:46All winter we count down the days to summer, he said.
18:50We're really just one big family.
18:59But no matter what the season, New Yorkers forge some of their strongest bonds in an
19:03unassuming corner building in Lower Manhattan, not far from City Hall.
19:12By 9.30 a.m., newlyweds begin emerging from New York City's Marriage Bureau.
19:18Some New Yorkers come here to get their marriage licenses and get married at the same place,
19:23which is why these steps are covered with confetti all day long.
19:30New York City rivals Las Vegas as the wedding capital of the nation.
19:36It issues up to 330 marriage licenses every weekday.
19:46But while some are celebrating their best day ever, across town, teams of special recruits
19:52are preparing for the worst possible day imaginable.
19:57They're learning how to rescue their fellow New Yorkers from fires, accidents, and disasters.
20:03It's 11 a.m. at the Fire Department of New York's Training Academy at Randall's Island
20:08on the banks of the East River.
20:10It's where every new recruit to the New York City Fire Department is put to the test with
20:15flames, smoke, and tough physical training.
20:19These probationary firefighters, known as probies, will train here for up to six months,
20:25Just as they would in Army boot camp, they all have to abide by a long list of strict rules,
20:30from the uniforms they wear to the way they address superiors.
20:35During much of their training, probies have to wear up to 100 pounds of gear.
20:40It's the toughest firefighting program in the nation.
20:45Recruits learn how to cut through roofs of burning high-rises, how to rappel down tall
20:50buildings to rescue potential victims inside, how to put out fires on a tanker ship at a
20:57New York City pier, and how to free passengers from rolled vehicles on New York City streets.
21:11Probies have to be prepared for acts of terrorism, and every one of them knows the risks and
21:16how 343 FDNY members lost their lives in the attacks of 9-11.
21:22They learn how to triage victims and the proper way to wash down colleagues who have responded
21:27to a chemical weapons attack.
21:29Every day, new recruits arrive here for training.
21:32Not all probies can take it.
21:34As many as 10% will drop out before the training is over.
21:38But those who do graduate will get the honor of being assigned to a firehouse in one of
21:43the five boroughs as one of more than 10,000 New York City firefighters.
22:00It's 1 p.m. in New York City, and 1,700 feet above the streets of lower Manhattan, two
22:07daring workers are hanging on for their lives.
22:11They're clinging to the very top of the spire of One World Trade Center, also known as the
22:16Freedom Tower.
22:17When it was completed, it was the highest building in the Western Hemisphere, topping
22:22out at a symbolic 1,776 feet above the city streets.
22:28Each man is attached with four different clips, two from his front and two from his back,
22:34with ropes called lanyards.
22:36They are covering the structure with antenna panels that will be used for television broadcast.
22:46Below, a support team raises new panels as soon as the workers are ready.
22:52Every tool they use is attached to a safety tether.
22:56Even a small wrench falling from this height could reach a speed of 100 miles per hour
23:01by the time it hits the street.
23:06This spire has actually been the source of a controversy that's plagued the Freedom Tower
23:13for years.
23:15Originally, the tower's design called for the spire to be covered with white angular
23:21forms that would provide a dramatic transition from the building's glass façade up to the
23:26sky.
23:27But the owners of One World Trade later decided that the white forms would be too hard to
23:34clean and announced they would leave the spire uncovered.
23:39Many New Yorkers, including the building's architect, felt betrayed.
23:44They argued that a bare steel structure was not an appropriate way to top out a building
23:49that had risen from the ashes of Ground Zero.
23:53The Wall Street Journal mocked the unadorned spire as an upside-down umbrella stand.
23:59Another problem was that antennas on tops of buildings are not usually included in their
24:04official height, which meant that One World Trade Center would be 408 feet shorter than
24:10promised.
24:11Luckily, in 2013, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat ruled in favor of the spire.
24:18In 2013, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat ruled that the spire was an
24:24essential piece of the Freedom Tower and that the building's symbolic height of 1,776 feet
24:30was accurate.
24:39Today, the biggest concern of these workers is to finish their job and get back down before
24:45sunset.
24:47Until they do, they'll have a spectacular view of New York City's five boroughs and
24:52beyond.
24:54Being clipped in for hours 1,700 feet above Manhattan is one of the most extreme ways
25:00that people in New York City spend their days.
25:03But across town, there are thousands who spend weeks and even months locked away behind bars.
25:10When you fly over Hunts Point in the Bronx, you arrive at a towering blue and white steel
25:16structure that looks at first just like a normal warehouse.
25:20But it's actually a massive barge.
25:24This is the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, the largest floating prison in the world.
25:31In the late 1980s, the Department of Correction commissioned this enormous five-story facility
25:37for more than $160 million.
25:40It has 800 beds, a medical clinic, chapel, and even a maximum security wing.
25:51The only outdoor space is an exercise bar.
25:56The only outdoor space is an exercise pen on the barge's top deck.
26:02Once, a prisoner climbed the fence here to try and escape.
26:06Guards pelted him with basketballs, but he slipped over the top and dove into the East
26:11River below.
26:13He didn't get far.
26:15A few minutes later, the police plucked him from the water, and he was returned to his
26:20cell.
26:22The Vernon C. Bain Center was originally commissioned to reduce overcrowding at one of America's
26:27most notorious prison facilities, Rikers Island, which lies just across the East River.
26:36Rikers is one of the more than 36 islands that lie inside New York City's boundaries.
26:42It's like New York's own version of Alcatraz, but almost 20 times bigger.
26:47Prison workers built out most of its 400 acres of space with landfill, and there's
26:52only one road to get in and out.
26:56On any given day, roughly 10,000 prisoners are housed here.
27:00Most haven't been convicted of any crime.
27:03They're pretrial detainees, imprisoned at Rikers as they wait for their day in court.
27:10There are actually 10 different prisons on Rikers Island for all different kinds of inmates
27:15and crimes, and they're notoriously overcrowded.
27:19That's why the city has built more than two dozen plastic tents with dormitory-style beds.
27:25In the prisons, hot and crowded cell blocks, many of which lack air conditioning.
27:30Tensions flare, sometimes triggering full-scale riots.
27:37But every day, a few detainees are allowed to leave Rikers, not so they can go to court,
27:43but so they can volunteer for a tough job that most of their fellow New Yorkers would
27:48never apply for.
27:52Every weekday morning, a Department of Correction bus carrying prisoners makes its way over
27:57this bridge.
28:00It leads to City Island, where the Rikers prison is located.
28:06The only inhabited island in the Bronx.
28:11From the air, it looks like a seaside town in New England, until you see the skyscrapers
28:16of Manhattan behind it.
28:20Many who live here say they could never imagine living anywhere else.
28:26Some moviegoers know City Island thanks to films like Long Day's Journey Into Night,
28:31starring Katharine Hepburn, the Royal Cannon Bombs, or Angelina Jolie's Love Is All There Is,
28:37which was partly filmed here.
28:42There are no film crews out today, as the inmates from Rikers make their way down City
28:47Island's only main street.
28:50They are headed to a dock on the East Shore.
28:56From here, the prisoners, still inside the bus, take a short ferry ride across Long Island
29:02Sound to a place called Heart Island.
29:06This narrow and now uninhabited piece of land lies just inside New York City's eastern
29:12boundary.
29:14Heart Island may be small, but it's played a big role in the history of New York.
29:21During the Civil War, it served as a POW camp to hold Confederate prisoners, but overcrowding
29:27and the spread of disease caused more than 200 Confederate soldiers to die here, in a
29:32place that was later described as a concentration camp.
29:37In the late 19th century, it was used to house destitute boys, and the ruins of a former
29:43hospital from that time are still standing.
29:49But in 1868, New York City purchased Heart Island for use as a public cemetery, a role
29:56that it still plays today.
29:59Those who die in the five boroughs and can't be identified, or whose bodies are unclaimed
30:04by relatives, are brought here by ferry.
30:08Detainees from Rikers volunteer to provide a proper burial for these unclaimed souls.
30:16They also bury the dead whose families can't afford space in a cemetery.
30:21Under the fields of Heart Island are roughly one million graves.
30:29Each body is carefully mapped in case families come forward later to identify the dead, or
30:35wish to have their loved ones disinterred for final burial elsewhere.
30:42Prisoners from Rikers get paid just 50 cents an hour for their work, but by the time they
30:47head back to their cells, they know they have played an important role in the life of this
30:52city, by giving dignity to their fellow New Yorkers, and those whom others have forgotten.
31:05It's 4 p.m., and a helicopter carrying a team of air and marine agents from U.S. Customs
31:11and Border Protection is heading into the port of New York and New Jersey.
31:17This is just one of the many agencies that monitor New York City every day for potential threats.
31:24Out on the water, they're joined by the U.S. Coast Guard and the NYPD.
31:30And when the president flies into town, the U.S. Marines provide an escort for Marine One
31:35and its matching decoy.
31:38Today, these agents are monitoring one of the world's largest container ships that has just docked
31:43here at Bayonne.
31:47Every day, close to 10,000 shipping containers from around the world arrive in New York Harbor.
31:55Cartels from South America and Southeast Asia often try to use these steel boxes to smuggle drugs.
32:03We know that it's virtually impossible for U.S. authorities to look inside every container.
32:08But experienced eyes in the sky can quickly spot illegal activity and cargo.
32:14An inside job here could put millions of dollars' worth of cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamines
32:20on a New York City's streets within hours of their arrival.
32:28In 2015, agents at a New York pier inspected a container from the South American nation of Guyana.
32:36They discovered that it was full of frozen shrimp that had been gutted and stuffed with $12 million of cocaine.
32:44Today, everything on this ship appears to be in order.
32:53In the skies around New York Harbor and lower Manhattan, even law enforcement pilots have to be careful.
33:00They're surrounded on all sides by other aircraft.
33:04More than 40,000 sightseeing helicopter tours lift off from helipads like these
33:09at the downtown Manhattan heliport every year.
33:13And they make the skies over New York Harbor the busiest piece of airspace in the world.
33:20If we were to map the routes of all these helicopter flights over a single day, this is what it would look like.
33:26A giant tangled web that starts at the downtown Manhattan heliport
33:30and swirls out around the office towers of Wall Street.
33:34Some tours head up and back down the Hudson River, while others fan out across New York Harbor
33:40so tourists can catch a glimpse of landmarks like the Statue of Liberty.
33:45Most of these tours last less than 20 minutes, which is one reason there are so many flights.
33:54Today, a New York Police Department helicopter is on patrol over lower Manhattan.
34:00It's the anniversary of 9-11, and federal agents are also keeping careful watch on Ground Zero.
34:09104 stories down, this helicopter is just a tiny speck in the sky.
34:15But it's packed with technology that can track potential threats on the street and in the air with amazing precision.
34:23There's always someone doing a fascinating job somewhere in New York City.
34:28Some hover high over Wall Street.
34:31Others spend their days guiding hundreds of planes in and out of JFK International Airport from its control tower.
34:38And then there are those responsible for very carefully docking the colossal cruise ship the Queen Mary II whenever it arrives in Brooklyn.
34:47But just imagine spending your entire day up here on one of the more than a thousand suspender ropes
34:54that hold up the deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
34:58It's the only roadway that links the borough of Staten Island with the rest of New York City.
35:04It also happens to be one of the world's engineering marvels.
35:08When it was completed in 1964, the Verrazano's 4,260-foot-long span made it the longest suspension bridge in the world.
35:18But work on this bridge never stops in order to keep it standing.
35:23The Verrazano was under constant assault by seawater.
35:26Engineers have to routinely inspect the cables to search for erosion and potential areas of weakness.
35:33Today, half the lanes of the Verrazano are closed.
35:37Crews have ripped up the road deck so they can replace it with lighter, longer-lasting materials.
35:46One of those workers is Kim Maloney.
35:49She's a member of Brooklyn Ironworkers Local 361.
35:53She's also one of only a handful of unionized women welders in New York City.
35:58Kim went to art school before she became a union welder.
36:02Now, she and her fellow ironworkers have signed on to a very tough job.
36:07Up to 10 hours a day for three years, they'll have to endure rain, snow, icy winds,
36:13and the constant noise and exhaust of the nearly 200,000 vehicles that cross the Verrazano every day.
36:21Kim's job today is to drive new bolts into the bridge's steel girders.
36:26They'll be used to attach new sections of roadway.
36:29Delays in this massive project could be catastrophic for the tens of thousands of people
36:34who depend on the Verrazano every day and could even impact the city's economy.
36:40But up here, safety, not speed, has to come first.
36:45One slip on a beam could send Kim free-falling 228 feet into the water below.
36:51Spending three years resurfacing the Verrazano will come with a big reward,
36:56the pride of knowing that they've rebuilt this New York City icon
37:00so it can serve their fellow New Yorkers for generations to come.
37:10Today, when Kim's shift is over, she'll head for home just as the sun is setting over Manhattan.
37:16But as the workday in New York comes to an end,
37:19it's time for night to come to life in the city that never sleeps.
37:25At 8 p.m., New York's bridges, tunnels, and highways are still packed with commuters.
37:31Workers in New York spend more than six hours a week commuting.
37:35That's more time on average than workers anywhere else in the nation.
37:40Many are still making their way home.
37:43But others are just starting out for their night shifts.
37:47One place where New York City's day and night workers get a glimpse of each other
37:51is on the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn, where their subway cars roll right past each other.
37:57It's New York's version of the changing of the guard.
38:05When you start exploring the city's five boroughs after dark,
38:08it's easy to see how New York got the name The City That Never Sleeps.
38:14Here, inside the New York Times' vast printing plant in College Point, Queens,
38:19workers from multiple unions are getting ready to print 300,000 copies of tomorrow's paper
38:24as soon as they get the digital files from the editors in Manhattan.
38:28In back, trucks are lining up to race the papers to corner stores
38:32moments after they roll off the presses.
38:37Nearby, hundreds of taxi drivers are starting their shift
38:40by lining up to wait for passengers arriving here at LaGuardia Airport.
38:45The runways at this major New York City airport start getting quiet after midnight
38:50to help reduce noise for residents nearby.
38:53But air traffic controllers in the tower are on duty 24-7.
38:59They have to be ready to guide late-arriving flights in for safe landing.
39:07For those lucky enough to arrive at New York City's airports at night,
39:11it was simply nothing like catching a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline.
39:16Writer Thomas Wolfe once described it this way,
39:19New York blazes like a magnificent jewel in its fit setting of sea and earth and stars.
39:27During the day, the buildings on New York's skyline are the city's heroes.
39:33But as soon as the sun sets, its streets quickly steal the spotlight
39:37when they transform into flowing rivers of light.
39:44The spectacle of New York City at night may dazzle humans, but it's not so good for birds.
39:51Every year, tens of thousands of these creatures die
39:54as they try to navigate the city's nighttime mix of darkness, artificial light, and reflective glass.
40:01Some commercial property owners turn off their lights at night during peak migration season
40:06to give the birds a better chance of survival.
40:10But one light here, on the ground, glows 24-7.
40:14You can't miss it when you fly over the southeastern corner of Central Park
40:18and peer down onto Fifth Avenue below.
40:22This is the entrance pavilion to one of the most profitable stores in the world.
40:28It never closes its doors, which is one reason sales here were nearly a million dollars a day in 2009.
40:35The story goes that Apple's Steve Jobs came up with the original idea for this cube-shaped pavilion,
40:42which turned a once-empty plaza into a futuristic and now famous commercial landmark.
40:48It's one of the millions of lights that make New York City easily visible from space.
40:56Their combined power make New York one of the brightest-lit cities in the world.
41:01And the most intensely lit area of all lies right in the center of Manhattan.
41:06From high above, it almost looks like the Las Vegas Strip has been plunked down in Midtown.
41:12This is the LED glow of Times Square.
41:16It's been the heart of light and advertising in New York City, if not the world, since 1904.
41:23That's when the square's first light bulbs were switched on over a billboard for a popular Tennessee whiskey called Trimble.
41:31Installed at this triangular intersection at Seventh Avenue and Broadway,
41:35the newly-lit sign could be spotted from almost a mile away.
41:40That kind of visibility is why this crossroads is still the dazzling display of multi-story screens,
41:47signs, and computer-controlled LED billboards that it is today.
41:55But all around Times Square, millions of other lights also burn 24-7.
42:01After dark, the tinted windows of the 58-story Trump Tower give it a mysterious glow.
42:09And nearby, lights inside the 96-story tower at 432 Park Avenue
42:14showcase some of the most amazing skyscraper technology on Earth.
42:21Just below the top-floor penthouse are giant dampers that take up three entire floors.
42:28Tall, skinny towers like this one can sway a lot in the wind,
42:32so engineers have installed enormous shock absorbers and counterweights to control the sway.
42:40They're not for safety, but comfort, to help keep the owners of these apartments from feeling woozy
42:46and regretting they shelled out tens of millions of dollars for one of the most spectacular views in the world.
42:53In high-rise office buildings across the city, one reason the lights stay on all night
42:58is so that thousands of maintenance and janitorial staff can finish their hard work before sunrise.
43:06But there are also a few lights without which it would be hard to imagine a New York City night.
43:12They include the 120 triangles that illuminate the signature crown of the Chrysler Building.
43:18And the elaborate displays on top of the Empire State Building, which have made it an icon around the world.
43:27Out in New York Harbor, the torch of the Statue of Liberty burns bright from dusk till dawn.
43:35But there are no lights in New York as meaningful as the two squares that lie at the base of the Freedom Tower
43:42and mark Ground Zero.
43:48They outline the two reflecting pools that have been built inside the footprints of the former Twin Towers.
43:55These monuments of light and water are part of the National September 11 Memorial.
44:01They honor the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the terrorist attacks of 1993 and 9-11.
44:08At night, these pools and their lights keep guard over Lower Manhattan.
44:14They reassure all New Yorkers, and the world, that what happened here will never be forgotten.
44:25Without its lights, it's hard to imagine a New York City night.
44:32Without its lights, New York City would simply vanish in the night sky.
44:38This entire metropolis would be lost against the dark waters that surround it.
44:44Forty years ago, that's exactly what happened when city residents were suddenly plunged into darkness during a legendary blackout.
44:53On July 13, 1977, a series of lightning strikes caused a massive power failure that lasted 25 hours.
45:01Thousands of people had to be rescued from dark subway tunnels.
45:05Arsonists lit hundreds of fires, and mobs looted close to 2,000 stores.
45:13At the time of the blackout, the city was in a state of panic.
45:19At the time, the city's murder rate was a terrifying six killings a day, and the famous serial killer, the son of Sam, was on the loose.
45:29Many New Yorkers hunkered down inside their homes, too afraid to venture out into the city's pitch-black streets.
45:37A Japanese newspaper captured the feeling at the time with its headline, Panic Grips New York.
45:46Time magazine called it a night of terror.
45:53Today, if there's anyone who takes comfort from New York City's lights, it's those who have to head out after dark to work the night shift when their fellow New Yorkers are sound asleep.
46:07At 2 a.m., an F train winds through Brooklyn.
46:11After its passengers step off at the last station on the line, the conductor still has one more stop to go.
46:19It's a place known as the Coney Island Complex.
46:24Every night, hundreds of subway cars arrive at this facility in Brooklyn.
46:30They fill every track in the yard.
46:33The Coney Island Complex is the largest subway maintenance shop in America.
46:39This is the place where most of the city's subway cars come to get inspected and repaired just in time for the next morning's commute.
46:48Workers at this yard are some of the city's quiet heroes, working the night shift so that millions of their fellow New Yorkers will be able to get to work at sunrise.
46:58Every rider knows what it's like when a train is suddenly pulled from service or breaks down in a dark tunnel between stations.
47:06The reason that doesn't happen more often is because of the hard work done here, 24-7.
47:16When the 2012 Hurricane Superstorm Sandy hit New York City, four feet of salt water flooded the tracks and shorted out the switching system that directs trains in and out.
47:28To keep the complex running, workers had no choice but to operate every switch on every track by hand.
47:35Just as their forebears used to do back in the 19th century.
47:39Seven nights a week, the lights here at the Coney Island Yard burn until dawn as crews race to ensure trains like this one will speed through the system for another 24 hours without a hitch.
47:51In the dark of a New York City night, there are many operations underway without which this metropolis could quickly descend into chaos.
48:02Clearing the streets of waste is one of them.
48:06For most New Yorkers, this transfer station for recyclables, here at a dock in Queens, is out of sight and out of mind.
48:14But just imagine life without it, and the workers who spend their nights helping remove the 12,000 tons of waste that New Yorkers generate every day.
48:28But there is one facility here, designed to celebrate the important role it plays in the daily life of millions of New Yorkers.
48:36This colorful structure may look like a future-proofing wall, but it's not.
48:41This colorful structure may look like a futuristic art museum, but it's actually New York City's largest wastewater processing plant, known as Newtown Creek.
48:52Up to one and a half million gallons of raw sewage from across Brooklyn and Manhattan are processed here every day.
49:00Its oddly shaped stainless steel forms are known as digester eggs.
49:06Inside the eggs, heat and bacteria break down the sewage, digesting it into water, gases, and solid sludge that's dried and later sold as fertilizer.
49:18Residents of Greenpoint could have ended up living next to an industrial eyesore, but the Department of Sanitation hired top engineers to design it, and a French lighting specialist who came up with the idea of making the eggs glow with blue light.
49:33Today, Newtown Creek has become a Brooklyn landmark, and what the city proudly calls a perfect combination of engineering and art.
49:47Ever since it was founded, ingenuity has built New York.
49:53And New Yorkers of all kinds have been pitching in, in remarkable ways, to help their city thrive.
50:02Whether they're risking their lives high in the sky, training to be ready for whatever comes their way, or heading out to work the night shift to keep America's biggest city moving 24-7.
50:19A day in the life of New York City truly is unlike a day anywhere else in the world.
50:32For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org