Aerial.America.S08E03.Boston.24
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00:00It was founded by religious exiles seeking freedom to practice their faith, made famous
00:08by rowdy revolutionaries who used taxes and tea to wage a fight for independence.
00:16It was from Boston's docks that America's oldest warship first set sail, and where teams
00:23of federal officers patrol the skies today, over the waters where the U.S. Coast Guard
00:29was born.
00:35Bostonians have worked hard for centuries to make their city a cradle of liberty.
00:41They founded the first major public library in the New World, raced against New York to
00:47build the first subway system in the nation, and built institutions that have inspired
00:53millions of minds.
00:56Along the way, they've suffered great tragedy, too.
00:59A deadly gas explosion in the heart of town, a freak industrial disaster that buried 21
01:05people alive, and terrifying attacks unleashed by Islamic terrorists, from which many still
01:12suffer today.
01:16It's one of the nation's most beautiful cities, with a river that winds into the wilderness,
01:22islands that are rich with colorful tales, and powerful works of modern art that inspire
01:28us to think about our changing world.
01:32Its surprising stories never seem to end.
01:36This is Boston.
01:52At 5.30 a.m., just before the sun rises over the Atlantic, it's possible to imagine what
02:20Boston and its harbor looked like thousands of years ago.
02:25A seemingly endless series of islands poking up out of the sea.
02:34They were created by some of the Earth's most powerful forces.
02:43More than 100,000 years ago, giant glaciers swept south across New England, blanketing
02:50what's now Boston.
02:53It was that heavy, grinding ice that sculpted these islands, and carved out a harbor that
02:59later filled with glacial runoff.
03:03Geologists call it the Boston Basin.
03:08For millennia, members of the Massachusett tribe farmed, hunted, and fished here.
03:16But soon after Europeans arrived in the early 17th century, roughly 90% of the Massachusett
03:22people were wiped out by European diseases.
03:28Today, 34 of their former islands lie inside the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation
03:38Area.
03:40None of them are inhabited, except for this one.
03:48Little Brewster Island is the home of Boston Light, the oldest lighthouse in the United
03:53States.
03:56It's also the home of Sally Snowman.
04:01Every day at dawn, she leaves her small house to raise the American flag over this tiny
04:06island.
04:08Sally works for the U.S. Coast Guard and is the 70th keeper of Boston Light.
04:14It was first constructed here in 1716, but British forces blew it up during their retreat
04:20from Boston during the Revolutionary War.
04:23It now towers 89 feet over the entrance to the harbor.
04:31Its 1,000-watt bulb can be seen from up to 27 miles out at sea.
04:38Even in the age of GPS, Boston Light is still a welcome sight for New England sailors battling
04:43Atlantic storms.
04:46Each day at dawn, no matter what the weather, Sally can be spotted up on the top deck, kicking
04:51off a day in Boston just like others before her have done for more than 300 years.
05:07The islands of Boston Harbor get their first rays of morning light, but soon they also
05:15bathe the glass and steel skyscrapers that tower over this fast-growing city.
05:23At night, the population of Boston is just under 700,000, but during the day, it climbs
05:29to more than 1.2 million.
05:33For many commuters, their morning ride into the city is almost like a tour of Boston history.
05:40Some get here by crossing the harbor on the oldest ferry route in the nation.
05:46It runs between the historic neighborhood of Charlestown and Boston's Long Wharf.
05:56Soaring above them is the Custom House clock tower, which was Boston's first skyscraper
06:02and the tallest structure in town when it was built in 1915.
06:08Those who come from the West pass under a neon sign that's become a Boston beacon.
06:14The Citgo sign has been standing on top of this apartment block near Fenway Park since
06:191965.
06:22Many Bostonians can't imagine their city without the familiar sight of this iconic light, which
06:29is why they recently waged a fight to try and win its protection as an historic landmark.
06:35And those who live to the North get to appreciate one of the many mega-projects that have made
06:40Boston a city of engineering marvels, the towering span of the Zaken Bridge.
06:50When it was completed in 2003, it held the title of the widest cable-stayed bridge in
06:56the world.
06:58It carries commuters day and night past TD Garden, home of two Boston champions, the
07:03Bruins and the Celtics.
07:08But those who live south of Boston mark the progress of their morning commute with the
07:13largest piece of copyrighted art in the world.
07:17It was commissioned in 1971 by the Boston Gas Company and is popularly known as the
07:23Rainbow Swash.
07:26Artist Corita Kent first made her design on a miniature model of the tank.
07:30Then 20 painters clamored over the real thing to replicate her work on this much grander
07:36scale.
07:38It's been a pop art icon and a Boston-area landmark ever since.
07:48Some people believe that Kent outlined the bearded profile of Vietnam's communist leader
07:52Ho Chi Minh in her swath of blue paint as a protest against the war in Vietnam.
07:59But Kent always denied that was true.
08:12Greater Boston is full of unusual landmarks, but when it comes to the story of Boston itself,
08:19the most important site lies right in the middle of town.
08:25It's the vast green space of Boston Common and the city's public garden.
08:30This is where Boston was born.
08:35Until the early 17th century, members of the Massachusett tribe called this area Chamont,
08:41which means the place of living water.
08:45Boston's freshwater springs led an English minister named William Blackstone to build
08:50a small cabin here in 1625 at what's now the intersection of Charles and Beacon Streets.
08:56He was Boston's first English resident.
09:05But just five years later, Blackstone suddenly got some neighbors when thousands of religious
09:10freedom seekers suddenly arrived during the start of the Great Puritan Migration.
09:16The Puritans were being persecuted for wanting to reform the Church of England and purify
09:21it of what they saw as corrupting elements and practices of the Catholic faith.
09:30Facing arrest and imprisonment if they stayed in England, they fled to the Massachusetts
09:34coast in 1630 to start their own colony.
09:40The Puritans bought out Blackstone and laid claim to hundreds of more acres along the
09:45Charles River to build their new town.
09:49They named it Boston after the place they'd left behind in England.
09:59But while the Puritans had come seeking religious liberty for themselves, they actively opposed
10:03others with different religious ideas.
10:08With no separation of church and state, they felt it was their right to persecute and prosecute
10:13anyone they deemed a threat to their new colony.
10:18They were even willing to put to death a young woman who disobeyed.
10:27For nearly half a century after they arrived on the Massachusetts coast, the Puritans ruled
10:33Boston with an iron fist.
10:37And it was the Quakers who received most of the Puritans' wrath.
10:42The Quaker belief that one could have a direct personal relationship with God was threatening
10:47to the Puritans, and they became fearful that Quaker ideas would lead to civil unrest.
10:55When a Quaker named Mary Dyer arrived in Boston in 1657 to preach, she was arrested
11:06and banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
11:10But after Dyer repeatedly defied the order, she was captured and brought to Boston Common.
11:19On the morning of June 1, 1660, she was hanged from a tree that stood here, right in the
11:25middle of the Common.
11:30Dyer was one of four Quakers executed because of their religious beliefs.
11:35They are known as the Boston Martyrs.
11:42Their killings mark one of the darkest periods in Boston history.
11:47By the 1680s, strict Puritan ideas had started to fade, and over time, new generations of
11:54Bostonians became more accepting of other religious faiths.
12:02It was during this time that the physical city of Boston started changing in big ways, too.
12:08When Europeans first landed here, Boston was much smaller than it is today.
12:13From the water, it would have looked like just another island in the harbor.
12:18Up until the 17th century, the area that's now downtown Boston was just a hilly peninsula
12:25connected to the mainland by a narrow spit of land.
12:29But massive engineering projects, particularly in the 19th century and after, radically transformed
12:35the city.
12:36Bays, marshes, and parts of the harbor were filled in with earth, increasing Boston's
12:42footprint by a staggering 5,000 acres.
12:47During this time, the city's original hills were also destroyed.
12:53When you fly down the Charles River and approach Boston from the west, tightly packed houses
13:01blanket Beacon Hill, which rises 80 feet over the water below.
13:09Frowning its top is the Gold Dome of the Massachusetts State House.
13:15But Beacon Hill used to be much taller than it is today.
13:20Starting in 1807, workers shaved 60 feet off the top of Beacon Hill so they could use the
13:26dirt to fill in a nearby mill pond.
13:30As the city's original hills steadily disappeared, new neighborhoods were built where there had
13:35been only water and marsh before.
13:43The largest of these new neighborhoods covers a former bay in the Charles River.
13:48That's how Boston's Back Bay got its name.
13:52To pay for the hard work of creating this landfill, contractors sold off lots to wealthy
13:57buyers who built many of the mansions that still stand here today.
14:03They also laid out a wide-treed boulevard down the middle, inspired by the Champs-Élysées
14:08in Paris.
14:16Ever since, Commonwealth Avenue has been one of Boston's most elegant streets.
14:22It was also out of landfill that Boston created the nation's first public botanical garden
14:27in 1837.
14:30And it was in this garden, a few decades later, that an entrepreneur named Robert Paget launched
14:35tourist boats on the garden's lagoon, with enormous swans on their decks.
14:43To power the boats, Paget adapted a new technology of his day, bicycle gears.
14:49His swan boats have been one of Boston's most iconic sights ever since.
14:58The public garden is a big part of why Boston has been named one of the greenest cities
15:03on the East Coast.
15:06It lies at the end of what's known as the Emerald Necklace, a chain of seven connected
15:11parks that wind through the city and its suburbs.
15:15Together, they cover 1,200 acres of land, lakes, and streams.
15:21The Emerald Necklace was the brainchild of the legendary landscape architect Frederick
15:26Law Olmsted.
15:28He settled in the Boston neighborhood of Brookline in 1883.
15:32At the time, Olmsted was already famous for creating Central Park in New York City.
15:39It was here in Brookline where he worked on his designs for the Emerald Necklace and the
15:43Stanford University campus in California.
15:46His house and workshop are now a National Historic Site.
15:55It's 1.30 p.m., and a team from the U.S. Coast Guard is preparing to lift off at an
16:00airport just south of Boston.
16:03They respond to sailors in trouble up and down the New England coast.
16:08But today, they're heading out to conduct surprise inspections of commercial ships to
16:12enforce fisheries regulations and check for smuggled drugs.
16:20On any given day, there are dozens of fishermen working the waters around Boston Harbor.
16:27It's the job of the U.S. Coast Guard to make sure they aren't violating rules about the
16:31size and quantity of their catch.
16:35And with one and a half million tons of cargo moving through the port of Boston every year,
16:40the Coast Guard also has to make sure sailors are sober and aren't smuggling drugs.
16:47Air crews are often sent out to locate vessels for random inspections.
16:52But officers on the water usually do the boarding.
17:00Today's first target is the Sandra Jean, a lobster boat.
17:05As soon as they get the coordinates, the crew on board the cutter Reef Shark heads out to
17:09the location.
17:11The Reef Shark is too big to bring alongside a small fishing vessel, but she's equipped
17:16with a Zodiac that can be launched right from the back of the ship.
17:23These boarding teams never know what they'll find.
17:27In November 2018, law enforcement officers from a Boston-based cutter were part of an
17:32operation that intercepted more than 18 tons of cocaine arriving on boats along the eastern
17:38seaboard.
17:40So random inspections like this one can be full of surprises.
17:49These officers are following a long and proud tradition in the waters off Boston.
17:55It was here where the Coast Guard was born.
17:58It all started with small fleets of rowboats and citizen rowers like these who are getting
18:03ready to launch from the town of Hull.
18:07There are more than 75 known shipwrecks in Boston Harbor.
18:11The oldest date back to the 1600s.
18:15In 1785, a bunch of Bostonians met at a local pub to try and come up with a way to reduce
18:21the deaths of mariners off Boston's shores.
18:24They ended up forming the Massachusetts Humane Society.
18:33The society then gave boats to teams of volunteers who were soon rowing out at all hours and
18:39even in the worst possible storms to try and save lives.
18:49They were members of what became the U.S. Life Saving Service.
18:54After managing to rescue 99% of the sailors they tried to save, they came to be known
19:00as the Storm Warriors.
19:03Today, these rowers are keeping the memory of those early rescue teams alive.
19:15In the early 20th century, the federal government recognized the need for a single, well-equipped
19:20force that could protect and defend America's shores.
19:25In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill to merge two agencies, the U.S. Life
19:31Saving Service and the U.S. Cutter Revenue Service, and create the modern Coast Guard.
19:36Now, more than two centuries old, the Coast Guard is tasked with much more than saving
19:42lives.
19:43It's the only federal law enforcement agency authorized to enforce both U.S. and international
19:49law on the high seas.
19:52Today, surveillance aircraft like this HC-144 are a common sight in the skies over Boston.
20:04But these lobstermen are too busy hauling in their pots to worry about having Coast
20:08Guard crews above and on board.
20:12It's all in a day's work.
20:14Fishermen like the San Reggian's captain, Jeff Carver, have been sharing the waters
20:18off Boston with the Coast Guard for more than 200 years.
20:29Throughout its more than 400-year history, Boston has earned the title America's City
20:34of Firsts.
20:36It started with America's first public school, which the Puritans founded in 1635, just five
20:43years after their arrival.
20:44They named it Boston Latin.
20:47Many famous Americans were educated here, including Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation's
20:51founding fathers, until he dropped out in 1716 at the age of 10.
21:03Puritan leaders also established a seminary in nearby Cambridge in 1636.
21:09They wanted to make sure there would be enough educated clergy to preach to their growing
21:13numbers and to convert the region's remaining Native Americans.
21:20Harvard University was the first institution of higher education in the nation and was
21:25named after Puritan minister John Harvard, one of the school's early benefactors.
21:31This illustrious institution has had its own share of famous dropouts, including Matt Damon,
21:38Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg.
21:47Just south of the city lies the former headquarters of the Boston Globe.
21:53It was in Boston where the first newspapers in North America were published, starting
21:58in 1690.
22:00Boston also founded the nation's first large publicly supported municipal library.
22:08Thanks to its success, the city built this colossal new central branch on Copley Square
22:14in 1895.
22:17Created by many of the finest craftsmen in the nation, it was dubbed a palace for the
22:22people.
22:29But one of the city's most famous firsts came at a terrible price.
22:36Every few minutes, trains appear from this tunnel in Cambridge and race across the Long
22:41Fellow Bridge toward downtown Boston.
22:46Boston's subway trains, known as the T, are one of the city's great claims to fame.
22:53In March 1895, Boston and New York City began an epic race to become the first American
23:00city with a working subway system.
23:08During the 19th century, Boston's population exploded. New immigrants were arriving daily
23:13from across Europe. Many were fleeing starvation in Ireland during the country's Great Potato
23:18Famine.
23:20To address Boston's increasingly overcrowded streets, engineers came up with a plan to
23:25build a London-style subway system.
23:31Many Bostonians opposed the idea, including 12,000 business owners who argued that construction
23:37would wreak havoc on the city.
23:40And they were right.
23:43Soon after the project started, major arteries turned into mud pits as pile drivers loosened
23:48dirt, and horse-drawn carts carried it away so tracks could be laid under the city's streets.
23:56The discovery of more than 900 human remains under Boylston Street, near this 18th-century
24:01cemetery on the Common, led to major delays.
24:06Then, on March 4, 1897, at 1147 a.m., here on the corner of Tremont and Boylston, a street
24:14trolley took a turn and sparks from one of its wheels ignited gas leaking from one of
24:19the new subway's trenches.
24:21The ground shook, and a massive fireball rose 50 feet over this intersection. It damaged
24:26nearby buildings, injured 60 people, and left 10 Bostonians dead.
24:34But, with the project close to completion, Boston forged on with construction.
24:48A few months later, on September 1, 1897, more than 100,000 people finally crowded into
24:55the new Park Street station, and took their first-ever journey by train on the new four-track
25:00line under Boston's streets.
25:06Bostonians had succeeded in beating out New York City in the race to build America's first
25:10subway, but the city's rivalry with New York has continued ever since, especially when
25:19the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox square off here, at Fenway Park.
25:31When the Puritans founded the city of Boston, they made sure there were plenty of meeting
25:35houses for their members to practice their faith.
25:41Almost four centuries later, church steeples remain one of the most familiar sights on
25:46the greater Boston skyline, from the city's north end to the campus of Harvard University.
25:54But many in Boston today would argue that the most popular shrine here isn't a church
26:03at all. It's the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park.
26:10The Red Sox have the oldest park of any Major League Baseball team, and that's why it may
26:14be the source of more legends than any other ballpark in America.
26:20When right-handed hitters at Fenway come to bat, they often aim for the green monster,
26:25which is what Red Sox fans call their green left-field wall.
26:30Some people complain that its 37-foot height has prevented players from hitting home runs.
26:37But when Red Sox legend Ted Williams, a lefty, came to bat on June 9, 1946, he hit the longest
26:44home run in Fenway history. After flying 450 feet, the ball ended up bouncing off the head
26:52of a spectator named Joseph Boucher. The seat where Boucher was sitting has since been painted
26:58red to mark Williams' legendary achievement.
27:06Over its nearly four centuries, Boston has experienced great moments of victory.
27:14But Bostonians have also suffered through enormous tragedy, too.
27:19In 1919, their city was the site of one of America's strangest industrial disasters.
27:27It happened here, on the waterfront, where this community baseball field now stands.
27:34On January 15, at about 12.30 p.m., a colossal tank of molasses, used to make industrial-strength
27:41alcohol, suddenly erupted. A 15-foot-high wave of thick molasses was suddenly racing
27:49down Commercial Street. It buckled an overhead railway line and pushed entire buildings off
27:55their foundations. Twenty-one people died, and it took weeks to find all the bodies.
28:02This freak event led to the first-ever successful class-action lawsuit against a major corporation
28:08in America, and is still remembered in Boston every year.
28:18But the day no Bostonian living today will ever forget is the 117th running of the Boston
28:24Marathon. The race is the oldest marathon in the nation, and dates back to 1897.
28:33It's always run on Patriots Day, a Massachusetts state holiday that celebrates the first two
28:39battles of the Revolutionary War. The marathon is a cherished annual event for the entire
28:45Boston region. It starts in the small Massachusetts town of Hopkinton, and ends here in the Back
28:52Bay.
28:56Today, south of Boston, on the tarmac of a decommissioned airport, stand the remains
29:03of a Hollywood set. The film that was shot here, Patriots Day, stars Mark Wahlberg and
29:12Kevin Bacon. It tells the story of the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath. This set
29:20is a replica of a block on Boylston Street where the bombing occurred.
29:29Today in the Back Bay, the finish line for the Boston Marathon is clearly marked on the
29:34real Boylston Street.
29:38April 15, 2013, was a picture-perfect day across greater Boston. Temperatures were in
29:46the 50s, ideal for long-distance running. But at 2.49 p.m., as a packed crowd was cheering
29:57on the last wave of runners as they were crossing the finish line, a bomb exploded on the sidewalk.
30:06Thirteen seconds later, a second explosion ripped through the crowd in front of these
30:10shops, one block down. The bombs, built from pressure cookers filled with nails, ball bearings,
30:17and explosives, killed three people instantly. They wounded 250 others, 16 of whom lost limbs.
30:26Runners, onlookers, and nearby residents raced to aid the injured. But there was no sign
30:32of the attackers anywhere, as law enforcement and first responders arrived on site.
30:41In the hours that followed, anger, sadness, and fear set in across greater Boston, and
30:51flights in and out of Logan Airport were temporarily grounded. But Bostonians carried on with their
30:59lives, eagerly waiting for news as police scoured CCTV footage to try and identify the
31:06attackers. It wasn't until three days later, at 5 p.m. on April 18th, that the FBI finally
31:16released images of two suspects carrying backpacks. Within a few hours, a campus police officer
31:28named Sean Collier was ambushed and murdered during his shift at MIT in Cambridge. Then,
31:36a man frantically called 911 from this gas station, saying that he just escaped a carjacking
31:42by two brothers who admitted to carrying out the bombings. Using the man's cell phone,
31:49which was still in the car, the police tracked the suspects to nearby Watertown.
31:58A gunfight erupted, but when the younger suspect managed to escape in the vehicle, he ran over
32:04and fatally injured his brother by accident. The next night, just as the police were convinced
32:10the suspect had left the area, the owner of this house in Watertown noticed blood on his
32:15boat in the backyard, and then caught a glimpse of a man hiding inside. The suspect was soon
32:21captured alive. He later pled not guilty, but was convicted on all 30 charges against
32:28him, and was sentenced to die.
32:44There are memorials to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing all across Greater
32:48Boston and even the world.
32:55In April 2015, MIT unveiled a 190-ton granite monument to its slain police officer, Sean Collier.
33:06The Collier Memorial stands on a prominent site, just feet from where he was brutally
33:11murdered. It was designed by MIT architecture professor J. Mi-Jin Yoon. She wanted the memorial's
33:1832 massive, interlocking pieces of granite to be symbols of the strength and unity that
33:25brought members of this community together after the bombings and Collier's death.
33:36The Marathon bombing is one reason that law enforcement in Boston remains on high alert.
33:44Today, an explosive detection team with the city's harbor police is getting ready to inspect
33:49the hull of America's oldest commissioned warship, the USS Constitution. She's about
33:55to head out for a Labor Day sail. It will take a team of three divers to scour her hull
34:02in the cold, dark waters of Boston Harbor. They head under, one by one.
34:14The USS Constitution is still commissioned in the U.S. Navy, but she hasn't been to battle
34:24since 1815. Today, active-duty U.S. Navy sailors and officers serve on her decks.
34:33This three-masted frigate was commissioned by President George Washington in 1794 to
34:39protect American merchant ships from privateers. She was built right here on Boston's docks.
34:49One reason the USS Constitution has survived so well for so long is because her hull is
34:55made from three layers of pine and oak. She earned her nickname Old Ironsides during the
35:03War of 1812 after cannonballs fired from a British ship bounced off her hull and a sailor
35:09declared that her sides are made of iron.
35:17The harbor police give the okay. Old Ironsides has been cleared to sail.
35:33It will take two tugs to escort her out into the harbor.
35:39Constitution has been setting out from Boston's docks for more than 220 years.
35:49She offers today's Navy crews the chance to experience the tough physical work that America's
35:5418th and 19th century sailors had to endure when they sailed Old Ironsides into battle.
36:02She also makes Bostonians proud of their city's role in America's maritime history.
36:18But as soon as she returns to her dock today, she'll serve again as a stop on what's known
36:23as Boston's Freedom Trail.
36:27It winds past 16 sites that all played important roles in the Revolutionary War.
36:34One of them is the Old State House, the second oldest public building in America.
36:41Today it's surrounded by skyscrapers, but in the early 18th century, this was the bustling
36:46heart of political and economic life in Boston. It was also a site of protest.
36:54It was here on March 5, 1770, that a mob of freedom-seeking Bostonians clashed with British
37:00troops who shot five people dead in what's famously known as the Boston Massacre.
37:06The first to die was an African American named Crispus Attucks.
37:11But when rebellious Bostonians gathered peacefully to debate how to fight British rule, they
37:16often came to Faneuil Hall, which is now one of Boston's most visited buildings.
37:22It was a donation to Boston by one of the city's wealthiest residents, Peter Faneuil,
37:27whose fortune was made in part by the trade of enslaved Africans.
37:32Built in 1743 as a marketplace, it also had a great public meeting hall above.
37:38It was here where Bostonians crowded in to hear fiery anti-British speeches by political
37:43leaders like James Otis and Samuel Adams, as they called for an end to the policy of
37:48taxation without representation.
37:52Many who came here ended up carrying out the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
38:05One of the revolutionaries who took part in the Boston Tea Party was a silver and coppersmith
38:09named Paul Revere.
38:13He lived just a few blocks away in this small gray house on 19 North Square.
38:18Built in 1680, it's now the oldest structure in downtown Boston.
38:25Paul Revere may be best known for his famous midnight ride, but he was also a successful
38:30businessman and innovator.
38:34In 1801, he bought this piece of land south of Boston in the town of Canton.
38:40He then launched a new mill to roll copper, a process that was only being done in England
38:45at the time.
38:49It was in this brick factory where Revere milled the thousands of feet of rolled copper
38:54that lined the hull of the USS Constitution, and where his grandsons carried on his business
38:59and cast cannons that were used by Union troops during the Civil War.
39:05Today, this site is being reborn as a museum.
39:18Every September, nearly 140,000 students flood into Boston and the town of Cambridge next
39:23door.
39:26They fill up campuses like this one, Boston College.
39:31Greater Boston is home to the biggest concentration of top-tier research universities in the nation.
39:37And so it's not surprising that college students have made their mark on the city, sometimes
39:42literally.
39:48In fact, it was an MIT student whose fraternity prank in the 1950s led to the colorful graffiti
39:54that now covers the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge.
40:02One night in 1958, a 5-foot-7-inch MIT student named Oliver Smoot, together with his fraternity
40:09buddies, decided to measure the entire length of the bridge by using Smoot's body as a measuring
40:16stick.
40:20They named the unit of measurement a Smoot, and by the time they got to the other side,
40:25they had determined that the bridge was 364.4 Smoots long.
40:36Today, more than 60 years later, incoming members of Smoot's fraternity, Lambda Chi
40:41Alpha, repaint the bridge's markings every 10 Smoots.
40:47The American Heritage Dictionary now defines the word Smoot as a unit of measurement equal
40:52to 5 feet 7 inches, or about 1.7 meters.
41:06Ever since their city was founded, Bostonians have thrived on unconventional ideas.
41:12But some of them have been highly controversial, especially those of a 19th-century Bostonian
41:18named Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the First Church of Christ Scientists.
41:26At 1 p.m. on December 8, 1910, a small group of her followers were gathering here at the
41:32Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge as she was laid to rest.
41:37Guards sealed off the ceremony to the public.
41:47This columned memorial to Eddy, which now holds her crypt, was later commissioned by
41:52her church.
41:55What made Eddy controversial is that she didn't believe in modern medicine.
42:00She was convinced that dedication to Christ was the only cure for illness and sickness.
42:08She called her ideas Christian Science.
42:18Her lectures started drawing more and more followers, and by 1879, they had formed their
42:23own church.
42:26The headquarters of the Church of Christ Scientists is still one of Boston's most prominent buildings
42:31here on Massachusetts Avenue.
42:35At its inception, the church forbid members to consult doctors.
42:40They were told that prayer alone would heal any ailment or wound.
42:45It's a practice that has been slow to change in the church to this day.
42:56But as the Church of Christ Scientists was gaining members in the late 19th century,
43:02Boston was already becoming a leading center for medical research.
43:08In 1906, Harvard University turned a swath of farmland here in Boston into a new campus
43:14for its medical school.
43:20Since then, 15 researchers have won Nobel Prizes for work done here.
43:26Today, it's surrounded by many other state-of-the-art hospitals and research facilities that have
43:31helped make Boston one of the best places to get critical care in the world.
43:41And that's one reason that helicopters like this one are a frequent sight in the skies
43:45over greater Boston.
43:49At every hour of the day and night, pilots and flight nurses working for Boston MedFlight
43:54lift off from their headquarters here at the Hanscom Air Force Base, 13 miles northwest of the city.
44:03They are like modern versions of the life-saving teams that once rode out to rescue shipwrecked
44:08sailors in Boston Harbor.
44:11But these crews race to emergency calls all across New England, roughly 10 times a day.
44:19Whether it's a shark bite in the waters off Cape Cod, a collision with a tree on a ski
44:24slope in Vermont, or a traumatic injury from a pileup on the Massachusetts Turnpike, chances
44:30are patients will end up landing on the helipad of a medical facility in Boston.
44:36Today, this MedFlight crew is delivering a patient to Massachusetts General Hospital.
44:42Within a minute of touching down, the patient is inside.
44:52Every evening, as the sun starts to set over New England's largest city, lighthouse keeper
44:58Sally Snowman is busy at work up on the top deck of Boston Light on Little Brewster Island.
45:12She ends her day by making sure that this 300-year-old sentinel is ready to stand guard
45:18for one more night ahead.
45:21When the winds and waters are calm, Sally has one of the quietest spots in all of Greater Boston.
45:28But inside the city, it's about to get very loud at Fenway Park.
45:35Thousands are gathering, but not for a Red Sox game.
45:38They're here to see Pearl Jam.
45:41Rock and roll is a big part of Boston history.
45:44It was here in the 1970s where Aerosmith was formed and earned its nickname.
45:49And it was in Aerosmith's studio where an MIT graduate named Tom Scholls
45:53first performed his unique sound for Epic Records, which quickly signed him
45:57and his fellow musicians on as the band known ever since as Boston.
46:05Aerosmith has been in the music business for more than 50 years.
46:09He's been in the music business for more than 50 years.
46:12He's been in the music business for more than 50 years.
46:16When you soar across this New England metropolis after sunset,
46:20four centuries of Boston history come alive in a dazzling display of light.
46:27Peering down on Boston Common can almost look like you're peering up at the stars.
46:34And high above Boston's docks, the dial on the Custom House clock tower
46:38is still one of this city's most dazzling lights.
46:41But Boston is a city of modern marvels, too.
46:44And one of them comes alive with color at night.
46:52When engineers set out to come up with a design for the new Zakim Bridge in 2000,
46:56they drew their inspiration from landmarks nearby.
47:01The cables on the bridge were a nod to the 18th century rigging on the U.S.S.
47:06The cables on the bridge were a nod to the 18th century rigging on the U.S.S.
47:13And the design of the bridge's concrete supports were inspired by the four-sided
47:17Bunker Hill monument in nearby Charlestown.
47:21It commemorates the valiant fight of revolutionary militias
47:24against the British Army during the Battle of Bunker Hill.
47:30For close to four centuries,
47:32Bostonians have looked for every way they can to improve their city.
47:36And they've managed to do it in impressive ways.
47:40Not long ago, a noisy, elevated interstate ran right through the city's downtown.
47:46But Bostonians decided to bury the roadway in a mega-multi-billion-dollar tunnel.
47:52The project was called the Big Dig.
47:55Then, they replaced the highway with a more than one-mile-long greenway.
48:00With parks, fountains, and colorful lights like these.
48:05They are part of a playful, interactive art installation called Color Commons.
48:11But tonight, this isn't the only work of art in greater Boston lit up by light.
48:18When you peer down on Harvard Yard in Cambridge,
48:21a strange, circular glow appears between the trees.
48:26It's a temporary installation by artist Teresita Fernandez.
48:32For this work, she drew inspiration from an essay called
48:36Nothing Personal by writer James Baldwin.
48:42Her sculpture is a series of concentric circles
48:45made with thousands of flexible rods that move and make sound in the wind.
48:50During the day, shadows and sunlight play on their surface.
48:54And at night, they glow from light below.
49:04Fernandez named her work Autumn, Nothing Personal, after Baldwin's essay.
49:11She wanted to get students here thinking and talking about how human history
49:16and the world itself are in a constant state of change.
49:24The theme of change is one that people here in greater Boston know well.
49:30They've been fighting for it for nearly 400 years.
49:34From the battles they waged against British forces in the fight for the nation's freedom.
49:39To dazzling new neighborhoods created out of marshes and swamps.
49:45To America's first subway tunnels dug under Boston's busy streets.
49:50And the institutions they founded, which have trained some of the world's most brilliant minds.
49:58Through it all, Bostonians have been proud to tell their city's powerful story
50:04by preserving landmarks that still inspire millions every year.
50:09Sailing ships that make Americans proud.
50:13And keeping some of the nation's oldest traditions and lights burning bright all through the night.
50:24There is simply no city in America that compares to Boston.
50:39For more information visit www.boston.edu
50:44For more information visit www.boston.edu
50:49For more information visit www.boston.edu