Modern Marvels - Season 13 (2005)

The history behind Chicago's John Hancock Center.

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A look at how the tools of the cowboy trade came to be and how they are made from past to the present. Among the inventions featured are ropes, saddles, horseshoes, branding technology, guns, Also featured are modern innovations like the use cell phones, ATVs, airplanes, and helicopters. Rodeos are also featured.

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The history, development, and current technologies in car maintenance.

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The story of America's B-2 stealth bomber.

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The history of one of the worlds most popular breakfast foods: cereal including its humble beginnings to its modern plethora of variety.

A look at the first modern war, the American Civil War and how technology pioneered in the 1860s has helped shaped modern warfare.

To stimulate inter-island commerce Japan has an extensive bridge program to provide safer, more reliable transit across the treacherous waters served by ferries. The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge is the longest. This program chronicles the construction of the bridge and explains its unique design aspects including; prefabrication, type of concrete, construction techniques and the design of the anchors and main cables.

Recent archaeology, using regular and modern technology, sheds new light on the Acropolis, the 'citadel' crowning jewel of Ancient Athens, and especially its best-known site, the patron goddess's Parthenon ('virgin') temple. It's actually built over the remnants if older temple site, dwarfing its 'shabby' predecessor. It required staggering costs and efforts, with ingenuity, just getting the marble up from a 'nearby' quarry required an impressive ramp and pulley system. In earthquake-sensitive Greece, that it survived tremors unlike most younger buildings is testimony...

From fingerprints and ballistics to profiling and DNA evidence, see how technology has transformed the art of crime-solving.

A look at the M-16 assault rifle, including design stages and its use in the Vietnam War.

Rising from a stretch of desert with nothing but remoteness to recommend it, Vegas became a glittering wonderland for dreamers. Modern Marvels takes a look at the forces that made Las Vegas a place unlike any on earth.

Trace the history of the Bay icon from Gold Rush era dreams to the 21st century.

The history of military's unsung heros, the battlefield engineers.

Cyrus West Field persues his vision of an instant, reliable transcontinental mode of communication in the mid-1800s.

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Since the creation of black powder in China centuries ago, explosives have been decisive on the battlefield. Follow their incendiary story from ancient times right up to today's plastic demolitions.

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Considered by many to be the most astounding machine ever built, this reusable spaceship is the apex of flight technology. Explore the issues that led to NASA's decision to create an "airplane" to navigate space.

It started as an idea at a French dinner party and became the very symbol of the free world. The story of France's gift to the US reveals a 20-year struggle to design and build the world's largest monument--using paper-thin copper sheets.

Ride on specialized behemoth dump trucks and delve below sea level to view dredging equipment.

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Chronicles one of the most incredible engineering feats of all time--the construction of the 51-mile canal that took 10 years to build and employed over 40,000 workers--6,000 of whom died of yellow fever, malaria, and other horrors.