NaN/100 votes#1 - Trans-Siberian Railroad
Season 10 Episode 1 - Aired 1/1/2003
It’s the longest, most expensive and complicated railroad ever built. Ordered by the Czar in an effort to save his empire and unify his country at the twilight of the 19th century, the Trans-Siberian Railroad nearly tore Russia apart. Intended in part for defense, the railroad provoked a war, crossed great lengths over treacherous terrain, and encountered logistical and economic failures. Ironically, “enemies of the state” built the railroad–men sentenced to hard labor in Siberian prisons.
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NaN/100 votes#2 - Castles & Dungeons
Season 10 Episode 2 - Aired 1/7/2003
Some of the most imposing structures ever built, medieval castles withstood both bloody assaults and the test of time. Designed like machines with nearly every architectural detail devoted to defense, castles represented the perfect fusion of form and function. Journey back to that unruly era as we examine the complexity of their construction and the multipurpose they served–homes to kings and nobles, economic centers, courthouses, treasuries, prisons, and torture chambers.
Director: N/A
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7.2/1024 votes#3 - Ice Road Truckers
Season 10 Episode 3 - Aired 1/30/2003
Based on the book Denison’s Ice Road by Edith Iglauer, the episode detailed the treacherous job of driving trucks over frozen lakes, also known as ice roads, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. After 2000, reruns of the documentary were aired as an episode of the series Modern Marvels instead of Suicide Missions/Dangerous Missions.
Director: N/A
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7.2/1014 votes#4 - Winter Warriors
Season 10 Episode 4 - Aired 1/31/2003
Traces the story of the U.S. Army’s legendary 10th Mountain Division. They were formed after WWII began, specifically to fight in high, rugged mountain conditions. After training in the Colorado Rockies, they were sent to Italy’s Apennines to take on well-entrenched Germans. Using a combination of mountain skills and raw courage, they drove the Germans back, and helped win the war in Italy. Later, former members of the 10th helped create many of the country’s ski resorts, including Aspen and Vail.
Director: N/A
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7.6/1011 votes#5 - Booby Traps
Season 10 Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/2003
All it takes to set off a booby trap is an unsuspecting victim lifting, moving, or disturbing a harmless-looking object. Booby traps continue to worry law enforcement; made from easily acquired items, information detailing their construction and needed materials are accessible through the mail–anonymously! And unlike a land mine, they can be anywhere. We detail the history of booby traps–from the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Greek, and Romans to the Middle Eastern crisis and the War on Terrorism.
Director: N/A
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7.7/1021 votes#6 - The Alcan Highway
Season 10 Episode 6 - Aired 2/11/2003
Today, vacationers travel from British Columbia north through the Yukon Pass on their way to Fairbanks, Alaska, thanks to one 2-lane roadway, the 1,522-mile long Alaska Highway. A bit treacherous in spots and best driven in the few summer months the region provides, it's an unrivaled engineering feat that took 11,000 soldiers, nearly 4,000 of them black, only eight months to build! Travel back to 1942 as they bulldoze their way into history while connecting the Lower 48 to the Alaskan Territory.
Director: N/A
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7.1/1010 votes#7 - Twin Towers of the East
Season 10 Episode 7 - Aired 3/4/2003
Rising almost 1,500 feet high, the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia were named the world’s tallest in 1996 by the Council on Tall Buildings. Connecticut architect Cesar Pelli blended traditional Islamic motifs with the modern skyscraper to create a beacon to the new Asia. Join us as we tour this gateway to the East, an engineering marvel involving experts from around the globe and the determination of Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad to transform his country into a 21st-century power.
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5.8/108 votes#8 - The Mackinac Bridge
Season 10 Episode 8 - Aired 3/5/2003
Until recently, the Mackinac Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. One of the top engineering marvels of the 20th century, the bridge spans the 4-mile wide straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Huron and Michigan come together. The Mighty Mac connects the pastoral northern mainland of Michigan with the state's heavily forested Upper Peninsula and stands as a testament to the dreams, determination, and hard work of a small few who created a true masterpiece of modern engineering.
Director: N/A
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8.0/1018 votes#9 - Bullet Trains
Season 10 Episode 9 - Aired 3/11/2003
Traveling between 135 and 190 miles per hour with an astonishingly high safety record, bullet trains can be found throughout Europe, Japan, and on the US eastern seaboard. How high-speed trains are propelled is rooted in fundamentals that haven't changed since the first electric trolleys appeared in the 19th century. We see how scientists are looking at new alternatives to electricity, including magnetic levitation that can move passenger trains 345 miles per hour and beyond!
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6.6/1019 votes#10 - Non-Lethal Weapons
Season 10 Episode 10 - Aired 3/13/2003
They stun, debilitate, immobilize–providing police and peacekeepers with options other than shouting or shooting. From the ancient caltrop–a multi-pointed contraption hurled by foot soldiers into a horseman’s path–to sting-ball grenades, electrical shock devices, and sound, light, and energy weapons, we examine non-lethal weapons that disperse crowds and take down criminals. And in a whiff of the future, we see why the government thinks stink bombs might prove useful in the war against terror.
Director: N/A
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7.0/108 votes#11 - Space Stations
Season 10 Episode 11 - Aired 3/14/2003
No description available
Director: N/A
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7.3/1020 votes#12 - Army Corps of Engineers
Season 10 Episode 12 - Aired 3/18/2003
Made up of soldiers and civilians, scientists and specialists in an enormous variety of fields, the US Army Corps of Engineers was created over 200 years ago by Congressional mandate to respond, in peace and war, to the nation's engineering needs. The world's premier engineering and research and development agency, the Corps has blown up, excavated, grated, dredged, and remolded the shape of our continent as we pushed to expand the nation and harness the forces of nature!
Director: N/A
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- 8.0/1020 votes
#13 - Black Hawk: Night Stalker
Season 10 Episode 13 - Aired 3/26/2003
For over 20 years, the Black Hawk has been the U.S. Army’s front-line utility helicopter for air assault, air cavalry, and medical evacuation. The Black Hawk remains today the world’s most advanced twin-turbine military helicopter and flies wherever duty calls, from hot deserts to the icy Arctic. This is the dramatic story of how post-Vietnam, in the 1970s, the U.S. designed and built a new generation of sophisticated helicopters.
Director: N/A
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- 9.2/108 votes
#14 - Japanese Guns of WWII
Season 10 Episode 14 - Aired 3/26/2003
As Japan bombed its way into the Pacific during WWII, Imperial soldiers carried pride, a sense of invincibility, and an arsenal of clumsy and outdated weapons. Convinced that the tactics and tools that led to victory over colonial enemies would be just as effective against the Allies, Japan would see its weaponry lead to defeat.
Director: N/A
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7.9/1017 votes#15 - Titanic Tech
Season 10 Episode 15 - Aired 4/1/2003
Welcome aboard the luxury liner Titanic, the world’s largest ship and pride of the White Star Line. Watertight compartments and a steel-plated hull render it all but unsinkable. Nearly every technological breakthrough of the previous 50 years is employed onboard, providing comfort and safety for passengers and crew. But none of this will matter on April 15, 1912, when the ship bears down on an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sinking within hours with more than 1,500 lives lost. Learn the details of her construction and how the achievements of technology may have masked her vulnerabilities.
Director: N/A
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7.1/1012 votes#16 - Coal Mines
Season 10 Episode 16 - Aired 4/2/2003
Coal–the fuel responsible for more than half the electricity used daily. We unearth the amazing technological advances that have led to today’s extremely efficient methods–from ancient techniques to the simplistic bell-pit method, from drift mining, surface mining, and strip mining to modern longwall mining, when a massive machine extracts an entire wall of coal in seconds. We go underground with miners in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, and also address environmental concerns.
Director: N/A
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- 7.0/1016 votes
#17 - Secrets of the Acropolis
Season 10 Episode 17 - Aired 4/10/2003
With a thrilling combination of dramatic reconstructions and 3-D animation, we step back in time to the Golden Age of Greece and the birth of democracy, to an era of unparalleled human creativity that produced the magnificent architecture on the Acropolis. Powerfully evoking the pagan rituals that made the Acropolis the heart of Athenian life, we explore all four key buildings: the Propylaia, the Erectheion, Athena Nike, and the Parthenon–the most influential building in Western civilization.
Director: N/A
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8.1/1013 votes#18 - Machine Guns
Season 10 Episode 18 - Aired 4/30/2003
No description available
Director: N/A
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7.6/1012 votes#19 - Ball Turret Gunners
Season 10 Episode 19 - Aired 5/1/2003
In war, certain missions demand the most and constitute much of the legends of bravery. Journey back to the Second World War when fearless airmen manned the B-17′s belly guns–glass bubbles that at any moment could become their coffin. The ball turret gunners called their work “flying the ball”, others called it crazy!
Director: N/A
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6.8/1011 votes#20 - U.S. Guns of World War II
Season 10 Episode 20 - Aired 5/8/2003
No description available
Director: N/A
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7.8/108 votes#21 - MiG 15
Season 10 Episode 21 - Aired 5/10/2003
After World War I, Russia began building its most prolific aircraft, the MiG line. MiG pilots fought with distinction in WWII, but the MiG heyday hit with the design of the MiG-15, a copy of a Nazi experimental jet. During the Korean War, MiG-15s dueled with U.S.A.F. F-86s over Korea. Later, the MiG-21 contested the skies over North Vietnam as they duked it out with American Air Force and Navy jets.
Director: N/A
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- 8.3/109 votes
#22 - T-34: Russian Victory
Season 10 Episode 22 - Aired 5/10/2003
Born out of a desperate need to defend the Motherland, Stalin enlisted the ideas of an American engineer, J. Walter Christie, to develop in total secrecy one of the most formidable tanks in history. In 1941, straining under Operation Barbarossa, Stalin ordered his new weapon into the fray and changed the course of WWII. Using detailed reenactments and interviews, we reveal what life was like inside Russia’s “secret” weapon, the T-34, and the horrifying reality of combat on the Eastern Front.
Director: N/A
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8.8/1015 votes#23 - Tank Crews
Season 10 Episode 23 - Aired 5/15/2003
During WWII, American tank crews duked it out with Nazi Panzers in a high-explosive duel to the death. The German tanks had thicker armor and better guns than the mainstay of the U.S. armored forces, the M-4 Sherman. For many crewmen, the Sherman lived up to its nickname as a steel coffin. But what the tanks lacked in firepower and protection, the crews made up for in guts and good old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity. We’ll meet some of these armored warriors from WWII.
Director: N/A
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7.8/1021 votes#24 - Harley-Davidson
Season 10 Episode 24 - Aired 5/21/2003
From humble beginnings in the Davidson family garage to one of the world's most famous companies and a marketing juggernaut, Harley-Davidson is known for one thing American built motorcycles. This program explores the company's history, technological advances, and the culture behind a American original.
Director: N/A
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8.3/1023 votes#25 - Torture Devices
Season 10 Episode 25 - Aired 5/22/2003
For more than 3,000 years, emperors and generals, dictators and police, criminals, clerics, and even medical doctors have created and used a vast array of torture devices–everything from the ancient Greeks' Brazen Bull, which slowly barbecued the victim, to the elaborate mechanical apparatuses of the Spanish Inquisition. A medical doctor who specializes in victims of torture reveals how the human body responds to their use–from the earliest excruciating contrivances to the more modern.
Director: N/A
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The Best Episodes of Modern Marvels Season 10
Every episode of Modern Marvels Season 10 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Modern Marvels Season 10!
HISTORY’s longest-running series moves to H2. Modern Marvels celebrates the ingenuity, invention and imagination found in the world around us. From commonplace items like ink...
Genre:Documentary
Season 10 Ratings Summary
"Trans-Siberian Railroad" is the best rated episode of "Modern Marvels" season 10. It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/1/2003. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Castles & Dungeons".