6.7/109 votes#1 - The City Beneath Our Feet
Season 7 Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/2000
Beneath every modern city, hidden by manhole covers, drains, and ventilation grates – lies a labyrinth of tunnels, wires, conduits and pipes. They deliver power to our homes, water to our faucets, messages to our loved ones and sometimes – they even move us. Workers create the secret world beneath our feet using everything from shovels, pickaxes and dynamite to multi-million dollar tunneling equipment. The modern subterranean worker, or as they like to be called, “Sandhogs” use time tested methods as well as modern inventions, such as airlocks and computerized mapping techniques to avoid pitfalls and get the job done in the city beneath the street.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1010 votes#2 - Tower Bridge
Season 7 Episode 2 - Aired 1/10/2000
Join us as we span the history of one of the world’s most famous bridges, London’s Tower Bridge. The world’s largest bascule bridge (a counterweighted drawbridge), when it was erected in 1892, it became a postcard image of London. The famed gothic towers of this pioneering steel structure, sheathed in stone, are purely decorative.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.5/1025 votes#3 - The Chunnel
Season 7 Episode 3 - Aired 1/11/2000
The challenge of linking Britain and France with a tunnel under the English Channel was both monumental and delicate. It took 18 months just to design and build the 28 foot diameter TBMs, and nearly a year to assemble and position them underground. Modern Marvels takes you through the entire process from start to finish.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.8/1014 votes
#4 - Space Stations.
Season 7 Episode 4 - Aired 2/3/2000
Join us on an out-of-this-world exploration of the history of long-duration life in space–from the first Soviet station to Skylab to Mir to the International Space Station. Experience what it is like to live in space, as well as the monumental obstacles engineers and astronauts overcame to make it possible.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.8/1020 votes#5 - The Pentagon
Season 7 Episode 5 - Aired 2/26/2000
The pentagon…The name alone conjures up an imposing image of American power and prestige. As the largest office building in the world, it serves as the headquarters of the nation’s armed forces. Every day, more than 24,000 men and women come here to work on the vital and sometimes top secret business of national defense. Beyond the pentagon’s massive size and awesome purpose looms its impenetrable mystique. We’ll take you inside this military institution, national symbol, and modern marvel.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#6 - Bridges.
Season 7 Episode 6 - Aired 2/29/2000
From amazing ancient Roman aqueducts and arch bridges, romantic Renaissance spans, 19th-century railroad crossovers, to monumental marvels of our time, bridges played a key role in the human quest to connect and unify. We'll trace the history of bridge types, including suspension, arch, beam, truss, and cantilever designs.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#7 - Prisons
Season 7 Episode 7 - Aired 3/6/2000
“All hope abandon, ye who enter here!” This sentiment has permeated the masonry and clanging bars of prisons built throughout the ages. We’ll see how the philosophy and architecture of today’s American prisons emerged from the sewer cells and castles and dungeons of ancient Rome, medieval Europe, and 18th-century England.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.4/1010 votes#8 - Great Inventions
Season 7 Episode 8 - Aired 3/13/2000
Join us for a survey of the world’s greatest inventions in which we examine the wheel, steam engine, railroad, automobile, airplane, printing press, electric light, wireless telegraph, telephone, TV, and computer. Then, travel back in time to the labs, candle-lit offices, and garages to see how these marvels were created.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.8/1028 votes#9 - Office Wonders
Season 7 Episode 9 - Aired 3/14/2000
Don’t look now, but your office is a technological marvel. From the humble paper clip to the revolutionary personal computer, your desk is a museum of miracles designed to make you more productive and efficient. Then why are you still at work? Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about your workplace, but were afraid to ask!
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.7/1012 votes#10 - Police Technology
Season 7 Episode 10 - Aired 3/15/2000
When police forces were born in the 1800s, British “bobbies” made due with a billy club. Public wariness and institutional resistance to change held back technological advances for much of the 20th century. But in the last decades, police have been swept up in a technological revolution that has transformed nearly all aspects of crime fighting.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.2/1013 votes
#11 - Disaster Technology
Season 7 Episode 11 - Aired 4/17/2000
An examination of the historical development of technological tools that help science mitigate nature’s fury. It’s a survival story that begins with comprehending the force of disaster. As environmental calamities unfold, viewers witness the urgency for change that each crisis compelled and innovations designed to lower death tolls.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.6/1017 votes#12 - Concrete
Season 7 Episode 12 - Aired 5/8/2000
Modern Marvels explores how the basic formula of cement, aggregate and water has changed the world. Concrete has enabled us to create everything from roads and runways to buildings and bridges. The program will explore the history as well as the future of this humble material?from the ancient Romans, who pioneered its use in their vast system of aqueducts, to modern engineers developing a bendable concrete more resistant to the destructive power of earthquakes.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#13 - Camping Technology
Season 7 Episode 13 - Aired 5/25/2000
As camping technology develops, it provides greater access to diverse outdoor environments. The earliest camping technology was developed out of necessity. Prehistoric man fashioned rudimentary backpacks and clothing out of bark and animal hide. The explorers and pioneers pushed the boundaries of the West in covered wagons, cooking over open fires, and living off the land. When men headed off to war, they returned with new camping gear and lightweight materials, which enabled further exploration. Today’s Himalayan mountaineers depend on carefully engineered clothing, tents, and boots to reach the highest peaks in the world.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.8/109 votes
#14 - Private Planes
Season 7 Episode 14 - Aired 5/31/2000
The plane’s on the runway and revving up for our flight of power and whimsy. The panorama reveals some amazing machines–from vintage aircraft to homemade winged wonders to posh private jets. It’s a tale that merges technological progress and the fantasies of an unique type of person, who refuses to be grounded by earth’s surly bonds.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.9/1015 votes#15 - Race Cars
Season 7 Episode 15 - Aired 6/6/2000
Today, race cars tear up the tracks at 300 m.p.h. Computers and space-age composite materials are as much as part of racing as the drivers. They’re fast, they’re thrilling, and they’ve gone high-tech. We’ll review the history of the innovations that led to today’s technological wonders.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.3/1013 votes#16 - Traffic
Season 7 Episode 16 - Aired 6/12/2000
In less than a century, the world went from dirt tracks to highways, from propeller planes to space travel, from sailboats to supertankers. And in the process, we have created a glut of traffic on roadways, railways, airways, and seaways–traffic that must be controlled, managed, and regulated. We’ll see how it’s done.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.4/1022 votes
#17 - Buses
Season 7 Episode 17 - Aired 6/19/2000
The most opulent are wheeled luxury liners with satellite TV and hot tubs–a far cry from the first bus, an 8-passenger carriage! Watch a bus being built from the ground up, and learn the differences in the standard types (transit, school, inter-city, and specialty). Pack your bags or lunch and travel down the road of bus history.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.5/109 votes#18 - Gold Mines.
Season 7 Episode 18 - Aired 6/22/2000
Around the world and across the eons, gold stands as a symbol of power, wealth, and love. The quest for the yellow metal took men across oceans, into the depths of the Alaskan winter, and miles beneath South African earth. This is the story of the hunters of the precious metal and their methods for extracting it.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.9/1025 votes#19 - Banks.
Season 7 Episode 19 - Aired 7/27/2000
Backbones of worldwide economics, for centuries banks enabled the creation of wealth, and industry leaders became icons. But modern technology revolutionized the way banks do business, and the Internet insures they must adapt or disappear. From banking's early European origins to "e-banking", this is an hour you can't afford to miss!
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.3/109 votes#20 - The Erie Canal
Season 7 Episode 20 - Aired 7/31/2000
The Erie Canal was America’s first superhighway. It was a narrow ribbon of water carved through sheer rock and untamed wilderness. It featured an ingenious network of stone locks and aqueducts. Skeptics called it “Clinton’s Ditch,” but visionaries saw it as the gateway to a gleaming future. An engineering marvel when it was built some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.0/109 votes#21 - Trucks
Season 7 Episode 21 - Aired 8/3/2000
Icons of the open road, trucks form the backbone of the construction and transportation industries. The facility to handle nearly any load and the ability to deliver goods almost anywhere make trucks integral to modern life. From 18th-century steam-powered carriages to tomorrow’s computerized trucks, it’s a long haul you’ll enjoy!
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.4/108 votes#22 - Aswan Dam
Season 7 Episode 22 - Aired 8/14/2000
In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Arab Republic of Egypt’s first prime minister, had a plan to bring his poor country into the 20th century. To pull it off, he needed to harness the flow of the world’s longest river–the Nile. The ambitious plan called for construction of a high dam in southern Egypt at Aswan. But the builders of the pyramids and the Suez Canal were no strangers to large undertakings. We’ll see how the Aswan High Dam socially, politically, culturally, and agriculturally affected Egypt.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1016 votes#23 - China's Great Dam
Season 7 Episode 23 - Aired 8/22/2000
When completed, China’s Three Gorges Dam will tower 607 feet in the air and weigh 40 Great Pyramids. Other than China’s Great Wall, it will be the only man-made object visible from the moon. Supporters see it as key to a new China, controlling floods and bringing hydroelectric power to one of its least-developed areas. Critics voice a litany of concerns–from environmental to flooding the spectacular area for which it’s named. We trace its story–from ancient flood control to current controversy.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1023 votes#24 - The Maginot Line
Season 7 Episode 24 - Aired 9/10/2000
The Maginot Line, a defensive string of large and small forts built during the years between World War I and World War II, was intended to forestall another invasion by aggressive Germany. Despite the Treaty of Versailles, France saw that it was only a matter of time before Germany would rise again and threaten France. News of northern neighbor Belgium’s neutrality left France with an exposed flank, which would ultimately be the Maginot Line’s weak point-the Germans were able to outflank the line almost entirely, readily conceding the Line’s impregnability while conquering the country.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#25 - Video Games: Behind The Fun
Season 7 Episode 25 - Aired 9/12/2000
A fun-filled glimpse into the not so distant history of video games. Since inception, the gaming industry has been a driving force in computer technology and video games are one of today’s dominant entertainment mediums. We’ll talk to creators of many of the most popular games in an hour packed with thrilling visuals from the virtual world of video games.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Modern Marvels Season 7
Every episode of Modern Marvels Season 7 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Modern Marvels Season 7!
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 7 Ratings Summary
"The City Beneath Our Feet" is the best rated episode of "Modern Marvels" season 7. It scored 6.7/10 based on 9 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/3/2000. This episode is rated 1.4 points higher than the second-best, "Tower Bridge".