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The Worst Episodes of Modern Marvels

Every episode of Modern Marvels ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Modern Marvels!

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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 and coffee to architectural masterpieces and engineering disasters, the hit

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Modern Marvels Season 1 Episode 1 - Grand Coulee Dam
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - Grand Coulee Dam

    S1:E1

    The world’s largest concrete dam–and the largest concrete structure in the world–lies on the Columbia River in the State of Washington. B uilt in 1931, it is also one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Modern Marvels Season 1 Episode 2 - The Empire State Building
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    #2 - The Empire State Building

    S1:E2

    The remarkable story of how the landmark New York City skyscraper was constructed during the depths of the Depression. Requiring 10 million bricks and 60,000 tons of steel beams and using a revolutionary technique to hold the steel girders in place–hot rivets–the world’s tallest building was completed four months ahead of schedule.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Modern Marvels Season 1 Episode 3 - The Panama Canal
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - The Panama Canal

    S1:E3

    Chronicles one of the most incredible engineering feats of all time: 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. An earlier, 9-year attempt by the French ended in failure and cost 20,000 lives.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Modern Marvels Season 1 Episode 4 - Cruise Ships
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Cruise Ships

    S1:E4

    A large machine turned water city, cruise ships are exciting and new.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Modern Marvels Season 1 Episode 5 - Transatlantic Cable
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Transatlantic Cable

    S1:E5

    Looks at how one man’s vision and the cooperation between the U.S. and England resulted in an instant, reliable transcontinental mode of communication in the mid-1800s. See how wealthy 33-year-old Cyrus West Field endured many failures and lost millions in his attempt to close the communication gap between the Old and New Worlds.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Modern Marvels Season 1 Episode 6 - Mt. Rushmore.
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Mt. Rushmore.

    S1:E6

    The incredible tale of how Gutzon Borglum created the world's largest sculpture by carving the faces of four US presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln) into the Black Hills of South Dakota. The four figures carved in stone pay tribute to the first 150 years of American history. The hour chronicles the "swiveled pointer" that Borglum put in each president's "head", and how workmen hung like spiders 6,000 feet above the ground to blast away 450,000 tons of rock.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 1 - Balloons
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Balloons

    S2:E1

    Join us for a buoyant trip through the history of balloon flight and a tribute to the fearless pilots and engineers brave enough to push the limits of balloon technology into the next weather front, or the next frontier. We’ll demonstrate their diversified applications and talk to pioneers who designed and flew them.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 2 - The Transcontinental Railroad
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - The Transcontinental Railroad

    S2:E2

    With California finally part of the United States, two rail companies raced to connect the monied East and the promising West. Along the way, fortunes would be made, lives lost, and adversity overcome. This is the story of the largest, most expensive challenge of the 19th century.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 3 - Las Vegas
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Las Vegas

    S2:E3

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 4 - The Eiffel Tower
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    #10 - The Eiffel Tower

    S2:E4

    To the people of France, and to citizens of the world, Gustav Eiffel’s 320-meter Tower is more than an unsurpassed technological and engineering wonder, conceived and built to astound the public at the 1889 Paris Exposition…it is a symbol of triumphant spirit, demonstrating how an innovative metal matrix can form a structure whose posture reinforces an aesthetic of glory.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 5 - Domed Stadiums
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    #11 - Domed Stadiums

    S2:E5

    The domed structure is one of the earliest forms of shelter–from African mud huts to frozen igloos to holy shrines and cathedrals. As a design concept, the shape represents the community under the canopy of heaven; as a technological device, the dome is the most efficient way of controlling an internal environment. And today, as we see here, engineers have enlarged and transformed the ancient concept to build some of the world’s most spectacular structures–domed sports stadiums.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 6 - Gothic Cathedrals
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    #12 - Gothic Cathedrals

    S2:E6

    Built of stone and glass, persistence and prayer, gothic cathedrals are an epiphany of imagination and an articulation of joy. Featured are such masterpieces as Chartres, Notre Dame and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 7 - The Golden Gate Bridge
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    #13 - The Golden Gate Bridge

    S2:E7

    More than 50 years after its construction, the Golden Gate remains one of the world’s greatest engineering marvels. It took 25-million man-hours and 80,000 miles of cable to complete. But the cost in human life proved even greater.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Modern Marvels Season 2 Episode 8 - Ocean Liners
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Ocean Liners

    S2:E8

    With technological advances, our ancient struggle against the sea has turned into a luxurious holiday. Come aboard for a peek at the elegant life on these floating resorts.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 1 - Space Shuttle
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Space Shuttle

    S3:E1

    Considered by many to be the most astounding machine ever built, this reusable spaceship is the apex of flight technology. This program recounts the challenges and the critical issues that led to NASA’s decision to create an “airplane” to navigate space.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 2 - Brooklyn Bridge
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Brooklyn Bridge

    S3:E2

    It was an engineering feat of almost miraculous proportions and a design of spectacular elegance. Rare photographs and behind-the-scenes stories recall the politics, the struggles, and the tragedies that made possible “the Eighth Wonder of the World”.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 3 - Tunnels
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Tunnels

    S3:E3

    There is no more potent demonstration of man’s resolve than the design and construction of tunnels–avenues that slice through a conspiracy of elements in the single-minded determination to connect two points. Whether underwater, blasted through solid rock, or negotiating the shifting strata of earth’s unstable crust, we explore the design and engineering of famous tunnels…and the motivation behind them.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 4 - Tennessee Valley Authority
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Tennessee Valley Authority

    S3:E4

    During the depths of the Great Depression, it was FDR’s greatest triumph: A massive public works project that took a 40,000 square mile, disaster-prone river basin, and turned it into a model of industrial progress.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 5 - Oil
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - Oil

    S3:E5

    From the first well in Pennsylvania to the gushing Spindletop and modern supertankers, the story of oil is the story of civilization as we know it. We’ll take a look at the ingenious and outrageous men who risked everything for “black gold” and unimaginable wealth.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 6 - Silver Mines
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Silver Mines

    S3:E6

    It was called the "mother lode", a deposit of silver so massive that it would produce $300-million in its first 25 years of operation, establish Nevada as a state, and bankroll the Union Army in the Civil War. Named after an early investor, we'll see how the Comstock Lode, discovered near Virginia City, proved to be a scientific laboratory from which vast improvements in mining technology and safety were pioneered, including innovations in drilling, ventilation, drainage, and ore processing.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 7 - The NYC Subway
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - The NYC Subway

    S3:E7

    A trip through time on the New York Subway beginning at the beginning– October 1904. We look at New York before the subway–a world of horse carts and elevated trains. We see early impractical experiments in transportation like the pneumatic subway or the elevated cable car. The program will deal with the technology of the subway, the construction, and financing. We look at subway stations and equipment.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 8 - The Railroads That Tamed the West
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    #22 - The Railroads That Tamed the West

    S3:E8

    The year was 1869 and America had just completed the greatest building achievement in its history–the Transcontinental Railroad. A thin ribbon of steel and wood now connected East and West. But the fledgling country now faced an even greater challenge–how to harness the awesome potential of the railroad to tame the still wide-open and wild West.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 9 - Paving America
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - Paving America

    S3:E9

    The story of the construction of our grand national highway system, from its beginnings in 1912 (it was conceived by auto and headlight tycoons) to its completion in 1984 (when the last stoplight was removed–and buried).

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Modern Marvels Season 3 Episode 12 - The Alaskan Oil Pipeline
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

    S3:E12

    Being starved by an OPEC embargo, America is desperate for oil, and in 1973 construction begins on a 800 mile pipeline, tapping into Alaskan oil to quench their insatiable oil hunger.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Modern Marvels Season 4 Episode 1 - America's Highways
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - America's Highways

    S4:E1

    In 1912, a headlight-maker and an auto magnate built the first cross-country road to spur the demand for new cars; 70 years and $125 billion later, the highway system had grown to 42,000 miles. Rare photographs and interviews tell the incredible story of the “paving of America”.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Grand Coulee Dam" is the worst rated episode of "Modern Marvels". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 12/10/1993. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "The Empire State Building".