Parks play an even more important role than simply offering city dwellers a scenic break from the urban landscape. They provide important ecological and health benefits that help cities like New York and Los Angeles thrive.

46min | Aired on Mar 03, 1999 | TV-PG | CC

Espionage has been used for at least the last 4,000 years. And where there are spies, you find gadgets! We focus on the last 100 years of cloak and dagger technology--from early code-breaking computers to satellite reconnaissance--and take a look at the James Bond-type gadgets of the Cold War.

45min | Aired on Mar 15, 1999 | TV-PG | CC

Check out the latest advances in rescue technology, including a Searchcam system that locates buried victims, and the Jaws of Life that can extricate a person from a crushed car in seconds.

The modern jet engine took us higher and faster. Meet the two scientists who invented it at the same time in two different places.

Discover more about this priceless commodity essential to our very survival. It has over 14,000 uses from de-icing our roads to softening our water.

In antiquity, a hollow reed served as an underwater link to oxygen. As in days of old, humans still need self-contained breathing equipment for a variety of reasons--food-gathering, commercial, recreational, military, and scientific. Dive with the best as we test scuba diving's past, and look to a future of mechanical gills.

46min | Aired on May 24, 1999 | TV-G | CC

Dynamite blasts out the natural resources that have built our modern world.

45min | Aired on Jun 21, 1999 | TV-G | CC

Drilling offshore is to drilling onshore what Ginger Rodgers was to Fred Astaire, she did everything he did except she did it backwards and in high heels. Offshore drilling is one of the greaest technological dances mankind has ever attempted

44min | Aired on Jul 06, 1999 | TV-G | CC

The Hoover Dam is one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world.

Much of New York City's history can be viewed via its bridges--all 18 that connect Manhattan Island to its neighbors. Join us for a look at these architectural masterpieces from the age of iron and steel; and, see how they have changed destinies, linking some to opportunity, others to ruin.

46min | Aired on Aug 02, 1999 | TV-PG | CC

Delve into the secretive, but hugely important, multi-billion-dollar industry of product testing where wrinkles get ironed out and goods are stripped of the marketing and hype to see if they actually work.

46min | Aired on Aug 09, 1999 | TV-PG | CC

The idea of floating to earth from great heights dates back centuries, and from the beginning parachutes combined entertainment with life-saving utility.

46min | Aired on Aug 23, 1999 | TV-G | CC

Discover why the Germans created the Atlantic Wall during the war and learn exactly how they used this fortification to fight and protect themselves from the allied air campaign that was targeting them.

45min | Aired on Sep 13, 1999 | TV-PG | CC

The history of civilization could easily be measured in terms of our ability to make, use, and improve tools--an activity that is at least 4 million years old! At the tip of our toolmaking timeline are power tools. We'll examine today's power tool industry, which is booming thanks to more powerful, lighter, and quieter cordless tools.

Emergency room medicine has only been a recognized specialty since 1989, and it took close to two millennia to get to this point. We'll examine advances that led to the modern emergency room--from the Byzantine's establishment of the first hospitals around 1050 A.D. to today's telemedicine. The prognosis for its future looks good.

46min | Aired on Oct 25, 1999 | TV-PG | CC

To many, motorcycles symbolize freedom.

The history of civilization could easily be measured in terms of our ability to make, use, and improve tools--an activity that is at least 4 million years old! At the tip of our toolmaking timeline are power tools. We'll examine today's power tool industry, which is booming thanks to more powerful, lighter, and quieter cordless tools.

44min | Aired on Nov 23, 1999 | TV-G | CC

Attempts to create modern marvels collapse.

The gaming industry evolves into a high-tech, multi-billion-dollar industry.