The World from Above (2010) - full transcript

our journey begins at Hyde Park mansion

the summer home at the Vanderbilt family

on the Hudson River about a hundred

miles upstream from New York which is

just one of the many great houses

overlooking the river heading south we

take in West Point Military Academy as

well as the famous Golf Club and a

notorious prison facility at Sleepy

Hollow we take a look at the old Dutch

Church in Washington Irving's creepy



tale before looking at two more 19th

century mansions the brother then takes

us down to the city that never sleeps

New York the Hudson River flows for 315

miles through New York and is named

after Henry Hudson who explored it in

1609 in the late 19th century during

what has become known as the Gilded Age

many beautiful large mansions were built

for wealthy industrialists along the

river

Hyde Park mansion with its 54 rooms was

home to Frederick William Vanderbilt and

constructed in the beaux-arts



architectural style from 1895 it was

designed to be a seasonal country

residence the house was very modern at

the time and used concrete and steel in

its construction

electricity came from a private power

house and the house even had hot air

central heating the original estate was

around 600 acres but in 1938 much of the

land and the mansion were donated to the

National Park Service

two miles downriver is the Springwood

estate which is the birthplace home and

burial place of the 32nd President of

the United States Franklin D Roosevelt

the estate was bought by the president's

father in 1866 who then enlarged the

house it was further enlarged in 1915 so

that the yet-to-be president could

entertain his political friends he

designed the two wings himself giving

the house a Colonial Revival style the

Roosevelt Library close to the house was

the first presidential library built in

the United States and was designed by

the President himself in 1939

the Hudson River is still a busy

waterway and navigable for much of its

length with the opening of the Erie

Canal further upstream goods could be

transported between the City of Buffalo

and the Great Lakes and the Port of New

York the success of the waterway led to

industrial growth along the river during

the late 19th century however serious

pollution problems of raw sewage and

industrial wastes followed and it was

only from the 1960s that anti-pollution

legislation finally came into force when

the cleanup effort could begin

environmental protection was also

important for the landscape overlooking

the river the Hudson Highlands was saved

and became a state park joined the mid

20th century as previously the area had

been heavily locked and mined

today the 6,000 acre park with its

proximity to New York City is a popular

destination for day hikes

just downstream is the United States

Military Academy at West Point at the

oldest of the five such academies in the

United States it was founded in 1800 and

two with the motto duty honor country on

the hill above West Point is for Putnam

completed in 1778 to protect the Hudson

join the Revolutionary War it was later

enlarged but had gradually fallen into

disuse by the mid 19th century around

65,000 cadets have graduated from West

Point including several household names

Custer Lee Sherman and Mead from a civil

war from world war ii macarthur Bradley

and Patton and also two presidents

ulysses s grant and dwight d eisenhower

George Washington is celebrated as

America's first commander-in-chief who

won independence for America before the

Academy was founded in West Point's

history there have been 74 recipients of

the Medal of Honor the highest award for

bravery in the United States on the

opposite bank of the Hudson is the first

railroad track to be built in the state

of New York in 1831 the line was

originally called the Mohawk and Hudson

railroad and was built by Frederick

William Vanderbilt whose house we saw

earlier in 1853 the line became part of

the much bigger New York Central

Railroad

today diesel locomotives carry commuters

to and from Grand Central Station in New

York on a 75 mile scenic stretch of

track much of it running right next to

the river in 1996 the Hudson National

Golf Club opened up on the site of an

old estate downstream from West Point

and the mansion easily converted to the

clubhouse the 260 acre site which now

ranks in the top 100 golf clubs in

America offers unrivaled views over the

Hudson River the club is unusual in the

players have to walk the course and only

have use of a golf cart if over 60 years

of age or physically infirm a very

different sort of Club is a few miles

downriver and one that you don't really

want to join Sing Sing Correctional

Facility this maximum-security prison

came into being in 1824 over the years

there have been 614 executions but in

1972 the death penalty was finally

declared unconstitutional in the state

of New York and the electric chair was

removed today the prison houses around

2,000 inmates

in 1996 North Tarrytown was renamed

Sleepy Hollow when residents voted to

have it changed to honor Washington

Irvin story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

published in 1820 which was set in the

town the story is still in print today

over the decades the legend has been

made into several films including Tim

Burton's version in 1999 in the Legend

of Sleepy Hollow the cemetery and old

Dutch Church which is the oldest church

in the state feature prominently in the

tale where Ichabod Crane the new

schoolmaster competes with a rival for

the hand of Katrina Van Tassel when he

leaves a party at the Van Tassel house

he rides his horse gunpowder towards a

wooden bridge close to the church and

cemetery where he sees the Headless

Horseman on the other side Irving writes

in the dark shadow of the Grove on the

margin of the brook he beheld something

huge misshapen black

and towering it stirred not but seemed

gathered up in the gloom like some

gigantic monster ready to spring upon

the traveller Ichabod was never seen

again

but who was the horseman an evil spirit

from the past in search of his head all

was it echo Boggs rival The Legend of

Sleepy Hollow leaves it up to the reader

to decide on a hill above Sleepy Hollow

is one of New York State's most famous

houses built for the industrialist john

d rockefeller who had made a fortune in

the oil business

commanding wonderful views over the

Hudson it is named pyke it derived from

the Dutch word meaning lookout the

Classical Revival house took six years

to complete and was finally finished in

1913 it's six storeys high with the two

basement floors housing all the service

rooms as well as delivery tunnels and

interconnecting passageways the garden

is laid out in a series of terraces and

in the park mature trees were

transplanted at huge cost and placed

into prominent positions the house is

now open to the public and a National

Historic Landmark

in 1952 construction began on the Tappan

Zee Bridge across the Hudson at its

second widest point it's the first

bridge upriver from the city of New York

because it was built at a time of

material shortages during the Korean War

it was only meant to last for 50 years

but together with an increase of traffic

that was never envisaged the cantilever

bridge is beginning to deteriorate and a

new bridge is planned

half a mile from the bridge is a Gothic

Revival house begun in 1838 and today

called Lyndhurst the original house was

smaller and given the nickname Holdings

folly after its builder William holding

because of its unusual architectural

style the second owner George Merritt a

successful businessman doubled the size

of the house in the 1860s and named it

Lindenhurst after the linden trees on

the estate in 1880 the house was

purchased by railroad tycoon Jay Gould

who added the first steel frame

conservatory in the United States

replanted the park and called the house

Lyndhurst the house is still privately

owned

perhaps one of the most unusual

properties to be built during the gilded

period of the late nineteenth century is

this domed octagonal house the armoire

Steiner house it was named after its

first two owners Paul Armour and Joseph

Steiner Paul Armour built the octagonal

house in 1860 but without a dome that

was added by the second owner Joseph

Steiner in the 1870s he also enlarged

the house creating what we see today the

design may well be unique in America and

its exuberant style led to it being

described as the tajmahal of the Hudson

Valley and a pastry chefs nightmare 1976

the house was declared a national

historic landmark our journey is fast

approaching the city of New York and the

river becomes a transport system the

computers

alongside the river and on the border

with New Jersey is the Paris aids

interstate Parkway a major route in and

out of the city and now designated a

national landmark construction began

just after the Second World War in 1947

and was completed ten years later the

parkway takes its name from the New

Jersey Palisades a line of cliffs and

the Hudson and behind the cliffs is the

silhouette of one of the best known and

best loved cities in the world New York

with special permission from New York's

air traffic control center to climb to

5,000 feet the whole of Manhattan is set

out before us Manhattan is one of the

five districts of New York City the

others being the Bronx Queens Brooklyn

and Staten Island but Manhattan the

smallest of the five is the most densely

populated and the heart of the city it's

a major commercial financial and

cultural center of the United States and

the world this or inspiring site with

its myriad of high-rise buildings looks

simply spectacular from the air so one

of the best ways to see New York without

doubt has to be by helicopter and

several companies operate passenger

flights around the city

some of them will include flying out to

the Statue of Liberty surely one of the

most famous statues in the world the

gilded flame held aloft by the Statue of

Liberty has been a symbol of freedom to

millions of people around the world for

over a hundred and twenty years the

statue was to be a gift to the people of

America from the people of France in

1876 in recognition of the friendship

forged join the American Revolution but

also to celebrate the centennial of the

Declaration of Independence

it was agreed that the base would be

funded and built by America and placed

on what is now Liberty Island following

years of hard fundraising in both the US

and France the statue eventually arrived

in New York in 1885 the 350 individual

pieces were packed 214 crates and took

four months to assemble on a new

pedestal on October the 28th 1886 the

dedication ceremony took place in front

of thousands of spectators and in 1984

the Statue of Liberty was declared a

World Heritage Site by the United

Nations close by is in its island the

Gateway for millions of immigrants

arriving in the new world and where

roughly half the population of America

can probably trace their families back

to the center operated between 1892 and

1954 and the small island was gradually

enlarged through land fill until 9/10 of

it was artificial it is now a much

visited museum tourist boats crisscross

the harbor along with various ferries

including the distinctive orange Staten

Island ferries which pass Governors

Island

the name gets back to a time of British

rule when the island was the exclusive

preserve of New York royal governor's

bridges are a distinctive feature of New

York and the verts are no narrows bridge

straddles the entrance to the harbour

and joins Staten Island to Brooklyn the

bridge is named after the Italian

Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano who was

the first European to enter the harbour

in 1524 it was completed in 1964
and at the time was

the longest suspension bridge in the

world

in 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge was the

longest suspension bridge in the world

as well as the first to be built of

steel the pedestrian walkway offers

great views of the city and bridge it

took 16 years to build and claimed the

lives of 20 people including its

designer John a Roebling most died of

caisson disease known today as the bends

after coming up too fast from the

caissons below the East River

the George Washington Bridge is the

first across the Hudson who connects

Washington Heights to Fort Lee in New

Jersey the double-decker bridge was

completed in 1931 and has 14 lanes for

traffic by the year 2007 the bridge was

carrying well over a hundred million

vehicles a year also along the Hudson

River

is the New York passenger ship terminal

which is also known as luxury liner row

before the age of air travel this was

where passengers would arrive at the

great ocean liners from around the world

even today around a million people

arrived by ship each year and get superb

views of the city before docking the

East River separates Manhattan and

Brooklyn on Long Island and was the

busiest shipping channel in the early

part of New York's history the

Williamsburg Bridge was built in 1896

thirteen years after the Brooklyn Bridge

overlooking East River is the United

Nations headquarters built in 1950 and

it stands on is considered to be

international property a mile upstream

and the River forks right under a Hell

Gate Bridge before widening out at

LaGuardia Airport and Rikers Island New

York City's main jail complex the Harlem

River forms part of the Hudson estuary

system and serves as a narrow channel

dividing the Bronx from Manhattan and

over this short stretch of river are

fourteen bridges close by

are the old and new Yankee stadium's the

farthest away built in 1923 and the

nearest in 2006 the best-known open

space in New York must be Central Park

this 770 acre open space was completed

by 1873 and is the most popular park in

the United States one of its creators

Frederick Olmsted said that it was of

great importance as the first real Park

made in this country a democratic

development of the highest significance

it took 16 years to create an involve

planting around 500,000 trees and shrubs

lakes were dark hills created Follies

built formal Gardens laid out and

bridges constructed the only building

encroaching into the perfect rectangle

is the Metropolitan Museum of Art begun

in the 1870s at the southern end of

Manhattan is the financial district

which roughly overlaps the original New

Amsterdam settlement of the 17th century

and right on the end is Battery Park

where the Dutch and then the British had

an artillery fort district is home to

major financial institutions including

the Federal Reserve and the Stock

Exchange it was also home to the twin

towers until the tragedy of 9/11 and

that appalling event meant that the

Empire State Building was once again the

tallest skyscraper in New York

it was built in the Art Deco style in

1931 and is still the 15th tallest

building in the world at twelve hundred

and fifty feet

it was open to dramatic fashion when

President Hoover pushed a button in the

Oval Office in Washington and turned the

lights on

New York comes alive at night and

nowhere is it more brightly lit than

around Times Square

back in 1899 oscar hammerstein built the

victoria and republic theaters and since

then broadway has been at the heart of

entertainment theater goers taken a show

and then eaten drinking one of the many

bars and restaurants the bright lights

welcome everyone

ward off the darkness and reduce a city

where everything seems possible New York

is known as the city that never sleeps a

saying taken from a film of 1924 even

the traffic contributes to the lighting

effect along the streets like long

multi-coloured glowing ribbons buildings

are lit with neon hoardings and some of

the skyscrapers are lit like works of

art none more so than the Chrysler

Building for many people this is the

greatest Art Deco building in the city

and was completed in 1930 at night the

distinctive v-shaped lights which were

fitted when the skyscraper was being

built have become an iconic sight the

flood lighting was added later

seen from the river the city resembles a

magical ocean liner set against a black

sky to dazzle entertain and amaze create

walls of glass sparkle in the night as

the skyscrapers reflect the light from

the streets of the city that never

sleeps

and out in the harbor the Statue of

Liberty watches over the city a light

shining out for the freedom she

represents a perfect place to end this

journey