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The Future of America's Past
Transcontinental
Season 2
Episode 3
High in the Utah desert in 1869, a ceremonial golden spike marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. On the 150th anniversary of this feat, Ed speaks with a National Park Service ranger, a poet, a descendant of a Chinese American railroad builder, and a Native American tribal leader. Together, they paint a portrait of technological triumph—and its human and environmental costs.
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27:02
Young people staged a strike in 1951 to protest segregated public schools.
27:01
Long-simmering tensions between white and black residents in Chicago erupted in violence.
27:02
What did “freedom” mean during the American Revolution?
27:02
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, 110,000 Japanese-American citizens were arrested.
27:02
Texas has long been a place of cross-cultural exchange. How did Texas become Texas?
27:02
In 1911, a factory in New York City burst into flames and 146 workers perished.
27:02
At Virginia’s Fort Monroe, we discover the spot where where slavery began.