10 That Changed America

(Rochester, NY) - The popular series 10 That Changed America, airing Tuesdays July 10-24, 2018 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV, explores the nation’s built environment, returns this summer with three new episodes that reveal the fascinating and often untold stories behind America’s streets, monuments and modern marvels. From New York’s Broadway to the Hoover Dam, from Mount Rushmore to the St. Louis Arch, join host Geoffrey Baer on a summer road trip across America as he meets with historians, curators, and guides who share the fascinating backstories behind the iconic streets that connect our nation, the monuments that commemorate our history, and the engineering marvels that transformed our environment and shaped the way we live.

Kicking off the season on July 10 is 10 Streets That Changed America, which reveals how streets and roads have connected the nation, divided communities, and changed the way Americans live, work, and shop. Geoffrey traces the 400-year evolution of New York’s Broadway, from Native American road to Dutch thoroughfare, from theater district to poster child for the “complete streets” movement of the future. Other influential streets include the Boston Post Road, St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and more.

10 Monuments That Changed America on July 17 explores the stories behind ten wholly-original American monuments and the historical moments that inspired them, from the Statue of Liberty to Mount Rushmore, from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the AIDS Quilt. The episode presents the often-contentious battles over the design of these monuments and the ongoing controversies over Confederate monuments throughout the South.

Finally, 10 Modern Marvels That Changed America on July 24 celebrates the visionary engineers who scoffed at the laws of nature, defied the naysayers — and sometimes even gravity — by undertaking amazing feats of engineering. Each story includes a fun physics lesson and a tale of human folly: from the Erie Canal to the Hoover Dam, from the Transcontinental Railroad to the Interstate Highway System.

Stay tuned for the re-airing of 10 Homes That Changed America on July 31. This encore episode highlights ten homes that transformed residential living, from grand estates such as Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, to the pueblos of Taos, New Mexico, and the tenements of 19th century New York. Featuring interviews with architecture critic Paul Goldberger, historian Peter Onuf, and others, 10 Homes that Changed America offers a primer in residential architecture and a fascinating lesson in the history of American domestic life, as the evolving design of these homes over time reveals our changing relationship with nature, technology, and each other.

Picture: Mount Rushmore. 
Credit: Courtesy of Michael Wolforth/WTTW