A train ride through American history – New Orleans to New York | DW Documentary

[Music] our trip will take us from the deep south of the United States to the east coast majestic locomotives will power us through diverse landscapes will meet local characters go from some towns to the bustling metropolis we'll visit places of great importance in American history and discover small events that shape everyday life the main character of our American adventure is the train that makes its daily journey from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic get ready to climb aboard the Crescent [Music] New Orleans the birthplace of jazz it's a vibrant city on the Mississippi Delta with something for everyone here the present meets the past with its population of around 400,000 New Orleans is not a large city by American standards but it's vibrant and loud [Music] freight trains with a hundred or more cars run right along the riverbank they take several minutes to pass through but the wait is worth it no one's easy darlin Dixie laughs I won't know what to do the seconds I love you Jennifer Jones you are the Jets Queen now that's a New Orleans welcome streetcars have shaped the cityscape of New Orleans for the past hundred and eighty years at first streetcars were powered by horses and steam they're electric now the network once covered 300 kilometres today just 36 kilometres remain there are three lines the st. Charles line is the oldest continuously operating line in the US the riverfront line runs along the edge of the French Quarter and the Canal Street line covers the main street of New Orleans on overcast days when a cool breeze blows New Orleans shows its melancholy side tourists and locals on the streets and squares around st. Louis Cathedral seem unaffected [Music] in the French Quarter the city's oldest neighborhood most of the single and multi-story buildings are made of stone and feature wrought iron balconies the Spanish and French influence is unmistakable New Orleans jazz and blues are inseparable Louis Armstrong and Fats Domino are among the sons of this city to name the two of its greats on noon days the mood may be more relaxed but there's virtually no whether that'll silence the instruments here [Music] [Applause] it's early in the morning on Loyola Avenue it's not far from the main station the New Orleans Union passenger terminal it used to be busier here most passengers now prefer to travel by bus there are just three passenger trains departing New Orleans each day the building dates back to 1954 its walls feature murals of the city's history one depicts the early history of the railroad when steam trains competed with horses the first train started running in America in the early 1830s the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad hosted a special race in the very beginning steam technology was just coming to fruition in England but the bno chose to halt its first passenger cars by horse later several engines were tested and a gentleman named Peter Cooper invented the first American built steam locomotive which was nicknamed Tom Thumb because it was a very small little boxy engine in August of 1830 the story goes that there was a race between this mechanical engine and a horse-drawn car and during the race one of the belts on the wind blower broke on Peter Cooper's engine Tom Thumb and the horse ultimately ran the race but as we know steam technology and motive power would beat the horse in the end we still use the term horse power our trains today have more than four thousand three hundred horsepower each carriage has one steward it's very comfortable passengers can check in from 6:00 in the morning doors open for boarding at half past the Crescent consists of two engines and nine carriages the light is eerily beautiful as the train sets off at 7:00 in the morning [Music] we pass slowly through New Orleans named the Crescent City because of its location on a bend in the Mississippi River [Music] with our fellow passengers we face a 31 hour ride we'll cross 12 states and cover more than 2,200 kilometers on our journey from the Big Easy to the Big Apple [Music] New Orleans is bordered by the Mississippi River to the south and by Lake Pontchartrain to the north a shallow body of water three times the size of Lake Constance three roads and one train line run across the lake on stilts the lake has a friendly face in the morning light that wasn't the case in 2005 since 2006 the Louisiana State Museum has hosted an exhibition about the Huracan history of New Orleans with a special focus on Hurricane Katrina Katrina changed the city one of the great things about the story is the human story behind each of the exhibition's that you'll see in this particular exhibition really express how these people of New Orleans and of the American South came together to rebuild a community it wasn't just the hurricane that caused terrible destruction the levee holding back Lake Pontchartrain crumbled water surged into the city from the north unhindered Katrina changed the life of New Orleans the people physically the way we live and the way we work we were trying to build back this great city and we're having great success there it changed us psychologically to I think the people of New Orleans are more virulent now and I think we're more proud that we were before the storm because of what we survived Tommy Elton Marbury poured out his emotions each day recording the horrific events on the wallpaper of his house [Music] the wreck of the grand piano that belonged to musician Fats Domino hanging above the installation by Mitchell Gaudet who grew up in New Orleans it symbolizes his grief for the 1600 victims glass hands symbolized the willingness of those who were not affected to help to lend a hand [Music] left with our thoughts we head north on our adventure beyond New Orleans we find rural landscapes with forests fields and farms we're approaching Meridian a small town in the state of Mississippi [Music] one of the greatest country music singers in the United States was born here in 1897 the Jimmie Rodgers Museum resembles an old train station Rogers was the third and youngest son of a railroad family the museum is filled with many of his personal items [Music] I'm opening the safe for the Jimmie Rodgers Museum I mean the Jimmie Rodgers guitar that we keeping this safe Jimmie had many guitars this was his final guitar he ordered it shortly after he was discovered one of our guests when he was visiting here he pointed to this hole and he said see this huh you see this hole right here and he kept saying that about four or five times than anyone that's where country music was born right there right there and we like to add American music and another guest said folk music and we now say also American music because Jimmie had such a profound influence on music as a young man Jimmie Rodgers worked for the New Orleans and northeastern railroad as a brakeman among other things soon he was beloved all over the country many of his experiences during his time on the railroad found their way into his songs today Jimmie Rodgers is known only to fans of country music his music came from his work on the railroad and from his farm life and from living in rural Mississippi and traveling around on the train as he traveled from place to place he he loved the railroad he just didn't want to work on the railroad he wanted to sing about the railroad and he's left us many many wonderful songs and we appreciate the great value of his music [Music] Jimmy Rogers only lived to be 35 his short career lasted just six years the singing brakeman died on May the 26th 1933 of tuberculosis a disease he'd picked up during his time on the railroad we leave the roots of country music and Meridian behind lunch has been served in the dining car we're just waiting for dessert there are three time slots available for lunch we chose the middle one half past 12:00 our train has left the state of Mississippi and is traveling through Alabama [Music] in the early 19th century iron ore was mined in the area surrounding Birmingham to bring its industrial history to life for future generations the state of Alabama set up an open-air Museum a few years ago the tan Hill ironworks historical state park not much remained of the historical buildings that's why much was rebuilt using the original plans [Music] it was a boomtown in the late 1800s after the Reconstruction period after the Civil War that's when the iron production really started to get going and towns like Birmingham and that moved from places over here where they were brown or fields to the places more adjacent to the red or fields that were located closer to the Birmingham city limits so most of the production centered there 22 tons of iron were mined here every day in the early 1860s by the end of the Civil War parts of the complex were in ruins but the boom of the iron town of Birmingham was unstoppable so it boomed then about the time of the founding of the city in the 1870s and it picked up through World War one and it kind of peaked in World War two producing stuff for the war effort for World War two and then after the 1960s things like international competition and resource depletion kind of drove the other industries out Birmingham still has a pretty big cast iron pipe industry but then not anymore pig iron as it made here anymore the furnaces are no longer burning but they are impressive reminders of the time when Birmingham was also known as the Pittsburgh of the south Pittsburgh was America's number one Steel City at the time once again ladies and gentlemen our next station stop coming up is Birmingham Birmingham Alabama if Birmingham is your final destination please check for all of your belongings above and below your seats with a population of two hundred and twelve thousand Birmingham is still Alabama's biggest city even though it's lost half of its population as a result of the economic decline of the past fifty years that's evidenced by the many decaying buildings many of them are being pulled down three quarters of all the inhabitants are African Americans just half a century ago these people had to fight for their civil rights the events from back then are still at the forefront of their minds but during that time Birmingham was rigidly segregated the segregation ordinances specifically said that black people and white people cannot play checkers shifts engage in any game it's hard to imagine what that was like now so it was very oppressive and beyond the separation of the races there was really no justice in the legal system for african-americans Birmingham the city of racial segregation in the sixties african-american homes and businesses were bombed earning the city the sobriquet bombing ham for black girls died in 1963 when a Baptist Church was bombed [Music] many of the attacks were committed by the racist hate group the Ku Klux Klan the conflicts finally came to a head and it took decades for the civil rights movement to form so you had 200 years of this oppression based on color based on race and people had accepted that as a way of life and so to make that kind of dramatic shift after generations of racial oppression was very difficult the hope that this ugly chapter in history will finally close is expressed in a plea on the wall of the Baptist Church it reads may man learn to replace bitterness and violence with love and understanding [Music] our train heads further knows we're running slightly behind schedule freight trains have priority since rail companies earn more transporting Freight than they do transporting passengers but in the small town of York Alabama the Crescent has priority and the freight train waits for us to pass freight transport is the main business of the rail industry in the United States seven rail companies share the market Union Pacific is one of the oldest and most successful in the country it has 46,000 employees and turns over 20 billion dollars per year goods are also transported by truck all day and night seven days a week the thin crescent of the moon which also adorns the advertising posters of our train shines brightly in the night sky as our journey continues the Crescent has completed just over a third of its route it travels at an average speed of around 70 kilometers per hour [Music] we're travelling in late autumn so night falls at six o'clock thousands of lights illuminate the darkness Atlanta is the capital city of the state of Georgia the metropolitan area is home to more than five and a half million people and yet the city's train station has just three tracks since 1971 long-distance rail travel in the United States has been in the hands of Amtrak the Crescent is the only passenger train coming through Atlanta that's one train stopping in each direction each day over the past few years the situation has steadily improved for Atlanta it's one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States just two decades ago it hosted the 26th Summer Olympic Games it's still home to a large number of well-known companies [Music] during the night we traveled through South Carolina and now we greet the dawn in North Carolina both are among the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861 and joined the Confederation it's a dark chapter in US history [Music] the railroad town of Spencer also lies on our journey but the Crescent rushes through without stopping train enthusiasts would find a lot to enjoy there because Spencer is home to the North Carolina Transportation Museum which opened in 1985 it's a very lively museum but on the days we are filming engine number five for two is taking a break [Music] the central exhibit here is the round house with 37 slots one of the largest in the United States there are many engines here their museum pieces now nevertheless visitors can get a close-up experience of railway history they learn that the post used to be delivered by train and was sorted during the journey they also learned that the Crescent used to be pulled by a very special machine Southern Railways premier passenger train and it even the southern ran it even after Amtrak was formed we have one of their engines here number 69 hundred it's an e 8 passenger locomotive it's on display in the Roundhouse as famous as any of them yes that ran on the Crescent Larry Brown is a retired University professor he volunteers at the museum he's the man in charge of the Train today we have about 80 volunteers and there are maybe five or six who actually did or do work for a railroad everyone else's came from some other occupation but you like railroads yes you would have to be a diesel train with several carriages makes its way through the grounds three times a day [Music] the Train is full of activity children in particular like it the museum offers many events such as a day with Thomas the Tank Engine that attracts thousands of children and their parents to a museum that was still a small rail Depot in the late 19th century it flourished and with it so too did the small town of Spencer after the first world war two thousand people worked in Spencer's factories in 1940 the first diesel trains arrived 15 years later steam trains were completely out of service in 1960 the Depot ceased operation and the town of Spencer became less important grass grew over the complex the museum helps it recall its former purpose steam engine 611 is being prepped in the Roundhouse it's the famous streamliner of Norfolk and Western it was housed in the museum in Roanoke in Virginia but was moved to Spencer for refurbishment since this footage was taken the 611 was back on the rails again by mid-2015 it was full steam ahead once more the museum cinema features black and white films of the history of the railroad the railway played a significant role in opening up the continent the story of the post train 97 is also mentioned it traveled back and forth between Washington and Spencer every day but it was never to arrive on September the 27th 1903 that journey came to a tragic end on the bridge near North Danville [Music] the Lynchburg online there's a dream on three it was all ninth grade that he loves to air bridge you can see Joe what do you made from what we understand the engineer that day it was his first time operating the Train and there was a section of tracks near a trestle that were notorious for being sharp he approached it at two greatest speed not knowing the route that well in the train derailed and there were several fatalities and that would result in the train not making it here on time the tragedy hasn't been forgotten not least because of the song written about it a short while later 97 my understanding it was the first gold record ever in the United States back several years ago it was a very well folk song was played and been rerecorded over the years and it's a famous railroading song do you know this song I hear it every other day on the little film we have here in the auditorium it was number one in the US charts in October 1924 the record sold more than a million copies a wall in Danville commemorates the disaster [Music] [Music] we've traveled 2/3 of the way to New York during an excursion to the Appalachian Mountains we come across a forestry train that could have existed a hundred years ago for many decades trees felled in the surrounding forests were processed in the small town of Cass West Virginia the forestry trained with its powerful steam engines transported the wood into the valley the Shay locomotive was designed so with all of this operating equipment on the outside of the engine so that two guys my size could carry any broken parts out of the woods and fix it wherever it failed most lumber operations didn't have a large shop like we have they had basically a locomotive and if it broke in the woods they had to fix it where it failed the work looks more romantic on the old photographs than it really was special engines had been developed to transport the timber the Shay was one of them it stands out because of its unusual power train of bevel gears and universal joints [Applause] shoveling coal is a job for strong backs but there's fun to be had too [Music] [Music] entire families cram themselves into the cars at the Cass Scenic Railroad which has been traveling through the forests of West Virginia for half a century to this day it's a popular attraction not surprising with such a landscape enjoy your time here we have to hear about 45 minutes that's all mommy remember when the whistle blows please come back to the train and get back on board so we can maintain our schedule going down the hill bold knob is one of the highest points in West Virginia with an absolutely glorious view [Music] life is old [Music] country singer Jimmie Rodgers was a brakeman and it's still a calling to this day each carriage on this train has a brakeman the work is hard it's a steep descent [Music] we're back on the Crescent and heading through a historic region [Music] just over 150 years ago it was the site of one of the worst tragedies in American history [Music] in the last light of day we can see the battlefield of Manassas the site of the first major battle of the American Civil War thousands of soldiers from the north and the defecting South were killed or wounded in the First Battle of Bull Run or the Battle of first Manassas the conflict which started in a comparatively harmless manner developed into a merciless Civil War that neither side could have anticipated both sides are very enthusiastic about their respective causes but all of them almost without exception are untrained with officers who are either elected politicians or businessmen this is going to be a disaster for both sides many states in the North supported the liberation of slaves the southern states wanted each state to have the power to decide the slavery issue and whether to remain in the Union in early 1861 six states withdrew and formed the Confederate States of America in the presidential election of 1860 Abraham Lincoln won and his policy was no more slavery not to eliminate existing slavery but no more but the southern states understood if slavery could not expand their society and their economy would die I believe that's why there was an American Civil War the American Civil War was the first military conflict to be documented in detail through photographs [Music] the railroad a new technology at the time played a crucial role to put it another way the war came by train the American Civil War was the first conflict all over the world where the railroads became a tactical weapon for a war it moved troops it moved supplies it moved ammunition all over the country to support the war effort on both sides the B&O Railroad was an important player because it ran through both northern territory and southern territory it was the object of many many attacks and so what we see during this four-year period is the development of new technologies things like armored boxcars things like better locomotives things like tactical planning for moving munitions and troops and things like that for the first time in the world and we would see as a result of that experience in later wars in this remote region on April the 9th 1865 following the Battle of Appomattox station the commander of the southern forces general robert e lee surrendered in the last week of the war here in virginia there is a particular railroad the south side railroad that connects Petersburg Virginia all the way to APLA Mattox and beyond to Lynchburg Virginia at Appomattox General Lee had multiple trains full of food waiting for his army just three miles southwest of the courthouse village where we are now however General George Custer and a division of United States cavalry captured all the trains at Appomattox stationed here the next day General Lee surrendered in this village Appomattox Courthouse that ended the Civil War in Virginia and would practically and effectively in the entire American Civil War over the next two months of 1865 during the four years of the Civil War at least 750,000 people military and civilian lost their lives that's almost as many as in all other American wars combined [Music] the real winners at the Civil War were the railroad companies the railway had experienced an incredible boom during the war years being an indispensable part of the transport supply and logistics network this machine known as a ten wheeler was built in 1853 at first it ran in the mountains of Virginia then in the Civil War after that it pulled freight and passenger trains for many years after the war there was a tremendous amount of growth in the railroads in the United States a lot of money was made by the railroads during the war so they expanded their networks and we see the size of the American railroads almost double in less than ten years our next stop is Washington DC the American capital the site of some of the most important institutions at the United States the Washington Monument an obelisk made of white marble Rises 170 meters and can be seen from far and wide it was inaugurated in 1884 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the address of America's most famous building the White House where the president lives and works our stop in Washington's Union Station will be longer than usual because the engine needs to be switched the stretch to New York is electric before arriving we were informed that we could leave the train but we needed to stay closed they don't want to leave any passengers behind an electric locomotive type a em7 replaces the two diesel engines the Crescent leads the station right on time it now makes its way through the Northeast Corridor an electrified stretch of 700 kilometers between Washington and Boston where trains travel at up to 240 km/h the landscape has changed many factories lined the train tracks and every half hour there's another big city Baltimore Maryland Philadelphia Pennsylvania Trenton New Jersey [Music] [Music] finally the skyline of Manhattan comes into view we've reached our destination New York City for the last 4 kilometers the crescent rolls through the Hudson River toll built in 1910 after 31 hours and 45 minutes our journey ends in the underground Penn Station [Music] the Big Apple is captivating it's exhilarating to be here at Times Square in the city that never sleeps [Music] playing the same game only hoping to get to see New York greets 50 million visitors a year the city itself is home to eight and a half million people [Music] it's see you 9:11 the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 on the site of the Twin Towers a memorial commemorates the 2749 victims known colloquially as Freedom Tower the One World Trade Center is the city's tallest building and its newest landmark the crowning end to our journey is the sparkling skyline of New York [Music] you [Music]

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 916,701

Rating: 4.7187452 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, American history, USA, history, Declaration of Independence, Civil Rights Movement, train, train ride, travel, culture, New Orleans, Jazz, New York, civil rights, DW, Deutsche Welle

Id: OntOGcWRvHA

Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 26 2017