The New York City Subway System (Building America: Then and Now)
Teeming with a population of 3.5 million at the end of the 19th century, the island of Manhattan couldn't meet the city's demand for rapid transit with its horse-drawn trolleys and elevated train lines. New York City needed a subway system. After four years of digging and diverting miles of utilities and tunneling under the Harlem River, the city's residents celebrated a new era in mass transit on October 27, 1904, with the opening of a nine-mile subway route.
New York City's Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States, with more than 25 million visitors each year. Designed in 1857 by the man who would become America's most famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, and his partner, Calvert Vaux, Central Park was intended to provide New Yorkers with a serene and scenic 'rural' refuge from the noise and bustle of city life. Yet transforming the rocky, swampy park site into the rolling meadows, lush woodlands, and pristine lakes would prove an extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive endeavor.
The Telephone: Wiring America (Building America: Then and Now)
Alexander Graham Bell's request for his assistant to 'come here' revolutionized the way America's citizens communicated with one another. Bell's seemingly humble but transformative invention, the telephone remains a crucial part of daily life and is used by billions of people worldwide every day. With the far-reaching network it spawned, it drew out its most isolated citizens and gathered the populace into a simultaneously intimate and national conversation.
The Empire State Building (Building America: Then and Now)
It was to be a structure like no other - the largest and tallest skyscraper in the world. Initial plans for the Empire State Building called for an Art Deco masterwork to rise 1,000 feet, with 80 stories of rental space. The high-rise was to completely fill the 84,000-square-foot site of the former Waldorf-Astoria, then New York's most opulent hotel. The Empire State Building would, hopefully, accelerate Midtown's stride toward commercial prominence, pulling more business uptown.
The Ultimate Brownie Book: Thousands of Ways to Make America's Favorite Treat, including Blondies, Frostings, and Doctored Brownie Mixes
Thousands of Brownie Recipes Gooey, fudgy, or cakey, flavored with chocolate chips, coconut, or nuts, frosted or enjoyed as is, who doesn't love brownies? In this ultimate guide to America's favorite treat, discover old-time classics such as Chocolate Syrup Brownies and Butterscotch Brownies, and new tastes such as Cranberry Brownies and Malt Brownies.
