1 00:00:01,301 --> 00:00:02,835 NARRATOR: They're watching you. 2 00:00:02,902 --> 00:00:06,071 More than 5,000 satellites circle the Earth. 3 00:00:07,207 --> 00:00:09,308 Every day, they uncover new, 4 00:00:09,376 --> 00:00:12,845 mysterious phenomena that defy explanation. 5 00:00:15,248 --> 00:00:16,882 Revealed from space, 6 00:00:16,950 --> 00:00:20,119 the ghost towns of the twilight zone. 7 00:00:20,186 --> 00:00:23,856 It's like the inhabitants just vanished. 8 00:00:23,923 --> 00:00:26,492 Death stalks America's suburbs. 9 00:00:26,559 --> 00:00:27,760 WALTERS: I've got bad news for you. 10 00:00:27,827 --> 00:00:30,863 There are hundreds of places like this all over the U.S. 11 00:00:30,930 --> 00:00:33,932 NARRATOR: And the atomic ice worm. 12 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,068 RUBEN: Humans have done some pretty weird things. 13 00:00:36,136 --> 00:00:37,569 This is right up there. 14 00:00:37,637 --> 00:00:41,340 NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena, mysteries from space. 15 00:00:41,408 --> 00:00:43,342 What on Earth are they? 16 00:00:43,410 --> 00:00:45,444 [theme music playing] 17 00:01:03,463 --> 00:01:05,798 NARRATOR: June 6th, 2018. 18 00:01:05,865 --> 00:01:08,100 An orbiting satellite passes 19 00:01:08,168 --> 00:01:10,969 over the Eastern European country of Belarus 20 00:01:12,205 --> 00:01:15,040 and captures something disturbing. 21 00:01:15,108 --> 00:01:19,244 HORTON: This image of a town is really weird, 22 00:01:19,312 --> 00:01:22,548 because it looks as if nobody's living there. 23 00:01:22,615 --> 00:01:26,852 It's just been left for nature to reclaim it. 24 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:31,390 When we zoom out, we can see that it's not just this town, 25 00:01:31,458 --> 00:01:33,859 but there are abandoned towns all around it. 26 00:01:33,926 --> 00:01:37,563 Whatever affected this place, it was absolutely immense. 27 00:01:38,631 --> 00:01:41,300 NARRATOR: A mystery event has forced vast 28 00:01:41,367 --> 00:01:44,136 numbers of people to flee their homes. 29 00:01:44,204 --> 00:01:47,639 Something catastrophic seems to have happened here. 30 00:01:47,707 --> 00:01:50,309 There's not a sign of human life anywhere. 31 00:01:50,376 --> 00:01:53,212 It's like the inhabitants just vanished. 32 00:02:05,458 --> 00:02:07,726 NARRATOR: Drawn by the mystery ghost towns, 33 00:02:07,794 --> 00:02:10,028 a team of Dutch urban explorers 34 00:02:10,096 --> 00:02:13,265 is trekking through Belarus to investigate. 35 00:02:14,300 --> 00:02:17,035 To reach the settlements, they must navigate 36 00:02:17,103 --> 00:02:21,173 a restricted area patrolled by guards and beasts. 37 00:02:27,213 --> 00:02:31,016 This whole area has a pretty strong military presence. 38 00:02:32,519 --> 00:02:36,555 Obviously, the authorities are very keen to make sure that 39 00:02:36,623 --> 00:02:41,960 people can't find out what's going on inside this area. 40 00:02:43,196 --> 00:02:45,464 NARRATOR: Belarus has a dark history, 41 00:02:46,799 --> 00:02:48,834 one that could explain the presence 42 00:02:48,902 --> 00:02:52,504 of military personnel around the ghost towns. 43 00:02:52,572 --> 00:02:57,342 HORTON: Belarus was taken over by the Red Army in 1919 44 00:02:57,410 --> 00:02:59,211 at the end of the First World War 45 00:02:59,279 --> 00:03:03,515 and remained a key republic in 46 00:03:03,583 --> 00:03:06,752 the Soviet Union until 1990. 47 00:03:09,756 --> 00:03:10,856 During the Soviet era, 48 00:03:10,924 --> 00:03:13,892 Belarus became kind of a testing ground for lots of 49 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:15,694 Soviet weapons. 50 00:03:15,761 --> 00:03:18,564 SZULGIT: We know that the Soviets did some terrible 51 00:03:18,631 --> 00:03:20,732 experiments with biological weapons in some 52 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,835 of their satellite states, and they weren't afraid to test 53 00:03:23,903 --> 00:03:26,171 these on live subjects. 54 00:03:28,508 --> 00:03:31,043 NARRATOR: As the team navigates their way towards 55 00:03:31,110 --> 00:03:33,779 the ghost towns, death hangs in the air. 56 00:03:39,052 --> 00:03:40,285 [gagging noise] 57 00:03:41,421 --> 00:03:45,424 NARRATOR: The scale of what happened here soon becomes 58 00:03:45,491 --> 00:03:46,525 all too apparent. 59 00:03:46,593 --> 00:03:48,927 SZULGIT: We can see by the infrastructure 60 00:03:48,995 --> 00:03:51,196 that this was a highly populated area. 61 00:03:51,264 --> 00:03:52,965 There were thousands of people living here. 62 00:04:19,659 --> 00:04:21,360 LEVINE: From the satellite, it looks eerie. 63 00:04:21,427 --> 00:04:24,596 But when you actually get in amongst these buildings, 64 00:04:24,664 --> 00:04:29,001 it takes on a kind of post-apocalyptic atmosphere. 65 00:04:31,537 --> 00:04:34,606 HORTON: I can't see any physical damage to these buildings. 66 00:04:34,674 --> 00:04:37,776 So one explanation is that the whole 67 00:04:37,844 --> 00:04:41,446 area has been contaminated by biological agents. 68 00:04:53,326 --> 00:04:55,294 NARRATOR: One of the buildings yields more 69 00:04:55,361 --> 00:04:58,930 possible evidence of Soviet military activity. 70 00:05:15,214 --> 00:05:17,282 We can see tributes 71 00:05:17,350 --> 00:05:20,719 to Lenin everywhere and other Soviet propaganda. 72 00:05:20,787 --> 00:05:22,721 It's absolutely surreal. 73 00:05:26,826 --> 00:05:28,593 NARRATOR: It's clear that the young were 74 00:05:28,661 --> 00:05:30,996 also among the many casualties here. 75 00:05:41,908 --> 00:05:44,343 The presence of gas masks on 76 00:05:44,410 --> 00:05:47,379 the desks of schoolchildren is especially troubling. 77 00:05:47,447 --> 00:05:51,183 What's really creepy is the kids were trained to use 78 00:05:51,250 --> 00:05:53,618 gas masks, but they fled so quickly 79 00:05:53,686 --> 00:05:55,454 that they left their masks behind. 80 00:06:03,296 --> 00:06:05,764 NARRATOR: As the team explores more buildings, 81 00:06:05,832 --> 00:06:09,234 they discover that the people here were indeed exposed to 82 00:06:09,302 --> 00:06:10,969 lethal aerial toxins, 83 00:06:13,239 --> 00:06:17,109 but not ones created by Soviet weapons tests. 84 00:06:22,115 --> 00:06:24,449 This postcard is very easily overlooked. 85 00:06:24,517 --> 00:06:27,152 It's just a scrap of paper with some scrawling on it. 86 00:06:27,220 --> 00:06:30,455 But actually, it becomes very, very significant 87 00:06:30,523 --> 00:06:31,590 if you look at the date. 88 00:06:38,064 --> 00:06:40,165 HORTON: This date is highly significant, because 89 00:06:40,232 --> 00:06:41,967 it's shortly before 90 00:06:42,034 --> 00:06:45,070 the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. 91 00:06:46,706 --> 00:06:48,840 NARRATOR: The towns in the image 92 00:06:48,908 --> 00:06:50,642 and the thousands who lived there 93 00:06:50,710 --> 00:06:54,146 are the forgotten casualties of the most catastrophic 94 00:06:54,213 --> 00:06:56,248 nuclear disaster in history. 95 00:06:58,751 --> 00:07:00,752 This satellite image shows sort of 96 00:07:00,820 --> 00:07:05,190 a lost chapter in the history of Chernobyl. 97 00:07:07,660 --> 00:07:10,228 NARRATOR: That history begins in the early hours of 98 00:07:10,296 --> 00:07:13,131 April 26, 1986, 99 00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:15,000 when engineers begin a safety 100 00:07:15,067 --> 00:07:17,803 test on Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4. 101 00:07:19,839 --> 00:07:23,074 After a drop in power, it becomes unstable, 102 00:07:23,142 --> 00:07:25,811 resulting in a cataclysmic explosion. 103 00:07:25,878 --> 00:07:27,979 [alarm sounding] 104 00:07:28,047 --> 00:07:32,050 The explosion is so massive that it blows 105 00:07:32,118 --> 00:07:35,287 the 1,000-ton lid off of the reactor. 106 00:07:35,354 --> 00:07:38,123 That's the equivalent of three 747 jets. 107 00:07:41,661 --> 00:07:45,096 The ensuing fire burned for 10 days. 108 00:07:45,164 --> 00:07:48,767 So this hot plume of radioactive smoke 109 00:07:48,835 --> 00:07:51,436 was spreading across the globe. 110 00:07:52,505 --> 00:07:55,040 NARRATOR: The blast releases a cloud filled with 111 00:07:55,141 --> 00:07:59,478 190 tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere. 112 00:08:01,781 --> 00:08:05,750 What happened next has long remained shrouded in secrecy. 113 00:08:07,086 --> 00:08:10,422 It is a story of murderous, state-sanctioned coverups 114 00:08:10,456 --> 00:08:13,091 that continue to claim innocent lives. 115 00:08:13,159 --> 00:08:15,894 To this day, we still don't know the number of people 116 00:08:15,962 --> 00:08:18,430 who died in Belarus from the Chernobyl accident. 117 00:08:19,699 --> 00:08:23,568 Because of the secrecy, the consequences of the disaster 118 00:08:23,636 --> 00:08:25,570 are not over now, 119 00:08:25,638 --> 00:08:28,607 but are still present 35 years later. 120 00:08:31,310 --> 00:08:35,380 NARRATOR: Coming up, the ghost town's terrible secret. 121 00:08:35,448 --> 00:08:38,650 There are reports of people coughing up parts of their lung. 122 00:08:38,718 --> 00:08:41,386 NARRATOR: And Rome's lost mega structure. 123 00:08:41,454 --> 00:08:44,089 This is an astonishing feat of engineering. 124 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,435 NARRATOR: Dozens of ghost towns revealed from space 125 00:08:58,771 --> 00:09:00,839 have drawn Dutch urban explorers 126 00:09:00,907 --> 00:09:03,241 to a restricted area of Belarus. 127 00:09:11,784 --> 00:09:13,451 NARRATOR: They have discovered evidence of 128 00:09:13,486 --> 00:09:16,621 tens of thousands of ruined lives, 129 00:09:16,689 --> 00:09:19,224 secret victims of the horrors of Chernobyl. 130 00:09:20,593 --> 00:09:24,162 The Ukraine side of the Chernobyl story 131 00:09:24,230 --> 00:09:26,197 has been well told, 132 00:09:26,265 --> 00:09:29,501 but the Belarus part of that story 133 00:09:29,568 --> 00:09:32,203 remains shrouded in secrecy. 134 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:37,742 NARRATOR: In the hours following the Chernobyl explosion, 135 00:09:37,810 --> 00:09:40,845 the Kremlin learns that a massive radioactive cloud is 136 00:09:40,913 --> 00:09:43,481 moving towards Belarus. 137 00:09:43,549 --> 00:09:47,586 Chernobyl is only about a dozen miles 138 00:09:47,653 --> 00:09:49,621 from the Belarus border. 139 00:09:49,689 --> 00:09:51,523 And because of the weather conditions, 140 00:09:51,591 --> 00:09:56,194 a lot of the radiation was carried into Belarus. 141 00:09:57,630 --> 00:10:01,633 NARRATOR: In an attempt to stop the cloud from reaching Moscow, 142 00:10:01,701 --> 00:10:04,769 the authorities launch an audacious, murderous plan. 143 00:10:06,405 --> 00:10:10,442 Military planes are dispatched to drop shells laden 144 00:10:10,509 --> 00:10:14,379 with silver iodide into the skies above Belarus. 145 00:10:14,447 --> 00:10:19,751 This so-called cloud seeding creates a rainstorm, which pulls 146 00:10:19,819 --> 00:10:22,854 the radioactive dust from the air and down 147 00:10:22,921 --> 00:10:24,356 onto the ghost towns. 148 00:10:26,125 --> 00:10:29,194 It's been estimated that around 70 perfect of 149 00:10:29,261 --> 00:10:33,298 the fallout from Chernobyl actually landed in Belarus. 150 00:10:33,332 --> 00:10:38,236 A quarter of the country became heavily contaminated. 151 00:10:38,304 --> 00:10:41,306 A fifth of all agricultural lands 152 00:10:41,374 --> 00:10:44,476 were left completely unusable. 153 00:10:44,543 --> 00:10:48,013 NARRATOR: When the western world learns of the disaster, 154 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:51,583 the government finally orders the evacuation of hundreds of 155 00:10:51,651 --> 00:10:54,019 square miles of southern Belarus. 156 00:10:56,989 --> 00:10:58,423 Almost overnight, 157 00:10:58,491 --> 00:11:00,959 half a million people leave their homes, 158 00:11:01,961 --> 00:11:06,331 creating an 800-square-mile Cold War time capsule. 159 00:11:07,533 --> 00:11:09,634 MORGAN: This footage is emotional, because people 160 00:11:09,702 --> 00:11:11,736 created lives there 161 00:11:11,804 --> 00:11:14,906 and it's evidence of lives that were shattered 162 00:11:14,974 --> 00:11:16,975 as a result of the Chernobyl accident. 163 00:11:19,512 --> 00:11:23,048 NARRATOR: Those who flee have been exposed to 90 times 164 00:11:23,115 --> 00:11:25,750 the amount of radiation released by the Hiroshima 165 00:11:25,818 --> 00:11:27,218 nuclear bomb. 166 00:11:29,321 --> 00:11:32,357 And as they flee, they begin to die. 167 00:11:33,426 --> 00:11:35,427 LEVINE: Their hair started to fall out. 168 00:11:35,494 --> 00:11:37,495 Their skin turned red as though they had very 169 00:11:37,563 --> 00:11:38,430 bad sunburn. 170 00:11:38,497 --> 00:11:40,432 [coughing] 171 00:11:40,466 --> 00:11:42,300 SZULGIT: There are reports of people coughing up blood 172 00:11:42,368 --> 00:11:44,135 or even parts of their lung. 173 00:11:44,203 --> 00:11:46,738 That's how severe this radiation can be. 174 00:11:51,177 --> 00:11:53,812 NARRATOR: Following the disaster, cancer rates in 175 00:11:53,879 --> 00:11:57,582 Belarus increase by more than 20 fold. 176 00:11:57,650 --> 00:12:01,653 And birth defects rise by 250 percent. 177 00:12:03,055 --> 00:12:05,356 SZULGIT: The high-energy radiation from Chernobyl 178 00:12:05,424 --> 00:12:07,492 can pass right through a person's body, 179 00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:11,029 knocking holes in all of their DNA and their cells along 180 00:12:11,097 --> 00:12:14,466 the way, leading to tissue destruction throughout. 181 00:12:16,502 --> 00:12:20,338 NARRATOR: The exact death toll in Belarus remains unclear, 182 00:12:20,406 --> 00:12:23,341 but it's believed to be in the tens of thousands. 183 00:12:25,211 --> 00:12:28,079 And its government continues to perpetuate 184 00:12:28,147 --> 00:12:32,050 the deadly lies and coverups surrounding the disaster. 185 00:12:32,118 --> 00:12:36,354 Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. 186 00:12:37,423 --> 00:12:41,760 Belarus has been governed by President Lukashenko 187 00:12:41,794 --> 00:12:43,628 since 1994. 188 00:12:45,998 --> 00:12:49,000 NARRATOR: Alexander Lukashenko rose to power soon 189 00:12:49,068 --> 00:12:52,403 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 190 00:12:52,471 --> 00:12:54,939 He rules his people through terror, 191 00:12:55,007 --> 00:12:58,443 deploying death squads and silencing opposition. 192 00:12:58,511 --> 00:13:00,945 SZULGIT: Lukashenko is clearly dangerous. 193 00:13:01,013 --> 00:13:03,448 He ordered the hijacking of an airliner 194 00:13:03,516 --> 00:13:08,686 in May of 2021 to arrest a journalist. 195 00:13:08,754 --> 00:13:11,556 MORGAN: He represents continuation of the old 196 00:13:11,624 --> 00:13:13,725 world of the former Soviet Union. 197 00:13:13,793 --> 00:13:17,495 He is behaving as if the Cold War never ended. 198 00:13:18,564 --> 00:13:22,967 NARRATOR: In 2004, Lukashenko declares that many of 199 00:13:23,035 --> 00:13:25,336 the contaminated zones close to the ghost towns 200 00:13:25,404 --> 00:13:28,173 are fit for human habitation. 201 00:13:30,910 --> 00:13:33,111 Today, some two million people, 202 00:13:33,179 --> 00:13:37,482 including 800,000 children, live in areas with radiation 203 00:13:37,550 --> 00:13:40,151 levels 1,500 times higher than 204 00:13:40,219 --> 00:13:42,453 that found at atomic test sites. 205 00:13:43,989 --> 00:13:48,126 Radiation is one of those insidious things that leaves 206 00:13:48,193 --> 00:13:50,895 no physical trace but lurks 207 00:13:50,963 --> 00:13:54,132 there, hidden in the earth and landscape. 208 00:13:54,199 --> 00:13:56,434 Many of the people in this region have no 209 00:13:56,502 --> 00:13:59,103 other choice but to eat local fruits and vegetables. 210 00:13:59,171 --> 00:14:00,271 And of course, these can be 211 00:14:00,339 --> 00:14:03,241 contaminated with the radioactive fallout 212 00:14:03,309 --> 00:14:04,876 from Chernobyl. 213 00:14:08,514 --> 00:14:09,981 NARRATOR: In this part of the world, 214 00:14:10,049 --> 00:14:15,386 the Chernobyl disaster is far from over, and its specter of 215 00:14:15,454 --> 00:14:18,056 death is still visible from space. 216 00:14:19,558 --> 00:14:23,428 HORTON: The terrifying thing is, with Lukashenko in charge, 217 00:14:23,495 --> 00:14:28,066 what other terrible secrets lie hidden in Belarus? 218 00:14:35,908 --> 00:14:40,645 NARRATOR: Coming up, America's secret starvation experiment. 219 00:14:40,713 --> 00:14:43,114 They found that the physiological side effects 220 00:14:43,182 --> 00:14:44,482 are devastating. 221 00:14:44,550 --> 00:14:46,851 NARRATOR: And terror rises from the ice. 222 00:14:46,919 --> 00:14:50,188 CAVELL: We've got something big, and it 223 00:14:50,256 --> 00:14:53,458 doesn't look to be a natural occurrence. 224 00:15:01,634 --> 00:15:04,035 NARRATOR: July 2019. 225 00:15:04,103 --> 00:15:08,239 Eyes in the sky scan a suburban neighborhood 226 00:15:08,307 --> 00:15:09,507 in Minneapolis. 227 00:15:11,944 --> 00:15:14,679 WALTERS: You've got lakefront homes with jetties, 228 00:15:14,747 --> 00:15:17,181 tree-lined avenues, and then in the middle of it, 229 00:15:17,249 --> 00:15:18,750 You've got what looks like 230 00:15:18,817 --> 00:15:21,986 a pretty nasty chunk of brutalist architecture. 231 00:15:24,456 --> 00:15:26,958 NARRATOR: The crumbling secure facility covers 232 00:15:27,026 --> 00:15:29,294 around 2,500 acres. 233 00:15:29,328 --> 00:15:30,862 JANULIS: In the middle, 234 00:15:30,930 --> 00:15:34,632 we have these square, regimented-looking objects. 235 00:15:34,700 --> 00:15:36,467 They're in a grid, like a checkerboard. 236 00:15:37,503 --> 00:15:40,505 MORAN: This is a really strange ray of squares, 237 00:15:40,572 --> 00:15:44,309 and there's some structure within each one. 238 00:15:44,376 --> 00:15:47,879 NARRATOR: Local historical records offer a clue to 239 00:15:47,947 --> 00:15:52,016 the purpose of the compound's cell-like structures. 240 00:15:52,084 --> 00:15:54,118 In the mid '40s, 241 00:15:54,186 --> 00:15:58,523 the university ran this research experiment in 242 00:15:58,590 --> 00:16:02,193 which they looked at the impacts of starvation. 243 00:16:02,261 --> 00:16:05,630 Is it possible that this area has something to do with 244 00:16:05,697 --> 00:16:07,832 the Minnesota starvation experiments? 245 00:16:12,004 --> 00:16:14,038 NARRATOR: In November 1944, 246 00:16:14,106 --> 00:16:16,040 government-backed scientists in Minneapolis 247 00:16:16,108 --> 00:16:20,178 round up 36 conscientious objectors and subject them to 248 00:16:20,245 --> 00:16:22,280 systematic starvation. 249 00:16:24,950 --> 00:16:28,619 They wanted to see how humans became obsessed with food 250 00:16:28,687 --> 00:16:34,258 and what actions they would take in order to get food. 251 00:16:34,326 --> 00:16:38,396 There was a good reason behind this almost 252 00:16:38,463 --> 00:16:40,031 preposterous experiment, 253 00:16:40,099 --> 00:16:43,768 which was that World War II had really ravaged Europe, 254 00:16:43,836 --> 00:16:45,670 and there were countless people 255 00:16:45,738 --> 00:16:48,573 living on the verge of starvation. 256 00:16:49,708 --> 00:16:51,676 NARRATOR: Over the course of World War II, 257 00:16:51,744 --> 00:16:55,313 famine claims around 20 million lives, and some 258 00:16:55,414 --> 00:17:00,218 prisoners of war must survive on just 600 calories a day. 259 00:17:00,285 --> 00:17:03,488 To replicate these horrors, 260 00:17:03,555 --> 00:17:07,725 researchers cut subjects' food intake in half and force them 261 00:17:07,793 --> 00:17:10,261 to follow strict exercise regimens. 262 00:17:12,631 --> 00:17:15,767 This would have been not much of a problem if it was only 263 00:17:15,834 --> 00:17:17,902 a few weeks -- Most people can handle that. 264 00:17:17,970 --> 00:17:20,872 But this went on for six months. 265 00:17:21,940 --> 00:17:24,308 NARRATOR: As the experiment progresses, 266 00:17:24,376 --> 00:17:27,645 the subjects displayed dramatic declines in physical 267 00:17:27,713 --> 00:17:30,181 and mental abilities. 268 00:17:30,249 --> 00:17:32,884 Some resort to eating pencils. 269 00:17:34,420 --> 00:17:36,220 The psychological effects were far worse 270 00:17:36,255 --> 00:17:38,489 than they ever expected. 271 00:17:38,557 --> 00:17:42,593 FANARA: The men ended up with vivid dreams, 272 00:17:42,661 --> 00:17:44,595 nightmares of cannibalism. 273 00:17:46,231 --> 00:17:49,667 Are we looking at housing, specifically for this study? 274 00:17:52,037 --> 00:17:55,273 NARRATOR: Military journalist Carlo Munoz confirms that 275 00:17:55,340 --> 00:17:58,910 the compound did play a role in World War II, 276 00:17:58,977 --> 00:18:00,812 but in a very different way. 277 00:18:02,281 --> 00:18:05,216 What we're actually looking at here is some 278 00:18:05,284 --> 00:18:08,119 of the remnants of the Twin Cities Ammunition Plant. 279 00:18:09,588 --> 00:18:11,789 This facility was really 280 00:18:11,857 --> 00:18:15,827 a powerhouse, providing the ammunition for U.S. troops 281 00:18:15,894 --> 00:18:18,896 fighting in World War II. 282 00:18:18,964 --> 00:18:22,433 NARRATOR: During the war, the U.S. produces 283 00:18:22,501 --> 00:18:26,003 11 million tons of artillery, equivalent in weight 284 00:18:26,071 --> 00:18:29,440 to 30 Empire State Buildings. 285 00:18:31,276 --> 00:18:34,879 It also churns out over 40 billion rounds of ammunition, 286 00:18:34,947 --> 00:18:38,216 enough to take 10 shots at every person on Earth 287 00:18:38,283 --> 00:18:40,084 at that time. 288 00:18:41,220 --> 00:18:45,523 The 26,000 workers of the Twin Cities Ammunition Plant play 289 00:18:45,590 --> 00:18:49,360 a pivotal role in this conveyor belt of carnage. 290 00:18:49,428 --> 00:18:53,331 The ammunitions they produced here ran the gamut 291 00:18:53,398 --> 00:18:56,067 from bullets, rifles, 292 00:18:56,135 --> 00:18:58,536 and armor-piercing, 293 00:18:58,604 --> 00:19:01,906 all the way to incendiary rounds. 294 00:19:01,974 --> 00:19:05,776 This is a really key kind of military industrial 295 00:19:05,844 --> 00:19:08,579 complex that's part of the Second World War effort 296 00:19:08,647 --> 00:19:10,748 in the fight against Hitler and Japan. 297 00:19:11,783 --> 00:19:15,553 NARRATOR: On average, it takes 45,000 bullets 298 00:19:15,621 --> 00:19:19,323 to kill a single enemy combatant. 299 00:19:19,391 --> 00:19:22,393 Yet such is the scale of production at the Twin Cities 300 00:19:22,427 --> 00:19:24,662 Ammo Plant that, by the end of the war, 301 00:19:24,730 --> 00:19:28,065 millions of rounds remain unused. 302 00:19:28,133 --> 00:19:31,569 So what these squares are, are chambers, they're ammo dumps 303 00:19:31,637 --> 00:19:35,439 where you've got vast amounts of ammunition being stored. 304 00:19:35,507 --> 00:19:39,944 These protective walls were designed to keep any potential 305 00:19:40,012 --> 00:19:42,780 explosion enclosed and from spreading across 306 00:19:42,848 --> 00:19:44,682 the entire facility. 307 00:19:44,750 --> 00:19:47,351 NARRATOR: In the decades following, World War II, 308 00:19:47,452 --> 00:19:50,721 the Twin Cities plant produces ammunition for the wars in 309 00:19:50,789 --> 00:19:52,557 Korea and Vietnam, 310 00:19:54,393 --> 00:19:57,395 wars that claim over eight million lives. 311 00:19:59,831 --> 00:20:01,899 But the bullet factory also brings 312 00:20:01,967 --> 00:20:04,835 death to the suburbs of Minneapolis. 313 00:20:04,903 --> 00:20:08,873 The thing about producing ammunition is it creates a lot 314 00:20:08,941 --> 00:20:11,642 of really toxic by-products, 315 00:20:11,710 --> 00:20:14,712 and a lot of these chemicals end up seeping into the ground 316 00:20:14,780 --> 00:20:16,147 and into the groundwater. 317 00:20:16,215 --> 00:20:20,151 WALTERS: You've got cyanide, you've got hydrocarbons. 318 00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:22,119 You've got God knows what leaching out 319 00:20:22,187 --> 00:20:23,988 of this plant into the water supply 320 00:20:24,022 --> 00:20:26,557 in what should be a really nice unpolluted area. 321 00:20:29,194 --> 00:20:30,328 NARRATOR: For decades, 322 00:20:30,395 --> 00:20:33,297 the factory disposes of huge amounts of carcinogenic 323 00:20:33,365 --> 00:20:34,732 chemicals by dumping, 324 00:20:34,766 --> 00:20:37,335 burying, or burning them on site. 325 00:20:40,105 --> 00:20:44,342 It wasn't just one or two burn pits on the facility. 326 00:20:44,409 --> 00:20:48,179 There were thousands of these fires just smoldering 327 00:20:48,247 --> 00:20:51,616 and releasing these toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. 328 00:20:51,683 --> 00:20:55,886 You look at the Twin Cities plant, and you go, 329 00:20:55,954 --> 00:20:57,321 "Well, I'll be delighted to hear 330 00:20:57,389 --> 00:20:59,390 that's the only one like it in America." 331 00:20:59,458 --> 00:21:00,858 But I've got bad news for you. 332 00:21:00,925 --> 00:21:04,228 There are hundreds of places like this all over the U.S. 333 00:21:07,399 --> 00:21:10,601 NARRATOR: Across the country, munitions disposal 334 00:21:10,669 --> 00:21:14,739 has contaminated more than 40 million acres of soil, 335 00:21:14,806 --> 00:21:17,575 an area bigger than Florida. 336 00:21:18,610 --> 00:21:21,912 At the site in the image, and elsewhere in the U.S., 337 00:21:21,980 --> 00:21:25,950 the deadly legacy of World War II lives on. 338 00:21:26,018 --> 00:21:29,287 Who knows what dangers lie in hundreds 339 00:21:29,354 --> 00:21:31,756 of sites like this across the United States, 340 00:21:31,823 --> 00:21:34,225 and what costs American people will have to 341 00:21:34,293 --> 00:21:40,264 pay with their health and perhaps their lives. 342 00:21:44,469 --> 00:21:48,205 NARRATOR: Coming up, revenge of the ice worm. 343 00:21:48,273 --> 00:21:51,275 RUBEN: What could possibly be lurking under the surface? 344 00:21:51,343 --> 00:21:54,178 And is this something that humans made? 345 00:21:54,246 --> 00:21:58,149 NARRATOR: And the island that changed history. 346 00:21:58,216 --> 00:21:59,884 This is where it all begins. 347 00:22:09,394 --> 00:22:12,296 NARRATOR: January 31st, 2017. 348 00:22:12,364 --> 00:22:15,533 NASA scientists take to the skies 349 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,837 over Greenland as part of Operation Ice Bridge, 350 00:22:19,905 --> 00:22:23,808 humankind's largest ever polar survey. 351 00:22:23,875 --> 00:22:26,544 As radar beams penetrate 352 00:22:26,611 --> 00:22:29,246 remote tundra in the northwest of the country, 353 00:22:29,314 --> 00:22:32,249 the team discovers something unexpected. 354 00:22:32,317 --> 00:22:36,287 We can see the various layers of snow and ice that seem 355 00:22:36,355 --> 00:22:40,424 very smooth and uniform up until there's an anomaly in 356 00:22:40,492 --> 00:22:42,426 the Greenland ice. 357 00:22:42,494 --> 00:22:46,197 We've got something big, and it 358 00:22:46,264 --> 00:22:50,167 doesn't look to be a natural occurrence. 359 00:22:50,235 --> 00:22:52,837 NARRATOR: The data suggests the mystery object is 360 00:22:52,904 --> 00:22:56,107 metallic and could be hundreds of feet long. 361 00:22:56,174 --> 00:22:59,443 RUBEN: What could possibly be lurking 100 feet 362 00:22:59,511 --> 00:23:01,779 under the surface of the ice? 363 00:23:01,847 --> 00:23:04,849 And is this something that humans made? 364 00:23:04,916 --> 00:23:07,485 Whatever is out here was meant to be hidden. 365 00:23:07,552 --> 00:23:09,854 It was meant to be buried. 366 00:23:09,921 --> 00:23:12,690 So it suggests something military. 367 00:23:14,025 --> 00:23:15,426 NARRATOR: Analysts cross-reference 368 00:23:15,494 --> 00:23:18,229 the image coordinates with declassified records. 369 00:23:19,831 --> 00:23:23,467 The anomaly it transpires, is all that remains of one 370 00:23:23,535 --> 00:23:26,537 of the most outlandish projects ever devised 371 00:23:26,605 --> 00:23:27,838 by the U.S. government. 372 00:23:27,906 --> 00:23:31,842 RUBEN: The idea is almost absurdly grandiose. 373 00:23:31,910 --> 00:23:34,145 Humans have done some pretty weird things. 374 00:23:34,212 --> 00:23:36,547 This is right up there. 375 00:23:36,581 --> 00:23:39,884 NARRATOR: The audacious scheme has its origins 376 00:23:39,951 --> 00:23:42,586 in the late 1950s, when the U.S. 377 00:23:42,654 --> 00:23:45,856 turns to Greenland to give it the edge in the battle for 378 00:23:45,924 --> 00:23:47,191 nuclear dominance. 379 00:23:47,259 --> 00:23:49,393 As the Cold War heats up, 380 00:23:49,461 --> 00:23:53,431 the competition is on to be able to achieve 381 00:23:53,465 --> 00:23:55,599 a first strike status. 382 00:23:55,667 --> 00:23:57,568 The U.S. was constantly looking for 383 00:23:57,636 --> 00:24:00,571 novel ways to hide nuclear weapons. 384 00:24:00,639 --> 00:24:02,673 CAVELL: Greenland was gonna be the perfect place, 385 00:24:02,741 --> 00:24:06,043 because it was in striking distance of Moscow. 386 00:24:07,846 --> 00:24:10,614 NARRATOR: The U.S. is aware that soviet spy planes 387 00:24:10,682 --> 00:24:14,885 can identify and target stationary missile silos. 388 00:24:14,953 --> 00:24:17,755 Its solution is to turn Greenland's Ice Sheet 389 00:24:17,822 --> 00:24:21,459 into a giant game of atomic whack-a-mole. 390 00:24:21,526 --> 00:24:24,195 KOUROUNIS: What they came up with was Project Ice Worm, 391 00:24:24,262 --> 00:24:27,097 and the plan was to build a series of 392 00:24:27,165 --> 00:24:28,666 interconnected tunnels 393 00:24:28,733 --> 00:24:32,470 within the Greenland Ice Sheet to store and launch 394 00:24:32,537 --> 00:24:33,804 nuclear missiles. 395 00:24:33,872 --> 00:24:36,240 MORGAN: You would have a nuclear arsenal, 396 00:24:36,308 --> 00:24:38,075 and then you continually moved it. 397 00:24:38,143 --> 00:24:40,911 This would keep the enemy guessing whether or not 398 00:24:40,979 --> 00:24:42,646 there would actually be a missile in it. 399 00:24:43,748 --> 00:24:45,983 NARRATOR: Project Ice Worm's 400 00:24:46,051 --> 00:24:49,620 blueprints called for 2,500 miles of tunnels, 401 00:24:49,688 --> 00:24:51,755 allowing nuclear missiles 402 00:24:51,823 --> 00:24:55,826 to be shuttled between 2,000 subterranean launch silos. 403 00:24:57,162 --> 00:24:58,829 This represents an area about 404 00:24:58,864 --> 00:25:00,998 the size of the state of New York. 405 00:25:01,065 --> 00:25:02,733 This plan is massive. 406 00:25:02,801 --> 00:25:04,869 One small fact about Greenland is that 407 00:25:04,936 --> 00:25:06,770 the United States does not own it. 408 00:25:06,838 --> 00:25:08,873 Greenland belongs to Denmark. 409 00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:12,376 And so the U.S. had to be a little bit deceptive. 410 00:25:12,444 --> 00:25:15,746 KOUROUNIS: So in 1959, the U.S. announces the construction of 411 00:25:15,814 --> 00:25:16,947 Camp Century, 412 00:25:17,015 --> 00:25:20,784 which is to be this elaborate scientific research base 413 00:25:20,852 --> 00:25:23,454 built to study the Greenland Ice Sheet. 414 00:25:26,424 --> 00:25:28,959 NARRATOR: As a cover for Project Ice Worm, 415 00:25:29,027 --> 00:25:32,062 construction of Camp Century begins in June 416 00:25:32,130 --> 00:25:33,597 of the same year. 417 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:36,433 Over the following months, 418 00:25:36,501 --> 00:25:40,604 engineers carve out almost two miles of tunnels and install 419 00:25:40,672 --> 00:25:43,374 homes for 200 personnel. 420 00:25:43,441 --> 00:25:45,509 KOUROUNIS: This was an amazing facility. 421 00:25:45,577 --> 00:25:48,078 There were shops, a church, 422 00:25:48,146 --> 00:25:51,115 even a barbershop, all underneath the ice. 423 00:25:52,150 --> 00:25:54,485 CAVELL: They then had to deal with a source of power. 424 00:25:54,553 --> 00:25:56,754 The best solution, it was believed, was 425 00:25:56,821 --> 00:25:59,323 to bring in a portable nuclear reactor. 426 00:25:59,391 --> 00:26:02,059 NARRATOR: While the project progresses, 427 00:26:02,127 --> 00:26:05,129 the military goes to extraordinary lengths to hide 428 00:26:05,196 --> 00:26:07,798 the truth from the Danish government. 429 00:26:07,865 --> 00:26:12,069 MORGAN: They even sent Boy Scouts to keep diaries on what 430 00:26:12,137 --> 00:26:15,072 their life was like when they stayed under the Ice Sheet. 431 00:26:15,140 --> 00:26:18,075 ANNOUNCER: Two young Boy Scouts from Neodesha, Kansas, 432 00:26:18,143 --> 00:26:21,178 earned their keep as junior scientific aides in 433 00:26:21,212 --> 00:26:22,746 Camp Century. 434 00:26:22,814 --> 00:26:25,182 And these Boy Scouts didn't understand that they were 435 00:26:25,250 --> 00:26:26,483 part of the establishment 436 00:26:26,551 --> 00:26:28,786 of a vast network of nuclear missile 437 00:26:28,820 --> 00:26:30,654 launch platforms. 438 00:26:30,722 --> 00:26:34,358 NARRATOR: But four years into Project Ice Worm, 439 00:26:34,426 --> 00:26:36,694 Camp Century goes into meltdown. 440 00:26:38,330 --> 00:26:40,397 The scientists didn't take into account 441 00:26:40,465 --> 00:26:43,000 the plasticity of the ice 442 00:26:43,068 --> 00:26:46,604 and how much it would actually move and shift over time. 443 00:26:46,671 --> 00:26:50,441 You had tunnels that were cracking and collapsing, 444 00:26:50,508 --> 00:26:52,543 and so what it proved overall was that 445 00:26:52,611 --> 00:26:55,679 this grand ambition of establishing a nuclear launch 446 00:26:55,747 --> 00:26:59,316 site was all silly daydreaming. 447 00:26:59,384 --> 00:27:02,620 NARRATOR: In 1967, 448 00:27:02,687 --> 00:27:06,156 the U.S. abandons Camp Century, and it becomes enveloped 449 00:27:06,224 --> 00:27:07,558 in ice. 450 00:27:07,626 --> 00:27:10,828 But today, as Greenland thaws, 451 00:27:10,895 --> 00:27:14,431 Ice Worm is threatening to rise from its frozen tomb. 452 00:27:15,533 --> 00:27:17,034 If this were to happen, it would 453 00:27:17,102 --> 00:27:20,871 be an absolute disaster for the U.S. military. 454 00:27:20,939 --> 00:27:23,774 There's six million gallons of wastewater generated 455 00:27:23,842 --> 00:27:26,710 from the camp that are still there, locked in the ice, 456 00:27:26,745 --> 00:27:29,279 not to mention radioactive waste from the nuclear 457 00:27:29,347 --> 00:27:31,348 generator that powered the place. 458 00:27:31,416 --> 00:27:35,285 NARRATOR: In this part of Greenland, 459 00:27:35,353 --> 00:27:38,756 the Cold War could yet turn hot. 460 00:27:38,823 --> 00:27:42,526 Scientists locked in a race against time to find a way to 461 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,996 keep this buried city and everything within it 462 00:27:46,064 --> 00:27:47,931 locked within the ice. 463 00:27:47,966 --> 00:27:49,933 RUBEN: Honestly, Project Ice worm is one of 464 00:27:50,001 --> 00:27:52,436 the most insane projects I've ever heard of. 465 00:27:57,976 --> 00:28:01,645 NARRATOR: Coming up, the mystery ancient mega structure. 466 00:28:01,713 --> 00:28:03,847 BELLINGER: It's hard to wrap your head around 467 00:28:03,915 --> 00:28:09,019 the awesome effort required to craft something like this. 468 00:28:09,087 --> 00:28:11,288 NARRATOR: And heist on Nazi headquarters. 469 00:28:11,322 --> 00:28:17,194 It is an almost perfect stealth commando operation. 470 00:28:23,635 --> 00:28:26,336 NARRATOR: January 1st, 2020. 471 00:28:26,404 --> 00:28:29,940 A satellite flies over the west coast 472 00:28:30,008 --> 00:28:32,943 of Italy and captures a bizarre structure 473 00:28:33,011 --> 00:28:35,279 in the landscape. 474 00:28:35,346 --> 00:28:40,017 WALTERS: It looks like a massive purpose-built lake. 475 00:28:40,084 --> 00:28:43,253 But the first thing that stands out here is the shape. 476 00:28:44,689 --> 00:28:46,490 It looks like somebody just took 477 00:28:46,558 --> 00:28:51,528 a cookie cutter and stamped a perfect hexagon. 478 00:28:51,596 --> 00:28:54,298 NARRATOR: The weird, hexagonal lake 479 00:28:54,365 --> 00:28:56,867 covers around 100 acres. 480 00:28:56,935 --> 00:29:00,437 It's surrounded by fields, and this hexagon takes 481 00:29:00,505 --> 00:29:02,272 up the size of, like, three or four. 482 00:29:02,340 --> 00:29:05,209 So this thing is huge. 483 00:29:05,276 --> 00:29:08,312 The lake sits next to the River Tiber, 484 00:29:08,379 --> 00:29:10,013 gateway to Rome, 485 00:29:10,081 --> 00:29:13,117 capital of the most powerful empire of antiquity. 486 00:29:16,254 --> 00:29:18,122 And historical documents reveal 487 00:29:18,189 --> 00:29:19,823 it is a relic of one of its most 488 00:29:19,891 --> 00:29:21,658 extraordinary achievements. 489 00:29:22,861 --> 00:29:26,196 It's hard to wrap your head around the complexity 490 00:29:26,264 --> 00:29:29,466 and the awesome effort required 491 00:29:29,534 --> 00:29:31,602 to craft something like this. 492 00:29:33,138 --> 00:29:35,139 NARRATOR: The structure's story begins 493 00:29:35,206 --> 00:29:37,074 soon after the birth of Christ, 494 00:29:37,142 --> 00:29:40,577 when the Roman Empire enters a period of massive expansion. 495 00:29:40,645 --> 00:29:46,250 ♪ 496 00:29:46,317 --> 00:29:49,753 Rome's population soon reaches one million, 497 00:29:49,821 --> 00:29:54,224 a figure that will not be surpassed for 1,800 years. 498 00:29:54,325 --> 00:29:57,027 Rome is becoming this huge, 499 00:29:57,095 --> 00:29:59,329 what we today call kind of a megalopolis. 500 00:29:59,397 --> 00:30:00,864 It's a mega city. 501 00:30:01,900 --> 00:30:03,801 JANULIS: Rome is undergoing great political 502 00:30:03,868 --> 00:30:05,502 and economic change. 503 00:30:05,570 --> 00:30:08,939 Massive amounts of wealth are suddenly coming into the empire, 504 00:30:09,007 --> 00:30:11,942 and the emperors are ruling as gods. 505 00:30:16,114 --> 00:30:19,116 NARRATOR: But among Rome's masses, discontent is spreading. 506 00:30:20,185 --> 00:30:23,187 The city's growth has created food shortages, 507 00:30:23,254 --> 00:30:24,588 leading to riots. 508 00:30:26,658 --> 00:30:31,195 This burgeoning population needs huge quantities of food 509 00:30:31,262 --> 00:30:33,931 to sustain it, particularly grain. 510 00:30:33,998 --> 00:30:38,502 This grain has to be brought by ship, a lot of it from Egypt. 511 00:30:41,039 --> 00:30:42,539 NARRATOR: To feed Rome, 512 00:30:42,607 --> 00:30:43,974 the emperor needs to bring in 513 00:30:44,042 --> 00:30:48,178 1,000 ships filled with grain every month. 514 00:30:48,246 --> 00:30:51,548 But the city's waterways can't handle that kind of traffic. 515 00:30:51,616 --> 00:30:55,252 So you've got Emperor Claudius, and he's scratching his head. 516 00:30:55,286 --> 00:30:57,788 He's got a problem, because his port 517 00:30:57,856 --> 00:31:00,858 of Ostia is simply too small for Rome. 518 00:31:00,925 --> 00:31:02,192 So what's he gonna do? 519 00:31:04,128 --> 00:31:05,796 To solve this problem, 520 00:31:05,864 --> 00:31:09,266 Emperor Claudius commissions an artificial port, 521 00:31:09,334 --> 00:31:12,469 the Port of Portus. 522 00:31:12,537 --> 00:31:14,705 NARRATOR: For Emperor Claudius, Portus is 523 00:31:14,772 --> 00:31:16,006 an opportunity to both 524 00:31:16,074 --> 00:31:20,177 pacify his restless citizens and create a lasting monument 525 00:31:20,245 --> 00:31:23,547 in honor of his rule. 526 00:31:23,615 --> 00:31:26,984 These emperors had egos, and they had agendas, 527 00:31:27,051 --> 00:31:29,620 and they expressed them architecturally. 528 00:31:29,687 --> 00:31:32,322 Caesar built the Teatro Marcello. 529 00:31:32,390 --> 00:31:35,225 Hadrian built a wall and the Pantheon 530 00:31:35,293 --> 00:31:39,463 and Flavian built the greatest coliseum known to humanity. 531 00:31:43,134 --> 00:31:46,570 NARRATOR: Emperor Claudius chooses the now landlocked area 532 00:31:46,638 --> 00:31:48,639 to the west of the lake for his new port. 533 00:31:49,941 --> 00:31:52,075 He orders the construction of an artificial 534 00:31:52,143 --> 00:31:55,078 harbor big enough to accommodate fleets of ships, 535 00:31:55,146 --> 00:31:58,582 each laden with 500 tons of Egyptian grain. 536 00:32:00,385 --> 00:32:03,320 BELLINGER: This port is on such a large scale, 537 00:32:03,388 --> 00:32:05,589 it's actually almost hard to picture it, 538 00:32:05,657 --> 00:32:09,660 but it helps to imagine that it could hold over 539 00:32:09,727 --> 00:32:11,762 300 ships at one time. 540 00:32:13,131 --> 00:32:17,034 NARRATOR: Construction begins in 46 A.D. 541 00:32:17,101 --> 00:32:19,636 It takes almost 20 years to carve 542 00:32:19,704 --> 00:32:22,839 out the 20-foot-deep, 500-acre basin. 543 00:32:24,008 --> 00:32:25,976 You gotta remember, you're not just building 544 00:32:26,044 --> 00:32:28,245 a hole in the ground -- You're building cays, 545 00:32:28,313 --> 00:32:29,846 temples, houses. 546 00:32:29,948 --> 00:32:32,649 This is like a little city in itself. 547 00:32:34,085 --> 00:32:36,153 NARRATOR: But after a few years, even this 548 00:32:36,220 --> 00:32:39,356 colossal harbor can't sustain the might of Rome. 549 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,362 As Rome's population got even larger, 550 00:32:45,396 --> 00:32:48,632 so it was necessary to build a second harbor. 551 00:32:48,700 --> 00:32:51,702 BELLINGER: This very distinctive hexagonal shape 552 00:32:51,769 --> 00:32:53,337 actually was applied to 553 00:32:53,404 --> 00:32:57,908 the harbor under the Emperor Trajan at around 100 A.D. 554 00:32:57,976 --> 00:33:01,678 HUNT: Today, you can still see the foundations of the giant 555 00:33:01,746 --> 00:33:04,848 warehouses where the goods that came out of the ships 556 00:33:04,916 --> 00:33:06,183 were stored. 557 00:33:09,020 --> 00:33:11,088 NARRATOR: For the next 300 years, 558 00:33:11,155 --> 00:33:14,157 the hexagon lake is the nexus of Rome's trade 559 00:33:14,225 --> 00:33:16,259 with its empire, a hub 560 00:33:16,327 --> 00:33:18,996 connecting Europe with Africa and Asia. 561 00:33:20,932 --> 00:33:22,332 The ships coming in 562 00:33:22,367 --> 00:33:25,669 were supplying Rome's growing population with the food 563 00:33:25,737 --> 00:33:28,205 it needed, but also with 564 00:33:28,272 --> 00:33:32,542 luxury items, with slaves, and even wild animals 565 00:33:32,610 --> 00:33:35,946 that would have participated in the games in the coliseum. 566 00:33:36,014 --> 00:33:40,650 If you were standing along one of the sides of this hexagonal 567 00:33:40,718 --> 00:33:44,354 harbor in the year 100 A.D., 568 00:33:44,422 --> 00:33:47,824 could hear the roar of lions, 569 00:33:47,892 --> 00:33:53,330 the howls of monkeys, you could hear everything that 570 00:33:53,398 --> 00:33:57,601 told you Rome is the center of the world. 571 00:34:01,205 --> 00:34:03,774 NARRATOR: By the fifth century A.D., 572 00:34:03,841 --> 00:34:06,676 the Roman Empire is in terminal decline, 573 00:34:06,744 --> 00:34:10,414 and as the port silts up, it is abandoned. 574 00:34:13,217 --> 00:34:16,720 Today, only the strangely shaped lake remains, 575 00:34:16,788 --> 00:34:19,189 lone relic of one of the greatest engineering 576 00:34:19,257 --> 00:34:20,991 projects of the ancient world. 577 00:34:22,126 --> 00:34:26,496 This is the high water mark, the zenith of the Roman Empire. 578 00:34:31,669 --> 00:34:36,139 NARRATOR: Coming up, the $4.5 billion dollar gamble. 579 00:34:36,207 --> 00:34:38,942 The world had seen nothing like it before. 580 00:34:46,417 --> 00:34:49,553 NARRATOR: June 23rd, 2018. 581 00:34:49,620 --> 00:34:52,689 As an orbiting camera scans an island in 582 00:34:52,757 --> 00:34:53,957 northwest France, 583 00:34:54,024 --> 00:34:57,694 an echo from the past emerges from the Earth. 584 00:35:01,933 --> 00:35:06,736 What we see in this image is a deserted island with a series 585 00:35:06,804 --> 00:35:08,772 of concentric circles, 586 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:10,407 one within the other. 587 00:35:12,143 --> 00:35:15,178 It's like a drop of water has left 588 00:35:15,246 --> 00:35:17,314 a ripple in the middle of this island. 589 00:35:17,381 --> 00:35:20,851 Whatever it is has been abandoned for decades. 590 00:35:23,721 --> 00:35:25,755 NARRATOR: For military historians, 591 00:35:25,823 --> 00:35:29,559 the crumbling structure's location is significant. 592 00:35:29,627 --> 00:35:32,395 This was a very strategically important place 593 00:35:32,463 --> 00:35:34,598 for the Nazis in World War II. 594 00:35:34,665 --> 00:35:36,399 And when we see circles like this, 595 00:35:36,467 --> 00:35:38,635 we immediately think of something like 596 00:35:38,703 --> 00:35:40,670 a radar installation. 597 00:35:40,738 --> 00:35:44,241 NARRATOR: During World War II, 598 00:35:44,308 --> 00:35:46,376 the U.S. and its allies launch around 599 00:35:46,444 --> 00:35:49,846 four million bomber and fighter attacks on Nazi-held 600 00:35:49,914 --> 00:35:52,082 positions in Europe. 601 00:35:52,150 --> 00:35:56,920 During each mission, they must evade a 1,500-mile-long 602 00:35:56,988 --> 00:36:00,257 line of coastal radar installations that stretches 603 00:36:00,324 --> 00:36:02,893 from France to Scandinavia. 604 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:06,096 It was bad news, because if Allied aircraft wanted to fly 605 00:36:06,164 --> 00:36:09,366 under the cover of darkness toward occupied France, 606 00:36:09,433 --> 00:36:12,202 they would have to fly through a phalanx of these 607 00:36:12,270 --> 00:36:13,370 radar stations. 608 00:36:14,805 --> 00:36:19,509 NARRATOR: The German radar wall means just 609 00:36:19,577 --> 00:36:22,746 a third of Allied bombers complete their missions. 610 00:36:22,813 --> 00:36:25,949 This is why the Allies ultimately 611 00:36:26,017 --> 00:36:27,951 choose to do something about it, 612 00:36:28,019 --> 00:36:31,655 and what they do is called Operation Biting. 613 00:36:31,722 --> 00:36:34,524 Operation Biting was this special 614 00:36:34,592 --> 00:36:39,162 forces raid on German radar installations. 615 00:36:39,230 --> 00:36:43,366 NARRATOR: Operation Biting's primary target is 616 00:36:43,434 --> 00:36:45,902 a coastal radar station near the structure 617 00:36:45,970 --> 00:36:47,237 in the image. 618 00:36:47,305 --> 00:36:50,507 Now, what this special forces 619 00:36:50,575 --> 00:36:52,375 group does is land on the coast. 620 00:36:52,443 --> 00:36:55,212 They attack the radar installation, and they bring 621 00:36:55,279 --> 00:36:57,714 back some of its details and its secrets. 622 00:36:59,150 --> 00:37:03,687 HYMEL: It is an almost perfect stealth commando operation. 623 00:37:03,754 --> 00:37:05,922 The British have stolen the key 624 00:37:05,990 --> 00:37:09,192 that's gonna unlock the secrets of German radar. 625 00:37:11,862 --> 00:37:14,464 NARRATOR: The British figure out that by dropping 626 00:37:14,532 --> 00:37:16,199 reflective bits of aluminum, 627 00:37:16,267 --> 00:37:18,969 they can disrupt German radar 628 00:37:19,036 --> 00:37:21,705 and greatly increase the number of successful 629 00:37:21,772 --> 00:37:22,939 bombing missions. 630 00:37:23,007 --> 00:37:26,276 MORGAN: One airplane loaded full of chaff could 631 00:37:26,344 --> 00:37:29,746 suddenly look like 50 airplanes in flight. 632 00:37:29,780 --> 00:37:32,983 And so Operation Biting paid off in 633 00:37:33,050 --> 00:37:36,519 a very meaningful way during World War II. 634 00:37:40,091 --> 00:37:42,692 NARRATOR: Historical land records confirm that the mystery 635 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,562 circles are the remains of a ground station, 636 00:37:47,365 --> 00:37:49,032 but one that played a role in 637 00:37:49,100 --> 00:37:53,737 an even more important event in 20th century history. 638 00:37:53,804 --> 00:37:55,839 RUBEN: The archives tell us that this was not 639 00:37:55,906 --> 00:37:57,340 just any ground station. 640 00:37:57,408 --> 00:38:01,111 This is actually part of the birth of international 641 00:38:01,178 --> 00:38:04,180 satellite transmissions. - MORGAN: And as it turns out, 642 00:38:04,248 --> 00:38:06,616 the satellite was the grandfather of all of 643 00:38:06,684 --> 00:38:08,551 the telecommunications satellites 644 00:38:08,619 --> 00:38:10,720 that we know and use today. 645 00:38:12,957 --> 00:38:17,160 NARRATOR: In 1938, the first electronic TV sets 646 00:38:17,228 --> 00:38:18,728 go on sale in the U.S. 647 00:38:20,031 --> 00:38:21,631 Within 15 years, 648 00:38:21,699 --> 00:38:24,467 they can be found in 20 million households 649 00:38:24,535 --> 00:38:25,835 across the country. 650 00:38:27,905 --> 00:38:30,874 As the market explodes, broadcasters look to 651 00:38:30,941 --> 00:38:34,644 the heavens for ways to reach yet more viewers. 652 00:38:34,712 --> 00:38:37,147 This was essentially the birth of the idea that you can 653 00:38:37,214 --> 00:38:38,448 communicate with someone on 654 00:38:38,516 --> 00:38:41,351 the other side of the planet by bouncing those signals off 655 00:38:41,419 --> 00:38:43,219 of things we've put in the sky. 656 00:38:45,489 --> 00:38:48,291 NARRATOR: One of the first satellite transmissions 657 00:38:48,359 --> 00:38:51,328 takes place in 1960, when NASA 658 00:38:51,395 --> 00:38:55,098 uses the Echo 1 spacecraft to broadcast a speech by 659 00:38:55,132 --> 00:38:56,499 President Eisenhower. 660 00:38:56,567 --> 00:38:58,868 EISENHOWER: It is a great personal satisfaction to 661 00:38:58,936 --> 00:39:04,074 participate in this first experiment in communications. 662 00:39:04,141 --> 00:39:07,977 It was just a metal-covered balloon called Echo 1, 663 00:39:08,012 --> 00:39:11,781 but more commonly known as the sata-loon. 664 00:39:11,816 --> 00:39:15,085 It really was very primitive, but it did allow radio 665 00:39:15,152 --> 00:39:17,120 communications to go back and forth 666 00:39:17,188 --> 00:39:18,588 around the Earth. 667 00:39:18,656 --> 00:39:21,358 NARRATOR: Despite the success of Echo 1, 668 00:39:21,425 --> 00:39:26,262 the ability to transmit images from orbit remains elusive. 669 00:39:26,330 --> 00:39:28,631 Then Telstar came along and Telstar 670 00:39:28,699 --> 00:39:30,800 is not just a metal-covered balloon. 671 00:39:30,868 --> 00:39:32,869 It's a legitimate satellite. 672 00:39:33,904 --> 00:39:36,606 CAVELL: Telstar really is a foundational piece 673 00:39:36,674 --> 00:39:37,841 of equipment. 674 00:39:37,908 --> 00:39:40,043 This is where it all begins. 675 00:39:40,111 --> 00:39:44,381 NARRATOR: Telstar is to be the world's first true 676 00:39:44,448 --> 00:39:45,915 communications satellite 677 00:39:45,983 --> 00:39:48,651 and will work by bouncing a signal between 678 00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:50,220 the U.S. and France. 679 00:39:50,287 --> 00:39:52,722 [pinging noises] 680 00:39:52,790 --> 00:39:56,159 Before the $4.5 billion dollar program 681 00:39:56,227 --> 00:39:57,360 goes live, 682 00:39:57,428 --> 00:40:00,497 engineers want to be sure it works, and that's where 683 00:40:00,564 --> 00:40:02,932 the circles in the image fit in. 684 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,769 HYMEL: In the center of that circle was 685 00:40:05,870 --> 00:40:07,904 a 600-foot tower. 686 00:40:07,972 --> 00:40:10,306 And that was used as sort of a receiving 687 00:40:10,374 --> 00:40:14,611 station, which would simulate a satellite low on the horizon. 688 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,214 MORGAN: In other words, the tower on the island 689 00:40:18,282 --> 00:40:19,616 made it possible for them 690 00:40:19,683 --> 00:40:21,751 to calibrate all of their equipment so that when 691 00:40:21,819 --> 00:40:23,653 the Telstar satellite was launched, 692 00:40:23,721 --> 00:40:25,522 they could receive the signal. 693 00:40:29,059 --> 00:40:31,361 NARRATOR: On July 10th, 1962, 694 00:40:31,429 --> 00:40:35,131 a delta rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carries 695 00:40:35,166 --> 00:40:38,802 the 170-pound Telstar satellite into orbit. 696 00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,074 48 hours later, it begins broadcasting 697 00:40:45,142 --> 00:40:48,445 the first live images from space. 698 00:40:48,512 --> 00:40:50,847 MORGAN: It marked a major and important milestone 699 00:40:50,915 --> 00:40:53,416 in our history, because we were 700 00:40:53,484 --> 00:40:56,085 establishing what was effectively the worldwide reach 701 00:40:56,153 --> 00:40:58,288 of telecommunications. 702 00:40:58,322 --> 00:41:01,825 Just a few weeks later, President Kennedy is able to 703 00:41:01,892 --> 00:41:04,928 beam an entire press conference over to Europe. 704 00:41:04,995 --> 00:41:07,931 And then other big events are getting beamed 705 00:41:07,998 --> 00:41:10,567 around the world, like boxing matches. 706 00:41:10,634 --> 00:41:15,505 And even more importantly, Elvis Presley live from Hawaii. 707 00:41:15,573 --> 00:41:17,373 MORGAN: We were watching the absolute 708 00:41:17,441 --> 00:41:19,042 cutting edge of human progress. 709 00:41:19,109 --> 00:41:21,110 The world had seen nothing like it before. 710 00:41:21,178 --> 00:41:24,280 [pinging noises] 711 00:41:24,348 --> 00:41:26,816 NARRATOR: After being operational for six months, 712 00:41:26,884 --> 00:41:30,286 the U.S. accidentally fries Telstar's circuits 713 00:41:30,354 --> 00:41:34,123 with radiation from a high altitude nuclear test. 714 00:41:36,126 --> 00:41:38,461 But six decades later, 715 00:41:38,529 --> 00:41:40,630 its impact continues to be felt 716 00:41:40,698 --> 00:41:43,066 in almost every aspect of our lives. 717 00:41:45,302 --> 00:41:49,739 That satellite really brought the world closer together, 718 00:41:49,807 --> 00:41:54,143 and that spot in France was part 719 00:41:54,211 --> 00:41:56,846 of making the world smaller.