Moving Mountains

Ancient Impossible reveals how many of today’s technological achievements were actually developed centuries ago. Colossal monuments, impossible feats of engineering and technologies so precise they defy reinvention–the ancient world was far more advanced than we ever imagined. We’ll travel through history to reveal a radically different picture of the past, with innovations so far ahead of their time; they’re still in use today.

PBS American Experience - Panama Canal: Gateway to the American Century (2011)
HDTV | 1280x720 | .MP4/AVC @ 2493 Kbps | 1h 23mn | Audio: English AAC 160 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: English | 1.54 GiB
Genre: Documentary

Panama Canal was the costliest undertaking in human history. It literally required moving mountains, in one of the most challenging environments on earth, breaking the back of the great range that connects North and South America. This 2-hour program tells the epic story of one of the great engineering triumphs of all time, and one of the most expensive, in both money and lives. It weaves together the stories of the powerful men whose decisions shaped the enterprise, including larger-than-life characters such as Ferdinand de Lesseps and Theodore Roosevelt, with the stories of the ordinary laborers from Jamaica and Barbados whose labor and sacrifice actually dug the canal. Along the way it tells a story of innovation that literally changed the course of history.

Based on a true story, director Peter Berg's Lone Survivor stars Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and Emile Hirsch as four Navy SEALs whose sensitive mission into the Afghan mountains is unexpectedly compromised, leading to a fierce skirmish with a small army of Taliban soldiers. The year is 2005. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, the War in Afghanistan is well under way when military intelligence learns that a senior Taliban member is hiding out in a remote village deep in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Kunar Province. Convinced that his capture or killing could turn the tide of the difficult war in favor of the United States, the Navy SEALs hatch Operation Red Wings. The goal is simple – send a select team of soldiers to stake out the village from the surrounding mountains, and move on their target when the time is right.