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Abandoned Engineering
S08E06 - Cathedral of Sewage
Research into why and how large projects were built, the financial and social costs of their failure, and the consequences for the environment. Experts present plans to make something new from the ruins.
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Hitler's Army Powerhouse
Hitler's Army Powerhouse
A dark past explains why the Pölitz Synthetic Fuel Plant in Northern Poland is now a derelict industrial site littered with tunnels, bunkers and huge crumbling concrete structures lost in dense forest. The site was built in 1937 as part of Nazi Germany's drive to become self-sufficient on fuel, but it was no ordinary refinery. It used the latest technology at the time, at great expense, to turn coal into oil. In 1945 an Allied air raid pulverised the plant, severely wounding the German war machine and leaving the site in ruins. Other structures examined in the first episode include the incredible vertical Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore, which was built to provide America's own ammunition, the former American spy instillation called Teufelsberg (or "Devil's Mountain") in Berlin which waged the Cold War against the Soviet Union, and the now derelict Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse which was built on Europe's second-fastest moving sand dune in Denmark.
Episode 14
The hit documentary series that explores some of the world's most mysterious abandoned structures returns for an all-new second series. Once these structures were among the most advanced engineering projects ever undertaken, but now they lie ruined, disused, and sometimes deadly. Each episode of this fascinating and fast-paced series uncovers the stories behind their rise and fall and asks 'who built them? And why? And why were they abandoned?'
Episode 15
The hit documentary series that explores some of the world's most mysterious abandoned structures returns for an all-new second series. Once these structures were among the most advanced engineering projects ever undertaken, but now they lie ruined, disused, and sometimes deadly. Each episode of this fascinating and fast-paced series uncovers the stories behind their rise and fall and asks 'who built them? And why? And why were they abandoned?'
Episode 16
Episode 16
The hit documentary series that explores some of the world's most mysterious abandoned structures returns for an all-new second series. Once these structures were among the most advanced engineering projects ever undertaken, but now they lie ruined, disused, and sometimes deadly. Each episode of this fascinating and fast-paced series uncovers the stories behind their rise and fall and asks 'who built them? And why? And why were they abandoned?'
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Research into why and how large projects were built, the financial and social costs of their failure, and the consequences for the environment. Experts present plans to make something new from the ruins.