Modern Marvels: Season 7
Season 7 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Modern Marvels Season 6.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 7 Progress Shield
The City Beneath Our Feet
Jan 3, 2000 · 44 min
Beneath every modern city, hidden by manhole covers, drains, and ventilation grates – lies a labyrinth of tunnels, wires, conduits and pipes. They deliver power to our homes, water
Tower Bridge
Jan 10, 2000 · 44 min
Join us as we span the history of one of the world’s most famous bridges, London’s Tower Bridge. The world’s largest bascule bridge (a counterweighted drawbridge), when it was erec
The Chunnel
Jan 11, 2000 · 44 min
The challenge of linking Britain and France with a tunnel under the English Channel was both monumental and delicate. It took 18 months just to design and build the 28 foot diamete
Space Stations.
Feb 3, 2000 · 44 min
Join us on an out-of-this-world exploration of the history of long-duration life in space–from the first Soviet station to Skylab to Mir to the International Space Station. Experie
The Pentagon
Mar 27, 2001 · 44 min
The pentagon…The name alone conjures up an imposing image of American power and prestige. As the largest office building in the world, it serves as the headquarters of the nation’s
Bridges.
Feb 29, 2000 · 44 min
From amazing ancient Roman aqueducts and arch bridges, romantic Renaissance spans, 19th-century railroad crossovers, to monumental marvels of our time, bridges played a key role in
Prisons
Mar 6, 2000 · 44 min
“All hope abandon, ye who enter here!” This sentiment has permeated the masonry and clanging bars of prisons built throughout the ages. We’ll see how the philosophy and architectur
Great Inventions
Mar 16, 2000 · 44 min
Join us for a survey of the world’s greatest inventions in which we examine the wheel, steam engine, railroad, automobile, airplane, printing press, electric light, wireless telegr
Office Wonders
Mar 14, 2000 · 44 min
Don’t look now, but your office is a technological marvel. From the humble paper clip to the revolutionary personal computer, your desk is a museum of miracles designed to make you
Police Technology
Mar 15, 2000 · 44 min
When police forces were born in the 1800s, British “bobbies” made due with a billy club. Public wariness and institutional resistance to change held back technological advances for
Disaster Technology
Apr 17, 2000 · 44 min
An examination of the historical development of technological tools that help science mitigate nature’s fury. It’s a survival story that begins with comprehending the force of disa
Concrete
May 8, 2000 · 44 min
Modern Marvels explores how the basic formula of cement, aggregate and water has changed the world. Concrete has enabled us to create everything from roads and runways to building
Camping Technology
May 25, 2000 · 44 min
As camping technology develops, it provides greater access to diverse outdoor environments. The earliest camping technology was developed out of necessity. Prehistoric man fashione
Private Planes
May 31, 2000 · 44 min
The plane’s on the runway and revving up for our flight of power and whimsy. The panorama reveals some amazing machines–from vintage aircraft to homemade winged wonders to posh pri
Race Cars
Jun 6, 2000 · 44 min
Today, race cars tear up the tracks at 300 m.p.h. Computers and space-age composite materials are as much as part of racing as the drivers. They’re fast, they’re thrilling, and the
Traffic
Jun 12, 2000 · 44 min
In less than a century, the world went from dirt tracks to highways, from propeller planes to space travel, from sailboats to supertankers. And in the process, we have created a gl
Buses
Jun 19, 2000 · 44 min
The most opulent are wheeled luxury liners with satellite TV and hot tubs–a far cry from the first bus, an 8-passenger carriage! Watch a bus being built from the ground up, and lea
Gold Mines.
Jun 22, 2000 · 44 min
Around the world and across the eons, gold stands as a symbol of power, wealth, and love. The quest for the yellow metal took men across oceans, into the depths of the Alaskan wint
Banks.
Jul 27, 2000 · 44 min
Backbones of worldwide economics, for centuries banks enabled the creation of wealth, and industry leaders became icons. But modern technology revolutionized the way banks do busin
The Erie Canal
Jul 31, 2000 · 44 min
The Erie Canal was America’s first superhighway. It was a narrow ribbon of water carved through sheer rock and untamed wilderness. It featured an ingenious network of stone locks a
Trucks
Aug 3, 2000 · 44 min
Icons of the open road, trucks form the backbone of the construction and transportation industries. The facility to handle nearly any load and the ability to deliver goods almost a
Aswan Dam
Aug 14, 2000 · 44 min
In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Arab Republic of Egypt’s first prime minister, had a plan to bring his poor country into the 20th century. To pull it off, he needed to harness the
China's Great Dam
Aug 22, 2000 · 44 min
When completed, China’s Three Gorges Dam will tower 607 feet in the air and weigh 40 Great Pyramids. Other than China’s Great Wall, it will be the only man-made object visible from
The Maginot Line
Sep 10, 2000 · 44 min
The Maginot Line, a defensive string of large and small forts built during the years between World War I and World War II, was intended to forestall another invasion by aggressive
Video Games: Behind The Fun
Sep 12, 2000 · 44 min
A fun-filled glimpse into the not so distant history of video games. Since inception, the gaming industry has been a driving force in computer technology and video games are one of
The Body Shop
Sep 17, 2000 · 44 min
Host Ron Hazelton and two mechanics dissect a 2000 Ford Taurus to trace the evolution of the automobile’s major systems. This 2-hour nuts-and-bolt special breaks the car down into
Machine Tools
Oct 9, 2000 · 44 min
No one wants a hand-made car or gun or an airplane. We want things made by machines. Machine tools are power–driven machines–of all shapes and sizes-used to make metal parts. Machi
Farming Technology
Oct 15, 2000 · 44 min
The US agricultural process, from seed to shelf, is so efficient that most people don’t think much about it. But food growing and processing is ever more sophisticated, employing c
Assembly Lines
Oct 16, 2000 · 44 min
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, an assembly line is an “industrial arrangement of machines, equipment, and workers for continuous flow of workpieces in mass production op
Suez Canal
Oct 17, 2000 · 44 min
Since the ancient pharaohs’ time, the Isthmus of Suez has been the gateway to trade between East and West. It’s thought that the pharaohs could connect the Red Sea with the Mediter
London Underground
Oct 18, 2000 · 44 min
Deep beneath London runs a complex network of many miles of tunnels; and, while traffic congests the roads above, hundreds of trains run through these iron and concrete arteries, c
Combat Training.
Oct 19, 2000 · 44 min
Sign up at the ultimate survival school, where soldiers learn to kill or be killed, and learn how 21st-century warriors are training today for the battlefields of tomorrow. We foll
Remote Operated Vehicles
Oct 25, 2000 · 44 min
Remotely operated vehicles allow us to explore the mysteries of inner and outer space, provide firsthand glimpses of the horrors of nuclear disasters, and offer the vicarious thril
Death Devices
Nov 2, 2000 · 44 min
Since the creation of the first laws, societies have demanded the ultimate punishment for certain capital crimes. Throughout history it has been left to a select few to develop the
Power Plants.
Nov 6, 2000 · 44 min
Mankind controls the environment in a variety of ways, whether by capturing the force of a river, harnessing the power in coal or oil, controlling a nuclear reaction, or transformi
Inventions of War.
Nov 8, 2000 · 44 min
Arising from the horrible carnage, deprivation, and suffering caused by war is a countless array of everyday items–from hairbrushes to microwaves–that directly descend from wartime
Plumbing: The Arteries Of Civilzation
Nov 14, 2000 · 44 min
Join us as we take a peek at the plumbing hiding behind your walls and snaking under the floors of your house. We’ll also meet the plumbing students who undergo rigorous training p
Line of Defense
Dec 5, 2000 · 44 min
Fortification evolved as man tried to defend his territory from attack. From fenced-in hills to walled cities to impenetrable forts, strongholds of the past echo the history of bat
Gadgets
Mar 13, 2000 · 44 min
Close cousins to machines and tools, gadgets are mechanical or electronic devices that make life a bit easier. While they don't always fall into clear categories, we know one when