In the middle of downtown Chicago, a massive steel bridge stands permanently upright—rusted, silent, and seemingly useless. But the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge wasn’t always a relic. Once, it was a triumph of early 20th-century engineering—built by the same mind behind the Golden Gate Bridge—and a key artery in Chicago’s freight empire.This episode uncovers how the city that once moved America’s goods came to abandon one of its most advanced structures. From the dawn of Chicago’s railroad age to the twilight of its industrial might, discover how progress, pride, and preservation turned a working bridge into a monument suspended between eras.
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10:14
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10:14
Why New York’s Payphones Vanished | WHAT REMAINS?
For most of the 20th century, New York City rang with the sound of conversation. More than 200,000 public telephones once lined its streets — lifelines through blackouts, blizzards, and everyday life. From Wall Street to Harlem, these glass boxes were where business deals began, lovers whispered, and history unfolded.But over time, progress caught up. From the invention of the coin-operated phone to the arrival of cell networks and LinkNYC kiosks, the city’s payphones slowly disappeared. This episode uncovers how New York’s phone booths became icons of connection, symbols of privacy, and ultimately, relics of a world before smartphones.
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11:29
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11:29
Why America's Secret Government Mega-Bunker is Under a Luxury Hotel
Beneath one of America’s most elegant resorts lies a secret built for the end of the world. During the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government secretly constructed a 112,000-square-foot nuclear bunker beneath the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia — a hidden fortress designed to house the entire U.S. Congress after a nuclear strike.For over three decades, this top-secret facility—known as Project Greek Island—remained fully operational, maintained by undercover technicians posing as TV repairmen, and disguised beneath the daily luxury of a five-star hotel. In this episode, we uncover how it was built, how it stayed hidden, and how one journalist’s 1992 exposé brought the entire operation to light.
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16:16
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16:16
Why New York’s Trump Tower is Totally Forbidden | Public Space Turned Inaccessible
Before Trump Tower rose on Fifth Avenue, the site was home to one of Manhattan’s most elegant landmarks: the Bonwit Teller Building. Designed by Warren & Wetmore—the same architects behind Grand Central Terminal—it stood as a testament to New York’s Art Deco age. When it was demolished in 1980, priceless architectural sculptures and details were lost forever.In this episode, we explore how a single address at 725 Fifth Avenue tells the larger story of New York’s evolution—from private mansions to department stores to modern skyscrapers. We’ll trace how the city’s balance between preservation, profit, and public access has shifted across the 20th century, and what that says about urban life today.
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24:48
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24:48
The Dangerous Mills That Changed America Forever
In the early 1800s, America was still a nation of fields and workshops — until one city transformed everything. Lowell, Massachusetts, became the birthplace of America’s Industrial Revolution, where red-brick mills, roaring turbines, and a new class of workers reshaped the nation’s economy and identity.At the heart of this transformation were the “Lowell Mill Girls” — thousands of young women who left rural farms to work twelve-hour days under deafening machines. Promised education and dignity, they instead found exhaustion and exploitation, becoming some of the first Americans to fight for labor rights.
IT’S HISTORY is a ride through history – join us in discovering the world’s most important eras, the minds that changed everything, and the most important inventions of our time through weekly tales of Urban Decay.
This podcast is distributed and operated by Video Brothers Music.
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