Covering over 85,000,000 acres of land with locations in every state. More than 325 Million People visited the site last year. Over the next 90 minutes we feature a mixture of Natural Beauty and history at eight different parks around the country. We begin just outside cleveland at Cuyahoga Valley National park. Situated along the Cuyahoga River we will learn how the canal system plays a a major re in our nations westward expansion during the 1830s and 40s. [background sounds] [background sounds] the ohio and erie canal as part of a two canal system that was put in place in the early years of america built between 1825 18251832, and basically its a water transportation route the connected lake erie with the ohio river which is part of a larger idea, a National Water transportation route. In the early days of america we had 13 colonies all situated right along the atlantic seaboard. Our leaders at the time saw a problem. That problem was we needed that country to expand westward. However, there was a big obstacle, the appellation mountains. Our first president George Washington happened happen to l engineer, had an idea. That idea was to great this transcontinental water transportation route using two canals, they can wreak canal through the next day, and the connect new york city come hudson river, lake erie, ohio into a canal, ohio river, mississippi all the way to the gulf of mexico. In the early days we didnt have a big federal government. So in terms of funding and delimiting the ohio and erie canal and the erie canal depended on the states. Fortunately the state of new york had a champion there, Dewitt Clinton, became their Canal Commission and got the job done through the state of new york. Then he rose to become the governor of new york. Ohio, facing a a similar challe in terms of funding et cetera, you find it on the verge of bankruptcy. The canal project is worth more than all the value of the land in ohio. How do you fund this thing . Believe it or not new york back the bonds and it was Dewitt Clinton became to ohio for the groundbreaking to build the canal through ohio. Why . Guess what. Make a lot of beneficial differences to the state of new york including the fact new york city became the only port i could export and import goods, making it the Financial Capital of america. In ohio we had a fellow by the name of alfred kelly became the Canal Commission and really took it on as his lifelong legacy if you will to make sure that canal got build and got built on time and under budget. The ohio and erie canal is 309 miles in length. It goes from cleveland to portsmouth, ohio, and the ohio river. The actual construction began in 1825 by 1827, july 4, fourth, the first vote from akron to cleveland got through the canal port in cleveland. By 1832 the entire system was complete from cleveland all the way to the ohio river at portsmouth. It made a tremendous difference. For the nation it allowed us to start to rationalize our economy. Economy. Enchiladas to a internal trade. Prior to that all those seaboard states depended on exporting unordered in terms of making money delivering goods and services. This helped america expand westward. By doing so i mentioned new york city became the Financial Capital of the country. Ohio rises from the wilderness to be the third most populous and third richest state in the union by the 1860s. Canal life life with their slowpaced life, and canals, both to live with about four or five miles an hour. We are standing next to a lock right now and there would have been numerous locks to allow those boats to safely navigate the terrain and the topography. These became kind of elevators, watered elevators that lifted our lord the vote as the made the journey. It was cramped corners. Oftentimes you would find out and people sleeping on the same vote. Some were travelers, summer goods being delivered. A pretty hectic life but at a slow pace. Her dominantly the goods that were moved along the canal especially from ohio eastward were grain, weeds, things of that nature, things that were farmed here. We begin the breadbasket of america for reason and that is this is a good place to grow things. In new england became the early days of the industrial revolution, that became a good place to make things. So basically we had this barter trade system that again was part of our National Economy growing that had on the one hand, food come on the other hand, services, goods, machines, et cetera. The canal in ohio paid for itself. Whats significant is in cleveland we had our way lock. The way lock was you make money. You would have canal vote get weighed at the difference between its original weight and what was docked in at the port of cleveland, thats where you cut your taxes, thats when you made your money. In 74 when the railroads bought the mile of canal land in the city of cleveland, basic but a railroad track, we took that way canal and moved it. We still use the way canal in 1874. That said were still making money on that canal. Railroads arrived in cleveland in 1851. Ironically the guy who helps bring the railroads to cleveland, the same guy who champion the canal. The railroads pretty much had an Immediate Impact on the canal. However, the canal did stain use all the way up until 1913. It just had a different use. It started to become a place where people would go leisurely on a weekend. They would have vote, travel up and down the canals. Many times the canals went to put in place would have little General Stores or taverns, and people would i guess in their day go public crawling, if you will, using a canal vote on a sunday afternoon. One permanent legacy of the canal was the fact that in cleveland especially the river valley became the center of storage. It became allport. He became a manufactured instead of the city itself. Thats where the wealth of cleveland group. It was based on the fact you read that canal as clevelands first port. As time went on in manufacturing rose, cleveland group, we begin the fifth largest city in the country. We had major, major steel mills and Oil Refineries thanks to John Rockefeller. There was a consequence environmentally to those uses. Prior to the Environmental Protection agency and regulations for water and what you can put in water and rivers, et cetera, there were no regulations. In cleveland you had situations where for instance, standard oil and John Rockefeller basically refined oil along the banks of the river and when they did so there were certain byproducts that he could not find a use for and, therefore, the ended up in the river. It was told, and reported, that at one time we had a fire in 195757, and they went and measured the gunk that was on the top of the river. It was more than eight inches deep of oil and other byproducts that were flammable. But the story itself, although its bad, it really has tremendously positive outcomes. It inspires birthday. It helps pass legislation that creates the United States epa. It helped pass clean water bill, the clean air filter so if you look at all the consequences of that particular river fire, the positive fire outweighs the negative of that. And cleveland due to that river fire and due to the exposure it god, we pretty much our the selma of that movement. Then in 1974 Congress Passed legislation that created the Cuyahoga Valley National park and that canal and the towpath associate with it became the central feature of that National Park. We are still whats called an area of concern so theres still some work to be done in terms of completing the job of cleaning up the river but the needle has gone dramatically to the positive and we are just about through the area of concern and, in fact, in 2000 thenpresident bill clinton introduced a program called the American Heritage rivers program, and he basically put the invitation out to anyone who thought that river was significant enough for the story of america to compete for this new designation yet we did. We competed for the Cuyahoga River as part of that and the story was told they went through deliberation process to choose what was going to be the first ten rivers to be nominated for American Heritage river status, that they got to bill clinton, gave him the list of the rivers. He read through and worse it he said where is the cuyahoga . If they apply . Answer was no, they did apply. However, it did make the cut. He goes, this program is all about the Cuyahoga River. The reason he said that was if the comeback of the Cuyahoga River that is the story today. This airy area we are in thp Cuyahoga Valley National park ration area, part of National Park service in december 1974. It became Cuyahoga Valley National park in the year 2000, and with that comes a new idea for bringing National Parks to people. Most of us are not going to get to the gates of the Arctic National wildlife refuge but if we had National Parks nearby, we can get to those. They started making National Parks in urban areas. We have a bait braided backbone with the ohio and erie canal. We are braided backbone with a Cuyahoga Railroad and river. This National Park was greater of land that had been used in some instances of used, left in ruins because it was a wasteland in some places that people didnt see any potential for. And yet we cleaned it up, we t nature do what nature does, and now we are the 11th most visited National Park. There is a huge story here, a story of nic redemption . A story where if we allow nature to do what it does best, if we give it the chance to do what it does best and not interfere or help it, then the land can recover with environmental legislation and laws and with things we have in place. Now we have a river that is coming back to life. The environment has recovered. Yes it was degraded because of man, but it was also helped by man and it is allowed it, without help, it has recovered to create this great area we have now. From the Cuyahoga River in ohio we now travel to the banks of the Mississippi River and gateway arch National Park in st. Louis where a monument to americas westward expansion has become a recognizable symbol for the city played such a vital role in it. I think most people are like, i i was when i first saw it, when you see it from a distance you think, thats kind of interesting, kind of cool. The closer you get to it you realize how massive it is. Getting up to the base of it and touching it, looking up to 630 feet to the top it really is very, very impressive. I think the closer you get to it, the more impressed you become. Right now were standing very close to the famous gateway arch in st. Louis, 630foot tall stimulus steel structure that was designed back in 1947, but not built until the mid1960s and completed in 1965. Each year we get about 2. 5 million visitors who come to see the memorial and see the arch. Its a very busy place especially during the summer months. The gateway arch was designed by a man named eero saarinen, he was born in finland, came here to america when he was ten years old with his father was a very famous architect. He mainly had worked just with his father up to the point in time when an architectural competition was announced for what became the arch that you see behind me. The competition was for Jefferson National expansion memorial which was a National Park service site founded by a president ial proclamation in 1935 to commemorate st. Louis his role in the westward expansion of the United States. So 12 years after the founding of the park, an architectural competition was held to decide what the memorial itself would look like. Basically they had about 90 acres of land to work with, 40 city blocks and tore down completely raised above the original buildings to make way for the memorial on the st. Louis riverfront. So each architect has submitted a design proposal could really do whatever he or she wanted. It could be a huge sculpture. It could be a series of museum buildings. They did want one central feature to be in each of these designs. Some people put an obelisk in. Some people put a big kind of monolithic rectangular block or something. Saarinen decided to go with the idea of the arch, and it was only after he kind of design the arch that he realized it forms a gateway. So its really appropriate for the idea of the memorial to st. Louis role and westward expansion, st. Louis role as a gateway to have gigantic gateway right there on the riverfront. The arch is made out of stimulus steel, one quarter inch stimus steel on the outside, and on the inside its made of threequarter inch carbon steel. So basically you have sandwich. In the lower portion of the sandwich is filled in with concrete, and the upper portions that are tie rods that reinforce, steel reinforcing rods they keep the sections apart. Its a unique structure because it doesnt have any superstructure on the inside. There is no girders or things like that that form the shape of the arch. Its not just clad with stimulus steel on the top. Sometimes visitors are surprised because they havent read about the arch to learn they can actually go to the top of it. They think maybe its just likee a big piece of Outdoor Sculpture and you can just look at it. Theres little arrow shaped capsules that fit by persons in each one, and on each leg of the arch their state eight of this capsules that form a train that run on a track. When people get into the capsule its hanging from the track. As they go to the top by the time they get to the top its on top of the track. In order to accommodate that make sure people are not going to be flipped upside down, actually it shifts and turns to keep the card level. It isnt a thrill ride. It doesnt go really fast like something at a county fair or at six flags or something, but its a unique experience. A lot of people really prize the experience of writing in the strange little capsules up to the top and getting a nice view they get from the top of the arch from the Observation Deck up at the top. Right now were in the midst of a multimillion dollar project that is being funded by many different entities that are partnering with a National ParkService Jewelry revitalize the park itself park service to revitalize the park itself. For many years weve been an island surrounded by highspeed roads, and what is going to happen is a kind of a a lead is going to place over the highways so you can walk directly from the city where you probably will park your vehicle directly to the arch without having to cross any major streets. Its really just an iconographic symbol of st. Louis, sort of like the space needle is to seattle or the Empire State Building of the statue of liberty is to new york. There are certain symbols that it neatly identify a place on the map to people, and the arch is the one, the one for st. Louis. Right now we leave the city once considered the gateway to the west and travel to the great plains and over the Rocky Mountains to the Colorado National monument near Grand Junction to hear how one man helped preserve this area on colorados western slope. I think everybody is just amazed by, its not a widely publicized presence here. The park service doesnt advertise, so people find out about this because they read magazine articles or they see features like you are preparing but its not our typical colorado scenery. Its not what most people think of when they think of colorado. It comes as a pleasant surprise for folks to find it here. John otto was the kind of a vagabond, not in the sense that he was a neerdowell but he just didnt have any permanent roots. He was attracted to this area around 1907 by the promise of employment on a waterline project. And i guess this was just the type of country that was really appealing to him. He began to agitate for the creation of a National Park here. The first thing he did was he wrote a lot of letters to prominent people and so on time to get this established as a National Park here he also constructed a lot of trails to afford access into the canyons and onto the rims of the monument. Im sure the local people came out on sunday afternoon, each of the wagon and, for picnic and so on. When you get other things he did was in 1926 he started collecting buffalo nickels from the kids in town, and use that money to transport a couple of bison here. He wanted to establish a herd of bison in the monument. The elks club conspired to bring in a couple of elk. John got some money from the chamber of congress to build some fences to contain these animals, and for many years we had a bison herd. It felt elf took one look aroud said were out of here, as they went on south into the high country. But oddly enough they are coming back into the monument now. We see more and more elks on. A bison would be removed in 1983 bec