swamp, began selling land by the gallon. >> the limerock under the soil had to be blasted out foot by foot, mile by mile the work went on, drilling, blasting, digging bite by bite. >> as folks began to settle, there were a couple big hurricanes in the '40s and when the greatest generation came back from the war with sand in their boots they ordered the army corps of engineers to tame these waters of destiny and build a new paradise. and so they took a 2 million acre river of grass and dug in, took a vast sheet of slow motion gin-clear water and carved it up. some say bug spray and air conditioning created florida. no, first came 2,000 miles of dams and dikes, ditches and pipes. >> we start to have this kind of alchemy of florida where you dig a big hole in the ground and you scoop out the limestone and you