it makes us laugh. and cry like a plane tremble and smile thanks magical images and emotions enough to say. no to the legacy every weekend on d w. coach of a second. tour linked to news from africa and the world or link to exceptional stories and discussions somebody is a busy guy while website dedicated comes to pick up join us on facebook at g.w. or. make your smart t.v. even smarter with a w. for smart. what you want when you want to. update. the extraordinary. steps. you decide what songs. find

out what to do w. done smart. our trip will take us from the deep south of the united states to the east coast. majestic locomotives will power through diverse landscapes will meet local characters go from the sunni towns to the bustling metropolis. we'll visit places of great importance in american history and discover small events that shape everyday life thanks the main character of our american adventure is the train that makes it's day to day from the gulf of mexico to the atlantic get ready to climb

aboard that passenger. the eh i thank. new orleans the birthplace of jazz it's a vibrant city on the mississippi delta with something for everyone the president meets the past. with its population of around four hundred thousand new orleans is not a notch city by american standards but it's vibrant and loud. loud freight trains with a hundred or more cars line right along the riverbank they take several minutes to

pass through. but the wait is worth it. back to. the. i won't know what to do with that. tux. yes we're just. going. in now that it's a new orleans welcome. street cars have shaped the cityscape of new orleans for the past hundred and eighty years at first street cars will powered by horses and steam their next trick now the next class once covered three hundred kilometers today just thirty six kilometers remain there are tree lines the st charles line is the

oldest continuously operating line in the us the river front line runs along the edge of the french quarter and the canal street line covers the main street of new orleans. on other cars days when a cool breeze blows new orleans shows its melancholy side tourists and locals on the streets and squares around st louis cathedral seem unaffected the a in the french quarter the city's oldest neighborhood most of the single and multi-story buildings are made of stone and feature neuron balcony as the spanish and french influence is unmistakable. thanks thanks to

a new orleans jazz and blues are inseparable louis armstrong and fats domino are among the sons of the city to name but two of its greats. days the mood may be moving last but there's virtually no record that will silence fans from his hand. to enter the sofa. it's early in the morning on loyola haven't you it's not far from the main station the new orleans union passenger terminal the cheese to be busy ahead most passengers now prefer to travel by bus there are just three passenger trains departing new orleans each day. the

building dates back to nine hundred fifty four it's was the chimney of the city's history month depicts the early history of the railroad when steam trains competed with who says. the fast train started running in america in the early eighteenth that is the baltimore and ohio railroad hosted a special race. in the very beginning steam technology was just coming to fruition in england but the be a no chose to haul its first passenger cars by course later several engines were tested and a gentleman named peter cooper invented the first american built steam locomotive which was nicknamed tom thought because it was a very small little boxy engine in august of eight hundred thirty the story goes

that there was a race between this mechanical engine and a horse drawn car and during the race one of the belts on the wind blower broke on peter cooper's engine tom thumb and the horse ultimately ran the race but as we know steam technology and motive power would beat the force in the air. we still use the term whose power trains today have more than four thousand three hundred horsepower. each carriage has one steward if it's very comfortable passengers can check in from six in the morning those open for boarding at half past the crescent consists of two engines and nine carriages. thank the light is eerily beautiful as the train sets off at seven in the morning. thank

. god. we passed slowly through new orleans and the crescent city because of its location on a bend in the mississippi river. am i am. passengers we face a thirty one hour ride will cross twelve states and cover more than two thousand two hundred kilometers on our journey from the big easy to the. the end new orleans's bordered by the mississippi river to the south and by lake pontchartrain to the newest a

shallow body of water three times the size of lake constance three roads and one train line run across the lake on stilts the lake has a friendly face and the only night that wasn't the case in two thousand and five am. since two thousand and six the new museum a state museum has hosted an exhibition about the harken history of new orleans. with a special focus on harken katrina katrina changed the city. one of the great things about the story is that the human story behind each of the exhibitions that you'll see at this particular exhibition really express how these people of the american south came together to rebuild a community. it wasn't just the hurrican that caused terrible destruction. holding back naik pontchartrain crumbled. into the city

from the north on handed katrina changed the lives of new orleans the people physically the way we live and the way we work. we are trying to build back the city right sitting up or having great success there a chance to psychologically to think the people of new orleans are more virulent now and i think we're more proud that we were before the storm because of what we survived. poor doubt his emotions each day recording the horrific events on the wallpaper of his house.

the wreck of the grand piano that belonged to musician fats domino hanging above the installation by mitchell goaded. it symbolizes his grief for the sixteen hundred victims. hand symbolize the willingness of those who were not affected to help to lend a hand. left without the woods we had north on our venture beyond new orleans we find rural landscapes with parts fields and foams. we were approaching meridian a small town in the state of mississippi.

one of the greatest country music singers in the united states was born here in eighty ninety seven the jimmy rogers museum resembles an old train station rogers was the third and youngest son of a railroad family the museum is tuned with many of his personal items. and opened the safe for the jimmy rogers museum i mean the jimmy rogers guitar that we keep in this life jimmy had many guitars this was his final guitar he ordered it shortly after he was discovered by one of our guests when he was based in here hey point to this hoe and he said sing this how you sing this house right

here and he kept saying that about four or five times and then what that's where country music was oh right they are right there and what i like to add american music and another guest said folk music and when asked so i merican music because jimi had such a profound influence. as a young man jimmy rogers worked for the new orleans and north east and railroad as a brake man among other things. soon he was beloved the wool over the country many of his experiences during his time on the railroad found their way into his songs today this is known only to fans of country music. his music came from his work on the rare and from his farm life and from living in rural mississippi and traveling around the train as he traveled from place to place

. he loved the railroad he just didn't want to work on the railroad he wanted to sing about the railroad and his left us many many wonderful songs and we appreciate the great value of his music and the. way our time. was nowhere. jimmy rogers and the lived to be thirty five his short career lasted just six is the singing brakeman died on may the twenty six nineteen thirty three of tuberculosis the disease he picked up during his time on the railroad. the end. we leave the roots of country music and behind.

lunch has been served in the dining car. just waiting for dessert. there are three tons malts available for lunch we chose the middle one half past twelve. the ear. our train has left the state of mississippi and is traveling through alabama. in the early nineteenth century on a was mined in the area surrounding birmingham to bring its industrial history to life a few two generations the state of on the bom a set top and open and museum a few years ago the tan hill and lux historical state park not much remained at the

historical buildings that's why much with me built using the original plan. was a boom town in the late eight hundred after their reconstruction period after the civil war that's when the pressure really started to get going and towns like birmingham and that moved from places over here where there are brown or fields to the places where adjacent to the red or fields that were located closer to the brink of city limits so most of the productions that are there twenty two tons of on one mind hit every day in the early eighteen six days by the end of the civil war parts of the complex were in ruins but the boom of the island town of birmingham was unstoppable so it boomed then about the time of the founding of the city in eight hundred seventy s. and it picked up through world war one and it kind of peaked in world war two producing stuff for the war effort for world war two and then after the one nine

hundred sixty s. things like international competition and resource depletion kind of drove the other industries out i mean have still has a pretty big cast iron pipe industry but that anymore they are it isn't made here anymore. the furnace is and no longer burning but there are impressive reminders of the time when birmingham was. and then there's the pittsburgh of the south pittsburgh was america's number one steel city at the time . the old to the right i am the. to what the. the the. with the population of two hundred and twelve thousand birmingham is still alabama's biggest city even though it's lost half of its population as a result of the economic decline of the past fifty years that's evidenced by the many decaying buildings many of them are being pulled down three quarters of

bullion habitants are african-americans just half a century ago these people had to fight for their civil rights the events from back then a student at the forefront of them minds. but during that time birmingham was rigidly segregated the segregation ordinances specifically said that black people white people did not play checkers j.s. engage in any game it's hard to imagine what that was like now so it was very oppressive. the separation of the races there was really no justice in the legal system for african-americans. ham the city of racial segregation. in the sixty's african-american homes and businesses were bombed in the city at this outbreak

a bombing ham. fool black girls died in one thousand nine hundred sixty three when a baptist church was bombed. many of the attacks were committed by the racist hate group the kook. the conflicts finally came to a head and it took decades for the civil rights movement to fool. so you had two hundred years of this so pression based on color and based on race. people had accepted that as a way of life and so to make that kind of germanic shift after generations of racial oppression is very difficult the hope that this ugly chapter in history will finally close is expressed in

a play on the will of the baptist chant it reads may man learn to replace bitterness and violence with knowledge and understanding of. the by the earth you eat our train heads for the names we're running slightly behind changi freight trains have priority since rail company isn't transporting freight than they do transporting passengers but in the small town of us alabama the crescent has priority and the freight train waits for us to pass. transport is the main business of the rail industry and the united states' seven rail companies share the market union pacific is one of the oldest and most

successful in the country it has forty six thousand employees and turns over twenty billion dollars per year. goods out transported by truck day and night seven days a week. the thin crescent of the moon which also adorns the advertising posters of our train shines brightly and the night sky as our journey continues the crescent has completed just over a third of its route it travels at an average speed of around seventy kilometers per hour.

my. we are travelling in eight only two so not fools at six o'clock thousands of lights illuminated the darkness atlanta is the capital city of the state of georgia the metropolitan area is home to more than five and a half million people and yet the city's train station has just three tracks since nine hundred seventy one long distance rail travel in the united states has been in the hands of amtrak the crescent is the only passenger train come. through atlanta that's one train stopping in each direction each day. over the past few years the situation has steadily improved. it's one of the fastest growing cities in the united states just two decades ago it hosted the twenty sixth summer olympic

games it's still home to a large number of well known companies. during the night we travelled through south carolina and now we greet the dawn in north carolina both are among the southern states that seceded from the united states in eight hundred sixty one and joined the confederation it's a dark chapter in u.s. history. the railroad town of spencer also lies on our journey but the crescent rushes through without stopping train enthusiasts would find

a lot to enjoy there because spencer is home to the north carolina transport haitian museum which opened in one thousand nine hundred eighty five. it's a very lively museum but only days we're filming engine number five is taking a break. to central exhibit hair is the round house with thirty seven sloss one of the largest in the united states there are many engines here them museum pieces now nevertheless visitors can get a close up experience of railway history they learned that the post used to be delivered by train and was sorted during the journey they also learned that the

crescent used to be pulled by a very special machine on all the cross. so railways premier passenger train. headed even the solar ran it even after amtrak. we have one of their engines here number sixty nine hundred it's a passenger locomotive it's on display it around the house is famous as any of the b.s. that ran on the crest larry brown is a retired university professor he volunteers at the museum he's the man in charge of the train today. we have about eighty volunteers. there are maybe five or six actually did or do work for the real world everyone else's. some other patients but you like railroads yes you would have to.

a diesel train with several carriages makes its way through the grounds three times a day. the train is full of activity children in particular like it the museum of as many events such as a day with thomas the tank engine that attracts thousands of children and their parents to museum that was still a small depo in the late nineteenth century it flourished and with it so too did the small town of spencer after the first world war two thousand people worked in spencer's factories in one thousand nine hundred forty the first diesel trains arrived fifteen years later steam trains were completely out of service in one nine hundred sixty the depo ceased operation and the town of spencer became less important grass grew over the complex the museum helps it record its former pub has

. steam engine six eleven is being prepped in the round house it's the famous dreamliner of norfolk and west. it was housed in the museum in roanoke in virginia but it was moved to spencer refurbishment since this footage was taken this it's eleven was back on the rails again by mid twenty fifteen it was full steam ahead once more. to museums cinema features black and white films of the history of the railroad the railway had a significant role in opening up the continent the story of the pulse train ninety seven isms and mentioned it traveled back and forth between washington and spencer every day but it was never to arrive on september the twenty seventh nineteen zero three that journey came to a tragic end on the bridge to the north danville. for

what we understand the engineer that day it was his first time operating the train and there was a section attraction or trestle that were tourists for being short he approached it to greater speed not knowing the route that well and the train derailed and there were several fatalities and that would result in the train not making a hero. by. the tragedy hasn't been forgotten not least because of the song written about it a short while later it is the record though ninety seven hundred standing it was the first gold record ever in the united states back several years ago it was

a very well folk song was played in been recorded over the years and is a famous railroad and so do you know this song i hear it. the other day of the love affair we have here notorious. it was number one in the us chance in october one thousand nine hundred twenty four the records sold more than a million copies a woman in danville commemorates the disaster. the the. we've travelled two thirds of the way to new york during an excursion to the

appalachian mountains we come across a forestry train that could have existed one hundred years ago for many decades trees felled in the surrounding forests processed in the small town of cass west virginia the forestry train with its powerful steam engines transported the wood into the valley. the same locomotive was designed with all of this operating equipment on the outside of the engine so that two guys my size could carry any broken parts out of the woods and fix it wherever it failed most lumber operations didn't have a large shop like we have they had basically a locomotive and if it broke in the woods they had to fix it where it failed. to work look small remand take on the old photographs than it really was special engines had been developed to transport the timber the shea was one of them it stands out because of its unusual powertrain of beveled is and universal joints.

shoveling. tone is a job for a strong backs. but this fun to be had to the effort. and time famine is crammed themselves into the cars at the cast scenic railway road which has been travelling through the forests of west virginia behalf a century to this day it's a popular attraction not surprising with such a man's game.

oh the so. joyful area here forty five the fact that. the only ways come back to the train there back home or so we're going to end our schedule going to. bode no this one of the highest points in west virginia with an absolutely norris feel you. are a. fan of the river. the soul the whole of the. country sing i do mean rajah's was a brakeman and it's still

a calling to this day each carriage on this train has a break man the work is hard it's a steep descent. we're back on the crescent and heading through a historic region. the as the the just over one hundred and fifty years ago it was the site of one of the worst tragedies in american history.

in the last light of day we can see the battlefield of manassas the site of the first major battle of the american civil war thousands of soldiers from the north and the defecting south were killed or wounded in the first battle of bull run or the battle of fast men as the conflict which started in a comparatively harmless manna developed into a mess in a civil war that neither side could have anticipated all sides are very enthusiastic about their respective cautions but all of them almost without exception are untrained west officers who are either all elected politicians are businessmen. this is going to be a disaster for both sides. many states in the north

supported the liberation of slaves the southern states wanted each state to have the power to decide the slavery issue and whether to remain in the union in any eight hundred sixty one six dates withdrew and formed the confederate states of america. in the presidential election of eight hundred sixty abraham lincoln one and his policy was no more slavery not to eliminate existing slavery but no more but the southern states understood if slavery could not expand. their society and their economy would die i believe that's why there was an american civil war. the american civil war was the first ministry conflict to be documented each detail through photographs. with you.

around and even technology at the time played a crucial role. to put it another way to move came by train. the american civil war was the first conflict all over the world where the railroads became a tactical. weapon for war would move troops it move supplies it moved ammunition all over the country and i would support the war effort on both sides to be a no railroad was an important player because it ran through both northern territory and southern territory it was the object of many many attacks and so what

we see during this four year period is the development of new technologies things like armored box cars things like better locomotives things like tactical planning for moving munitions and troops and things like that for the first time in the world and we would see as a result of that experience in later wars. in this remote region on april ninth eight hundred sixty five following the battle of the mattock station the commander of the southern forces general roberts said rendel. in the last week of the war here in for genya there's a particular railroad the south side railroad that connects petersburg virginia all the way to apple maddox and beyond to lynchburg virginia at apple maddox generally had multiple trains full of food waiting for his army just three miles southwest of the courthouse village where we are now. however general george custer and

a division of united states cavalry captured all the trains and apple matic station here the next day generally surrendered in this village after next court house that ended the civil war in for genya and would practically and effectively in the entire american civil war over the next two months that is sixty five. during the four years of the civil war at least seven hundred and fifty thousand people military and civilian lost their lives that's almost as many as in all other american was combined. the real winners that the civil war where the railroad companies the railway had experienced an incredible boom during the war is being an indispensable part of the transport supply and logistics network this machine known as

a ten wheeler was built in eight hundred fifty three at first it ran in the mountains of the genea then in the civil war after that it pulled freight and passenger trains for many is after the war there was a tremendous amount of growth in the railroads of the united states a lot of money was made by their ads during the war so they expanded their networks and we see the size of the american railroads almost double in less than ten years . our next stop is washington d.c. the american capital the site of some of the most important institutions that the united states the washington monument and all the escape made of white marble rises one hundred and seventy meters and can be seen from far and wide it was inaugurated in one thousand nine hundred four. see. eckstein

hundred pennsylvania avenue is the address of america's most famous building the white house where the president lives and works. our stop in washington's union station will be longer than usual because the engine needs to be switched the stretch to new york is electric before arriving we were informed that we could leave the train but we needed to stay close they don't want to leave any passengers behind an electric locomotive type eight and seven replaces the two diesel engines. the crescent leaves the station right on time it now makes its way through the northeast corridor on an electrified stretch of seven hundred kilometers between

washington and boston where trains travel at up to two hundred forty kilometers per hour the landscape has changed many factories line the train tracks and every half hour there's another big city. baltimore maryland philadelphia pennsylvania trenton new jersey. finally the skyline of manhattan comes into view we've reached our destination new york city for the last four kilometers the crescent rolls through the hudson river tunnel built in one thousand ten after thirty one hours and forty five minutes our journey ends in underground penn station.

the big apple is captivating its sex in a rating to be here at times square in the city that never sleeps there and the rush of the red. planet st louis again with. the way open to. get to. you new york greats fifty million visitors a year the city itself is hand to eight and the hoff million people thanks to the sci l.o.'s. nine eleven the attack on the world trade center in two thousand and one on the site of the twin towers a memorial commemorates the two thousand seven hundred and forty nine victims known colloquially as freedom tower the one world trade center is the city's tallest

building and its newest landmark. the crowning end to our journey is the sparkling skyline of new york the a . the to a the end. superstar. revolutionary brian. cox twenty one special new santa. claus influenced us

a rebellious monk still has gone on sunday trichotillomania. thirteen. welcome to quadriga what is it that. you know about it business. women's talk w. . smart women. smart talk with. smart state. of the w. what does a football loving country need to reach its goals. we'll tell you how to german soccer made it back to the top. in our web special w dot com. football made in germany. we take personally.

with all the wonderful people in stories that make the game so special. for all true fans love. more than football fans online zedong is coming to somebody and let's go right to our correspondent news in central istanbul i'm joined by the helicopter you know his political correspondent on those stories in just a minute but first this news is just it's all about the perspective closer. tens of thousands of marched through barcelona calling for the break way region of catalonia to remain part of spain this after the spanish central government imposed direct rule over the region in the wake of the catalan regional parliament's moves

to trigger.