It’s History

It’s History

By Ryan SocashHistory
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It’s History episodes

  • The Death-Defying History of Ejection Seats

    The first ejection seats were developed independently during World War II by Heinkel and SAAB. Early models were powered by compressed air and the first aircraft to be fitted with such a system was the Heinkel He 280 prototype jet-engined fighter in 1940.

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    13 min
  • Florida's Abandoned Island Fort

    Fort Jefferson is a massive but unfinished coastal fortress. It is the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas and is composed of over 16 million bricks. The building covers 16 acres (6.5 ha). Among United States forts, only Fort Monroe in Virginia and Fort Adams in Rhode Island are larger. The fort is located on Garden Key in the lower Florida Keys within the Dry Tortugas National Park, 68 miles (109 km) west of the island of Key West. The Dry Tortugas are part of Monroe County, Florida, United States.

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    18 min
  • Chicago's Movable Bridges | The history of Bascule Bridges

    A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- or double-leafed. The name comes from the French term for balance scale, which employs the same principle. Bascule bridges are the most common type of movable span because they open quickly and require relatively little energy to operate, while providing the possibility for unlimited vertical clearance for marine traffic.

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    19 min
  • When Chicago built the Tallest Building in the World | The story of Sears Tower

    The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is currently the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations. The building occupies a site bounded by Franklin Street, Jackson Boulevard, Wacker Drive, and Adams Street. Graham and Khan designed the building as nine square "tubes", clustered in a 3×3 matrix; seven of the tubes set back at upper floors. The tower has 108 stories as counted by standard methods, though the building's owners count the main roof as 109 and the mechanical penthouse roof as 110.The facade is made of anodized aluminum and black glass. The base of the building contains a retail complex known as the Catalog. The lower half of the tower was originally occupied by retail company Sears, which had its headquarters there until 1994, while the upper stories were rented out. The structure was known as the Sears Tower from its construction until the naming rights were included in a 2009 lease with the Willis Group. Local area residents still refer to the building by its old name. As of April 2018, the building's largest tenant is United Airlines, which occupies around 20 floors. Other major tenants include the building's namesake Willis Towers Watson and law firms Schiff Hardin and Seyfarth Shaw. Morgan Stanley became the building's fourth-largest tenant in 2017.

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    25 min
  • Why Florida Abandoned the Sea Domes

    This year, the last four domes of the famed Cape Romano Dome House fell to Hurricane Ian. Though it now sits beneath the waves in its final resting place, it was a self-sufficient marvel in its heyday. Today on It's History, we will discover its story.

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    16 min
  • Chicago's Lost Grain Elevators | How Greed became Urban Decay

    Chicago's grain elevators were created for agricultural trade but destroyed by greed; although the city once had over 300 towering structures, nothing remains but the wealth that shaped the city. Join us in discovering this tale of Urban Decay.

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    19 min
  • Why Tourists Became Repulsed by NYC | History of Tourism in New York City

    Today's video covers the fascinating history of tale Tourism in New York City, tourist traps, and why some visitors may find their trip to the big apple "repulsive".

    We've all been there; we booked the trip of a lifetime to a Legendary destination, New York City. The type of place we recognize from TV. Yet When you arrive, you're overcome with the nauseating sensation of disappointment; you try to repress the facts; you expected the smell of garbage, terrible traffic, and occasional degenerations, yet something is off. Somehow no one warned you about the obvious, that other tourists, like yourself, pervert everything you thought you'd love about the city.
    This hasn't always been the case. Mass tourism on such a corporate scale is a relatively new phenomenon. and Spoiler alert, Aside from the money it brings in, it doesn't add much value. But when did this all begin?
    Today we discover the history of tourism in New York City and how it has eroded the city's culture.

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    23 min
  • When New York Destroyed a Skyscraper in its Prime | The Rise and Fall of Gillender Tower

    In the late 19th century, the Gillender building was finished. Even though it was regarded as one of the marvels of New York City and was once one of the tallest buildings in the world, now, its former footprint in the city has been consumed by another iconic skyscraper, and all evidence of the Gillender Building is either erased or buried underneath it. So what caused such a great building to be demolished so quickly? Today we discover the rise and fall of the Gillender Building.

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    16 min

About It’s History

From the publisher's feed

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.