A documentary series on revolutionary engineering projects: the Transcontinental Railroad, The Statue of Liberty, the US highway system, the Panama Canal, the Boston subway, the Transatlantic telegraph cable, The Golden Gate and Bay Bridges of San Francisco and the Hoover Dam.
A reasonably interesting documentary series. Covers many well-known man-made features that we just take for granted today. At their time of construction, however, they were the results of amazing feats of engineering, and many still are. Very educational in how the projects are discussed.
Not brilliant though. Many of the experts, historians and engineers, are largely of the cheerleader type, hyping up each project using hyperbole and inane comparisons. This weakens the objectivity of the series and makes it look cheap. Having experts with gravitas would have gone a long way to making this series brilliant.
The other thing is that while the series is called "The Engineering That Built the World" it really should be called "The Engineering That Built the United States". The series is incredibly American-centric. Even the episode on underground railways focuses on the Boston subway: the fact that several other underground railways were built sooner is merely mentioned in passing and used as a "Well, we can do better than them" moment.
