Name: Proving Grounds
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 25 min

Watch over 2 000 of HISTORY’s most fascinating documentaries and series  anytime  commercial-free.

HISTORY VAULT

More than two million people die in the U.S. annually, creating 5,500 daily burials with 80 percent choosing caskets and 20 percent cremation; explore dealing with death throughout centuries and today's $20-billion funeral industry.

Modern Marvels

Cemeteries

Defensive fortifications span WWI bunkers to futuristic structures; explore submarine bunkers at Lorient housing 20 subs, Churchill's Cabinet War Room, Hitler's Berlin bunker, Cold War shelters, and nuclear weapon protection bunkers.

Bunkers

Celebrate the ingenuity and imagination found in the world around us. 24/7 episodes of Modern Marvels, television's most innovative series.

Dynamite explodes hills, drills divide stone walls, and giant cranes pull 400,000-pound blocks from quarry pits; rock serves as civilization's raw material for roads, buildings, paint, glue, makeup, antacids, and chewing gum.

Quarries

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has trained students in warfare for nearly 200 years; located 50 miles north of New York City on 16,000 acres, it overlooks the Hudson River and evolved with America's expanding responsibilities.

West Point

Nuclear submarines carry more firepower than all bombs dropped in history; since the 1950s, these steel vessels became U.S. defense cornerstones, sparking Cold War underwater competition and creating engineering miracles for deterrence.

Nuclear Subs

Cannons evolved from 13th-century fort-penetrating weapons to atomic bomb launchers with smart weapons; explore how cannons were cast and forged, terrorized in world wars, and advanced to today's 40-ton self-propelled Crusader.

Cannons

Examination of chemical and biological warfare history and technology traces back 4,000 years to ancient India's toxic fumes; includes details of Soviet biological programs and interviews with former scientists Ken Alibek and Bill Patrick.

Chemical and Biological Weapons

Engineering disasters exact costs in lives when design flaws fell projects; examine the leaning Tower of Pisa, Idaho's first nuclear accident, Soyuz 11 deaths, Texas Tower destruction, and NASA's Mars mission losses.

Engineering Disasters 3

From colossal devices designed to save the world to mind-expanding, world-shrinking machines, tracing the evolution of mice and menus; learning about the world's most powerful computer that operates at 12-trillion calculations a second.

Computers

The Pentagon, completed in 1943, serves as the five-sided nerve center for the nation's armed services and stands as the largest office building in the world, conjuring an imposing image of American military power.

The Pentagon

From the Pharos of Alexandria to modern automated buoys, lighthouse history features personal stories of keepers, daring construction, and optical discoveries; today these structures become inns and retreats as navigation advances.

Lighthouses

Named one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern age, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel connects Virginia proper with its easternmost landmass; stretching 17 miles across the historic bay, the structure includes highways and islands.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel

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Stories of those who believed in dreams and defied the commonplace with their extraordinary creations; covering some of the world's architectural and engineering structures, scientific inventions, and social wonders.

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On a proving ground, you can fire a missile without scaring the neighbors or lift millions of pounds in pursuit of ounces of gold. Performance is the only thing that matters, and no excuses can be given in battle or competition.

S7 E2 | Proving Grounds