 The New York City Subway System (Building America: Then and Now) In 1912, workers digging to create the Broadway Subway, north of Murray Street in lower Manhattan, hit a brick wall approximately 21 feet (6.4 meters) below the street surface. Breaking through the wall, the laborers came upon a tunnel 9 feet (2.7 m) in diameter and lined with eight- inch- thick (20.32 centimeters) bricks. Two rails led into a... |  Layers of the Earth (The Restless Earth) The Earth is made of layers, each with its own unique characteristics and processes that make it a vital part of the planet. The solid inner core, for example, is the farthest layer from the planet's surface, yet it provides much of the heat needed to fuel dramatic surface phenomena such as volcanoes and earthquakes. Likewise, the outer core... |  The Brooklyn Bridge (Building America: Then and Now) Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge is widely considered the greatest engineering achievement of the 19th century. This vision of designer John Augustus Roebling would be the longest bridge ever built at the time. During the 30-year construction period, the project withstood city politics, numerous construction conundrums and accidents, and... |
 Celebrities and Crime (Criminal Investigations) The public's fascination with celebrities can reach a fever pitch when celebrities commit or are involved in a crime. Famous victims like the Lindbergh baby and Sharon Tate have raised public outcry against the cruel crimes that claimed their lives. And the trials of celebrity criminals such as Jim Bakker and O.J. Simpson are proof that even the... |  Computer Game Developer (Weird Careers in Science) Explore the training needed to become a computer game developer, a lucrative and exciting career. Also gives readers a chance to examine how computer games are created - from an idea to a finished product. Ages 12+ WICKED2 TWINS HAVE INVADED the island home of Crash Bandicoot, revealing their plans to enslave Crash and hisfriends and... |  The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 (Great Historic Disasters) At approximately 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a powerful earthquake ripped through the city of San Francisco. Roadways rose and fell like ocean waves. Crumbling walls and chimneys rained glass and bricks onto sidewalks and streets, and crowded rooming houses suddenly vanished into heaps of splintered wood. Yet San Francisco's ordeal had only begun.... |
 Lake and Sea Monsters (Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena) Did you ever have an experience that turned your whole world upside down? Maybe you saw a ghost or a UFO. Perhaps you had an unusual, vivid dream that seemed real. Maybe you suddenly knew that a certain event was going to happen in the future. Or, perhaps you saw a creature or a being that did not fi t the description of anything known in the... |  Ocean Ridges and Trenches (The Extreme Earth) "Ocean Ridges and Trenches" immerses readers in the mysteries of the world's sea floors, from the surprising creatures of the Galapagos Rift to the devastating tsunamis of the Java Trench. This new volume in "The Extreme Earth" set reveals how 10 undersea mountain ranges and valleys came to be, how and why it has changed over... |  Unsolved Crimes (Criminal Investigations) In "Unsolved Crimes", famous, unresolved cases from the past 120 years are examined to review what police and experts in forensic science did (or failed to do) while trying to resolve each crime. For each case covered, the key theories and suspects are described. Though technology is much improved since the time of Jack the Ripper in... |
 The Empire State Building (Building America: Then and Now) It was to be a structure like no other - the largest and tallest skyscraper in the world. Initial plans for the Empire State Building called for an Art Deco masterwork to rise 1,000 feet, with 80 stories of rental space. The high-rise was to completely fill the 84,000-square-foot site of the former Waldorf-Astoria, then New York's most opulent... |