Get it on Google Play

How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River

How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River

Author: The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios February 16, 2026 Duration: 33:16
HISTORY This Week
HistoryCultureEducationSocietySociety & Culture
February 14, 1905. A stick of dynamite detonates under the Hudson River — and the ground above swallows a locomotive whole. It's the latest setback in an audacious plan to tunnel beneath the river and bring trains into Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the largest corporation in the world, but the goopy riverbed keeps fighting back. How did they finally make it across? And why are these 115-year-old tunnels still the most critical infrastructure in America today? Special thanks to our guests: Polly Desjarlais, content and research manager at the New York Transit Museum; Jill Jonnes, author of Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels; and Andy Sparberg, former LIRR manager, transit historian, and author of From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. -- Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

This week, something big happened. You might have never heard of it, but this moment changed the course of history. A HISTORY Channel original podcast, HISTORY This Week gives you insight into the people—both famous and unknown—whose decisions reshaped the world we live in today. Through interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, each episode will give you a new perspective on how history is written. Stay up-to-date at historythisweekpodcast.com and to get in touch, email us at historythisweek@history.com.HISTORY This Week is a production of Back Pocket Studios in partnership with the History Channel.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Official website RSS
HISTORY This Week
Podcast Episodes
Ben Franklin Gets Fired [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:23
July 26, 1775. In a stately mansion turned rebel headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, George Washington sits down at a dining room table and writes out his orders for the day. The brand-new commander-in-chief has a…
From First America: "Merciless Indian Savages" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:26
We have been told the American Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But that's not what the Declaration of Independence says. According to our founders, in their own words, what they were most upset ab…
The Forgotten Father of Air Conditioning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:54
July 14, 1850. At a swanky hotel in Apalachicola, Florida, the French consul is throwing a Bastille Day party, and he's promised his guests ice-cold champagne. There's just one problem: the town's ice shipment is delayed…
The *Other* Declaration of Independence (Part II) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:43
July, 1845. Dr. Smith Boughton, the man behind the mask of "Big Thunder," is sitting in a Hudson jail after a trial that ended in a hung jury.The Anti-Renters had to celebrate Independence Day with cannon fire and readin…
The *Other* Declaration of Independence (Part I) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:08
July 4, 1839. Sixty-three years after 1776—and centuries after the medieval period—feudalism is alive and well in the United States.High on a rocky plain in upstate New York, a crowd of tenant farmers gathers in the vill…
A Mob Boss Starts A Movement [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:44
June 28, 1971. It’s the second annual “Unity Day” rally at Columbus Circle in New York City, organized by the Italian American Civil Rights League. Joe Colombo is the very public face of the League, a group that actively…
Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise – Prologue [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:52
Malcolm Gladwell and President Barack Obama introduce us to one of the most chaotic,complicated, and fascinating times in American history, revealing why Reconstruction stilldefines our country today.Listen to Reconstruc…
Malcolm Gladwell on Reconstruction’s Unfinished Questions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:29
June 15, 1865. German-American statesman Carl Schurz is traveling to Washington to meet with President Andrew Johnson when he stops at a friend’s home in Philadelphia. That night, during a séance, a teenage medium claims…
Why the Crusades Became Cool Again [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:59
June 8, 1191. The Crusaders and Muslim forces are locked in battle over the city of Acre. On one side is Saladin, the great Muslim leader who has already recaptured Jerusalem. On the other, an armada arrives carrying Eng…

«12345»