New York Wanted To Close Rikers. Then It Proposed Building Prisons Like Skyscrapers
For decades, Rikers Island became one of the most notorious jail complexes in America, a sprawling symbol of violence, overcrowding and a criminal justice system that New…
Hundreds Of Ships Disappeared Here. Why Sailors Feared Cape Horn
For centuries, sailors crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific faced a terrifying choice: go around the southern tip of South America. Before the Panama Canal opened in…
For 400 Years, We Called Them The Lost Colony. What If They Were Never Lost?
In 1590, John White returned to Roanoke Island expecting to find more than 100 English settlers he had left behind three years earlier. Instead, the settlement was…
The Eiffel Tower Told Female Workers to Step Aside. Then the Tower Closed
For one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, the Eiffel Tower closed after something happened inside that had nothing to do with weather, safety or a technical…
They Built a Gold Rush Town Without Saloons. Then Hollywood Added a Fake Cemetery
In the American West, a gold-mining town without a saloon would have been unusual enough. Golden, Oregon, went even further: its founders also kept out dance halls…
They Said This African Lake Turns Animals to Stone. The Truth Is Stranger
For years, photographs of birds and bats beside Tanzania’s Lake Natron have made the place look like a natural death trap. The animals appear frozen in lifelike…
They Built a $100 Billion City for 700,000 People. Then It Became a Ghost Town
Forest City was supposed to become a futuristic paradise near Singapore, built on artificial islands with enough homes for more than 700,000 people. Instead, rows of luxury…
The U.S. Could Bomb the Jungle. It Couldn’t Destroy What Was Beneath It
During the Vietnam War, American forces had aircraft, artillery, tanks and overwhelming firepower. Yet beneath the countryside around Cu Chi, opposing forces had created something those weapons…
Britain Captured This Tiny Island. Days Later, Montreal Fell
In the summer of 1760, Britain was closing in on the last major French stronghold in North America. Between the British army and Montreal stood a tiny…
The Prison Where Convicts Built Ships, Cut Forests and Powered an Entire Colony
Port Arthur is remembered today as one of Australia’s most famous convict sites, but its original purpose went far beyond locking people behind stone walls. Beginning in…