00:00If everything had gone according to the original plan, you wouldn't recognize the Washington
00:05Monument today.
00:07The designer, Robert Mills, wanted to create a temple-like building with 30 tall stone
00:12columns and statues of important people from American history.
00:17There would have also been a statue of George Washington riding a horse and a 600-foot tall
00:22Egyptian-style obelisk in the middle.
00:26In 1848, they placed the first stone of the monument in a big ceremony with thousands
00:31of people.
00:33Abraham Lincoln also was there, although he was not yet famous.
00:37They started building, but by 1854, they ran out of money when the monument was only 150
00:43feet tall.
00:44Finally, 22 years later, President Ulysses Grant gave the project federal money to finish
00:51the monument.
00:52By then, tastes had changed, and they decided not to build the temple part of the base.
00:57Since the project had stopped for so long, the stone colors couldn't match perfectly.
01:02That's why the bottom of the monument is lighter than the top.
01:05When it was finished, the Washington Monument was the tallest structure in the world.
01:10But five years later, the Eiffel Tower was built, and the monument had to give away the
01:14champion's title.
01:17Years before the JFK Airport started functioning, the Empire State Building was supposed to
01:21serve as one.
01:23Yep, the iconic New York's landmark antenna wasn't designed for King Kong to climb it,
01:28but as a mooring mast for giant airships.
01:31The leader of a group of investors erecting the building, Alfred E. Smith, imagined that
01:36passengers would walk down a ramp and be out on the streets of New York just seven minutes
01:41later.
01:42But, the man in charge of a famous airship, called the Graf Zeppelin, didn't think this
01:47idea would work out.
01:49He said that landing a dirigible was very difficult and needed lots of workers on the
01:54ground to help, plus long ropes to tie the airship down.
01:58A dirigible tried to dock at the Empire State Building only once in history, in September
02:031931.
02:05The pilot had to carefully steer the airship around the top of the building for three minutes.
02:10The winds were really strong, blowing at 40 miles per hour, which made it really tricky.
02:16Traffic in the streets below stopped for over half an hour as people watched the airship
02:20trying to land.
02:23Mount Fuji has become one of the symbols of Japan as a mountain peak, but it's actually
02:28formed by three different peaks.
02:32There's a legend that says Mount Fuji was created in one night by an earthquake in 286
02:37before the Common Era, but geologists believe it's much older.
02:42The first of the peaks began developing about 700,000 years ago.
02:47Two old mountains are part of Fuji's foundation.
02:50About 100,000 years ago, a new part grew on top of these.
02:55The volcano we see today started forming 11,000 to 8,000 years ago.
03:00Compared to other volcanoes, it is still considered pretty young and active, although the last
03:05time it erupted was over 300 years ago.
03:08Whenever there's a serious earthquake in the area, there's a risk it will erupt again.
03:14Thousands of people still climb it every year.
03:18You could technically live inside the Eiffel Tower if you really wanted to.
03:22Gustav Eiffel designed the tower to feature a private apartment for himself right at the
03:27top of the construction.
03:30He left the place all neat and tidy with warm wallpaper, soft chintzes, wooden cabinets,
03:35and even a grand piano.
03:38These days, the only tenants of the apartment are two mannequins, that of Eiffel himself
03:43and of Thomas Edison.
03:45The famous inventor was a frequent guest in the apartment.
03:49If you buy a ticket to the top of the tower, you can get a sneak peek of the apartment
03:53through a window as a bonus.
03:56The Statue of Liberty also has a hidden room.
04:00It's in the torch.
04:01This part of the statue is 29 feet long and is made of copper.
04:05It sits on a steel framework that was designed by Gustav Eiffel.
04:09Yes, the same person who created the Eiffel Tower.
04:12Unfortunately, you can't visit the torch as a tourist ever since it was completely
04:17closed back in 1916.
04:20But they placed a camera there in 2011 to allow people to enjoy live streaming of the
04:25panoramic view from the torch.
04:29If you ever pass through Trafalgar Square, you'll surely miss London's smallest police
04:34station since it's hidden beneath a lamppost inside an ornamental light fitting.
04:40The reason why it was placed there back in the 1920s was to let police officers be close
04:45to public rallies.
04:47They happened quite a lot in that area.
04:49Some even said it used to have a direct phone line to Scotland Yard.
04:54It's now used as a cleaning station, so there isn't much to see there apart from some mops.
05:00It took 14 years to finish the huge profiles of four American presidents, George Washington,
05:07Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, into the southeastern face of Mount
05:13Rushmore.
05:14If current records are true, there's an incomplete secret room behind Abraham Lincoln's head.
05:20It was meant to become the Hall of Records open for visitors.
05:24It would keep important artifacts and documents of American history like the Declaration of
05:29Independence and the Constitution.
05:31A year into the construction, the authorities decided it was more important to finish the
05:36president's profiles, so they cut funding for the project.
05:40So the secret room was never finished, and visitors to Mount Rushmore can't see it.
05:46The Pasetto di Borgio is a special hidden walkway that connects the Vatican City to
05:51a nearby fortress called Castel Sant'Angelo.
05:55It's around half a mile long and was built in the 13th century.
05:59It was used by popes to escape from the Vatican when they were in danger, and it was used
06:03this way at least twice in history.
06:06A statue of Leonardo da Vinci located at Rome's Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport was first
06:13unveiled back in 1960.
06:16During a recent renovation, one of the workers made a mysterious discovery during this process.
06:22He found a small hole somewhere in the middle of the statue, at a height of about 30 feet.
06:27After it was carefully opened, they found two parchments inside.
06:31The first document, written in classical Latin, told the history of the area that now houses
06:36the airport.
06:38The other one had a list of people who attended the inauguration of the statue.
06:43There is a huge network of catacombs under Paris, stretching for around 174 miles.
06:50It's one of the largest grave sites in the world, and brave tourists are allowed to visit
06:54only a small section of it.
06:56But some people managed to get into the restricted passages to throw picnics and parties, and
07:01even start businesses there.
07:04Businesses like a fully functioning movie theater with an underground restaurant and
07:08bar.
07:09The law enforcement officers who found it believe it must have been built by some secret
07:14society.
07:16Whoever arranged it was trying to hide the entrance, making it look like a construction
07:20site.
07:21A motion sensor would set off a video camera, recording anyone who tried to sneak in.
07:26Then a sound of a barking dog would play, hoping to scare off intruders.
07:32Those who weren't scared away would get into an underground theater with rows of seats
07:36carved into the rock, a big movie screen, and a projector just like in a regular movie
07:41theater.
07:42The experts were surprised that the electricity worked so well underground to power it all,
07:47so a team came back to check it out.
07:50But when they returned, everything had been removed.
07:53The electricity lines were cut, and the items were gone.
07:56All that was left was a note saying, do not try to find us.
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