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In this video, we will explore the secret chamber that lies behind the carved faces of the four presidents. We will also learn about the original vision of the sculptor who created Mount Rushmore and why his plan was never completed. #brightside #brightsideglobal TIMESTAMPS: 0:01 Hidden secrets of US monuments 09:53 Vikings in North America 19:48 What if Columbus never reached the Americas This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:01Hello bright-siders! Do you know what's hidden inside President Lincoln's head
00:07or at the Grand Station Terminal in New York? Today I will reveal secrets about
00:14America's best known landmarks you have never heard of. At the towering granite
00:21faces of Mount Rushmore, there's a hidden chamber inside President Lincoln's
00:26head, built initially to hold essential documents from US history. The original
00:32plan was to create a much larger carving of several vital moments in American
00:39history. Unfortunately, it was far too complicated to be completed and a Hall of
00:46Records was chosen instead. The construction stopped for many years with
00:51the room left unfinished. However, the project was revived in late 90s and they
00:57completed the chamber. The hidden room tells the US's story to future generations, a
01:04time capsule of American history. Sadly, tourists can't access the secret room as
01:11it's too difficult to reach. Anyone running through the Grand Central Terminal to get
01:17to their train on time knows that you work up quite a sweat. Some hidden
01:23Manhattanites are also working up a sweat somewhere else at the station. Few
01:28commuters realize that the Grand Central Terminal has been home to a tennis club
01:33for decades. It mainly serves local sports fans and corporate groups so most
01:40people don't even know it exists. Vanderbilt Tennis Club is located on the
01:45station's upper levels and includes a full gymnasium, one full-sized indoor hard
01:51court and even a junior court. While it might seem strange to join, the tennis and
01:58fitness club is quite popular among the locals. Most of the Supreme Court building
02:04is what you'd expect. Courtrooms, offices and other generally dull workspaces. But
02:13that's until you get to the fifth floor. The building has a hidden basketball
02:19court, nicknamed the highest court in the land. This court is frequented by many of
02:26the building's workers. The room was initially designed as a storage space, but
02:31some people started turning it into a makeshift court to practice their tennis
02:35game. The trend took off and eventually turned into a basketball court we know today. One of the
02:43most fascinating things about Niagara Falls is how naturally falling water is used to
02:50generate energy. The falls had slowed to a trickle or even stopped because of
02:56freezing and ice on several occasions. But a little known secret of the falls is
03:01that they can be turned off. And in 1969 the US Army Corps of Engineers did just that. To generate
03:12hydroelectric power engineers developed ways to control the water's flow and fall to get the
03:18most out of it. All this water causes lots of erosion, so a facelift was planned. Unfortunately,
03:26the plan ended up being a bit of a failure. Meanwhile, this lady is no failure. She's an icon,
03:34a symbol of hope and one of the most recognizable figures in the world. And she wears size 879 shoes.
03:44The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable structures in the USA and in the world.
03:51In 1886 the monument wasn't just symbolic. For 16 years the statue functioned as a fully operational
04:00lighthouse. Tourists at the US landmark can head to her crown for a stunning city view. But there used
04:07to be a room in the torch that could be accessed. Unfortunately, the ladder to the torch room was
04:14damaged by a shockwave from a nearby explosion making the room inaccessible from 1916 until today.
04:22And it hasn't welcomed any visitors since. When the Brooklyn Bridge was first under construction,
04:29the engineers faced two significant problems. Well, the city didn't have enough money to pay for the
04:36whole project. That's a first. And local binaries were refusing to relocate out of the path of the
04:42construction. The engineer managed to find a great solution to both problems. They helped finance the
04:50bridge by building wine cellars and renting them out to local businesses that needed the extra storage.
04:58That's a pretty genius approach to financing a bridge actually. Today, the city of New York has taken
05:04ownership of the cellars and stripped the caverns of their original functionality. Now they are primarily
05:10unused and full of maintenance equipment. Disneyland has fast become one of the most famous landmarks in
05:19America. Hardcore fans might think they know all of the park's secrets, but some might even surprise
05:26regular park goers. Hidden behind an unmarked door in Disneyland's New Orleans Square, you can find a
05:35posh, expensive restaurant called Club 33. If dining here is on your to-do list for your next vacation,
05:44you better start saving your money right now. The price to enter is a little expensive, costing around
05:52$25,000 to join plus an annual fee of $12,000. If you feel wrong about never being a part
06:01of Club 33,
06:02maybe this will cheer you up. The waiting list can be up to 14 years long and even Walt Disney
06:10himself
06:10never got to see it. The Golden Gate Bridge was once the world's longest suspension bridge. This
06:18eye-catching 1.7 mile long feat of engineering was completed in 1937. While many people know that the
06:27bridge is constantly being repainted, did you know that the paint color, which looks red, is called
06:34International Orange? Interestingly, the color was just a primer but it turned out to be quite visible
06:41through the thick fog. The bridge's original color plan was suggested to be black with yellow stripes
06:48to maximize its visibility for passing ships. That's quite an ugly combination, I think. Most people
06:56who visit the Lincoln Memorial are an ave of the size and view of the reflecting pool. Some even spend
07:04all of their energy trying to find the famous typo carved into the walls. In the line,
07:10with high hope for the future, the sculptor mistakenly spelled the future with an E instead of an F.
07:19Yet they tried filing it in but the typo is still visible. Visiting the Gateway Arc to look at the
07:24city
07:25of St. Louis is like looking back in time. Most visitors don't know that the Arc also provides a
07:32glimpse back to its construction. Built to withstand earthquakes and high winds, the Arc can move and bend as
07:39much as 18 inches in high winds. The Arc is the tallest national monument in the United States,
07:47standing at 630 feet. Few people realize that it's 630 feet wide as well. That's impressive. The most
07:56peculiar thing about this spectacular construction isn't just its story, but that it also contains the
08:03stories of over 600,000 people from St. Louis. Hidden underneath the deluxe Walford Astoria hotel is the
08:13secluded platform called Track 61, part of the Grand Central Terminal. A railway car, believed to be
08:22designed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was left in the station for decades before being removed. This
08:29private train car was able to pull into the underground station where he could come and go unseen by the
08:35public. Unfortunately, the car turned out to be just for transporting parts of construction materials,
08:43which is not really as cool as transporting a president. The Liberty Bell features one of history's
08:50most famous repair jobs. Well, actually lack of repair jobs. The bell was tested, split, and repaired when
09:01first received. And it just got worse from there. After nearly 90 years of use, a narrow crack formed in
09:10the
09:10Liberty Bell in 1840s. When the city of Philadelphia sought to repair the bell in 1846, metal workers made the
09:19crack even worse. Attempts were made to repair the existing rupture in the bell, but it was subsequently
09:27fractured beyond repair. After all of this, it had to be taken out of service for good. The bell we
09:35see
09:35today is just a replica. Not one person alive today has heard the authentic original sound of the bell.
09:53In 1928, Gloria Farley was a young girl with a big passion for exploration. She grew up in the town
10:01of
10:01Heavener, Oklahoma, and loved to visit local parks. One day, she found a weird-looking stone that had some
10:09bizarre symbols on it. Her fascination with the mysterious writings continued to grow. So, two
10:16decades later, she returned to study them and made a whole career out of it. See these weird drawings that
10:24Gloria stumbled upon back then? They're officially called runes, and they were a system of writing used by
10:31Vikings and ancient Scandinavian people. The word rune itself translates to secret word or secret
10:39letter. Runes were made up of different symbols, each representing a different sound or concept. These
10:47symbols were carved into stone or wood and were often used for inscriptions and messages. As an important
10:53part of Viking culture, they were used everywhere, from spiritual texts to everyday communication.
11:02Why are these writings so interesting in the first place? Firstly, because there is no official text
11:08that explains the history or creation of the Viking runes. Some Vikings engraved runes onto the trunk of a
11:15tree named Yggdrasil. It was a mythical tree in Norse mythology. It was believed to connect the nine
11:22realms of the universe. It's described as a huge ash tree with branches that reach out to all corners of
11:30the world. The tree is often depicted with three main roots, one on Earth, one more extending into the
11:36underworld, and the last one reaching the realm of spirits. It's a symbol of the connection between
11:44things and the cyclical nature of life. But this is just folklore. In reality, the origin of runes has
11:52not been officially determined yet. Many people even question whether Vikings originally used runes,
11:59mostly because they think Vikings acquired their knowledge of runes during their travels.
12:05We know that Vikings traveled to many different places throughout their history.
12:09They started in Scandinavia, then went on to visit the rest of Europe, including the British Isles,
12:15France, Germany, and Italy. Some even reached the northern parts of Africa and certain regions of
12:22Central Asia, going as far as the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. But there's another theory about
12:29Vikings and their travels that continues to baffle historians. Did Vikings actually discover America?
12:37Well, for starters, America was not discovered by anyone. The landmass of North and South America
12:44had been inhabited by indigenous peoples for thousands of years before the arrival of European explorers.
12:51But the first known European to reach the Americas was Christopher Columbus, who arrived at the Bahamas in 1492.
13:00So why do some people believe Vikings might have gotten there first?
13:06We have to travel back to the 19th century, when the idea that the Norse were the first Europeans to
13:12discover America took off.
13:14This belief was based on runes and Norse artifacts found in different areas in the US.
13:21That cobblestone path, first discovered by Gloria Farley, located in Hevener Runestone Park in Oklahoma,
13:28seems to tell the same story. To this day, this slab is one of the biggest historical mysteries in the
13:35US.
13:35Some believe that the runes on the stone were carved by Norse explorers in 1000 CE.
13:44At one point in her career, Gloria even reached out to the Smithsonian Institution and found out that they had
13:51already concluded in 1923 that the symbols had indeed been from a Scandinavian language.
13:57They translated to Gnome Dahl or Gnome and Dahl, which in turn translated to Sundial Valley or Monument Valley.
14:09This information answered the question of what language the symbols belonged to, but left two other questions unanswered.
14:17Who carved the symbols? And when were they carved?
14:21During her professional life, Gloria collaborated with specialists in Norse history, geology, and epigraphy.
14:29She collected evidence that backed up her theory that Vikings had explored North America and could have easily navigated shallow
14:37rivers and creeks in their long boats.
14:42Though it may seem unlikely, it's not impossible that Vikings once sailed down the Mississippi River.
14:49In fact, Viking runestones have been found in various places all over North America, including Minnesota and Maine.
14:58In Oklahoma, researchers have discovered six of these runestones in total, though their validity is still uncertain.
15:06One Norse settlement, L'Anse Almedos in Canada, has been confirmed to date back to 1021 CE.
15:16This supports the idea of the Viking activity in North America during the estimated period of time of the Hevener
15:23runestone.
15:25The Hevener runestone's age cannot be determined through traditional scientific methods, like carbon dating or organic material decay rate analysis.
15:35Therefore, researchers started to look for other evidence, like Viking artifacts or any other signs of their activity in the
15:42area.
15:44But none has been found to this day.
15:46That's why Vikings really visiting Oklahoma is a subject still up for debate.
15:53We can't finish our story about the Viking runes without mentioning the Futhark, which is a 16-letter alphabet.
16:01It was the basis for the earliest runic inscriptions that date back to around 200 BCE.
16:07At that time, the alphabet consisted of 24 letters.
16:12By 800 BCE, the number of letters was reduced to 16.
16:18The use of runes continued until the Middle Ages.
16:21Inscriptions on stone and wood were made with regular runes, while a different version of the alphabet was used for
16:28everyday messages on wood or bone.
16:32Runes were also commonly used on objects like combs to identify the owner.
16:37In the Viking culture, runes were used to honor brave fighters and heroes on memorial stones, such as the famous
16:45Gelling Stone in Jutland, Denmark.
16:48These stones were placed in public areas for all to see and had a big impact on the local culture.
16:55Runes weren't the only interesting part of the Viking heritage.
16:59Contrary to popular belief, Vikings were actually known for their cleanliness.
17:05Excavations of Viking sites have revealed that they had access to grooming tools, such as tweezers, razors, combs, and ear
17:13cleaners.
17:14Additionally, they were known to bathe regularly, often taking advantage of natural hot springs for their hygiene routine.
17:22This was in stark contrast to the hygiene habits of other Europeans at the time.
17:29They also had a knack for winter sports, which is not surprising given the Scandinavian weather.
17:36At least 6,000 years ago, Scandinavians created primitive skis, though it's believed that Asians may have invented them earlier.
17:46During the Viking Age, Norse people used skis for transportation, and also for fun.
17:52They even had a spirit protector of skiing, named Ullr, who was revered by Vikings.
18:00Vikings even had their own beauty standards, which were very important to them.
18:05Viking men, who were not naturally blonde, would use a strong soap with a high lye content to lighten their
18:12hair and conform to their culture's beauty standards.
18:15In some cases, beards were also lightened.
18:19These treatments may have also helped with another delicate issue of the time, that of head lice.
18:26Vikings were also known for their powerful ships, which were crucial to their expansion strategy.
18:33Their most commonly used boats were longboats, which could carry up to 60 people and were designed for easy docking
18:40and departure.
18:42Viking ships were typically made of wood, with the hull constructed using overlapping planks held together by iron rivets.
18:50The ships were powered by both sails and oars, and were often decorated with intricate carvings and animal figureheads.
18:59The reasons behind Vikings traveling almost everywhere in the world are not well understood.
19:06One theory suggests that their raiding trips were a result of limited opportunities in Scandinavia,
19:12including a lack of farmland and the practice of fathers leaving all their property to their oldest son.
19:18This left younger sons with no inheritance and no chance of finding land on their own, making them go on
19:25Viking explorations.
19:29Another theory is that there was an imbalance in the population of Scandinavia, with too many men and not enough
19:36women.
19:36This may have led Vikings to not only go searching for foreign treasures, but also to attract women as wives
19:43during their travels.
19:47It was hot in the tropics, a type of heat unknown to the men aboard the Niña, the Pinta, and
19:54the Santa Maria ships, led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.
19:59It had been months since these men left their home cities in Europe, and until then, Europe was all they
20:05knew.
20:06They were given a difficult and even dangerous task.
20:09Spain hired Columbus to find a new western route to Asia.
20:13They needed new routes for trading and buying spices, but it was far from a simple job.
20:18I mean, crossing the ocean never is.
20:23Little did those sailors know that their lives were about to change forever.
20:27Land in sight!
20:29Someone must have shouted on board.
20:31But when they finally stepped on that new foreign land, they discovered they were not in Asia.
20:36They had landed in the Americas.
20:40You've probably heard this tale before.
20:43Historically speaking, Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492.
20:48But what would have happened if Columbus' ship had faced a lethal storm in the Atlantic Ocean and had never
20:54made it to the new land?
20:56What would today's history look like?
20:59First things first, nobody discovered anything.
21:02When we say that the Americas were discovered, we're kind of ignoring the millions of people who already lived there.
21:09You see, the Americas were only discovered from Europe's point of view.
21:14Columbus would only have discovered something if when he got there, he was faced with acres and acres of empty
21:20land.
21:21But that was not the case at all.
21:24Second, Columbus was not the first explorer to land in the Americas.
21:28Believe it or not, the Vikings approached American shores in the 10th century.
21:33Their expeditions have been well documented and accepted by scholars.
21:38Here's what might have happened.
21:40Around the year 1000 CE, Viking explorer Leif Erikson sailed to a place called Vinland.
21:46Cute name, huh?
21:48It's now a region in Canada called Newfoundland.
21:51But his crew didn't stay too long.
21:53They arrived to find 10 Native Americans napping under their overturned canoes.
21:58They attempted some trade, but I'm guessing the Vikings weren't too friendly, and the Americans didn't really like them.
22:05The Vikings' account of the encounter shows they felt outnumbered and menaced.
22:09So they sailed away back to their land.
22:12That makes sense, right?
22:14As I said earlier, there were millions of people living in the ginormous continent of the Americas.
22:20Any foreigner would be outnumbered there.
22:23Now take a look at what North America looked like before our buddy Chris got there.
22:28It was not divided into the normal states we're used to.
22:32And if Columbus had never arrived, the United States would probably never have been united to begin with.
22:39After all, there were hundreds of first Americans living in these lands, and they lived amongst their own tribes.
22:45Quite different from the Europeans.
22:48It's not accurate to think that there were no political systems going on in the Americas before Europeans arrived.
22:54We just need to understand that they were different from what we're used to today.
22:58When Europeans arrived, they imported their belief systems with them.
23:03From religious beliefs and language systems to things as simple as clothing habits.
23:08If the Americas had developed on their own, maybe their sense of fashion would be completely different today.
23:14You see, Europeans had a developed sense of fashion by the time they arrived in the West.
23:20They wore things such as this and this.
23:23But those don't really work in the tropics, do they?
23:26For them, fashion had to do with showing a certain economic status.
23:31While in the Americas, that didn't exist.
23:35For Native Americans, clothing was mainly functional and related to the weather.
23:39In warmer climates, Native people would wear short-like cloths to cover their intimate parts.
23:45They would walk bare-chested and use shoes known as moccasins.
23:49Yes, similar to the moccasins you probably own.
23:52In colder climates, they would resort to using leather and fur parkas.
23:57Of course, there was always the special clothing used for ceremonial purposes.
24:01So I'm guessing that if Columbus never reached the Americas,
24:05brands such as The Gap, Hollister, and Forever 21 would have never existed.
24:10But we could live with that, couldn't we?
24:13Here's a wild thought.
24:14Let's say that by the 1700s, Native Americans had developed complex engineering skills.
24:20They built big boats.
24:22Maybe a bit smaller in size than the traditional European ships and decided to venture across the ocean.
24:29Let's say they were the ones who arrived on European shores.
24:32In places such as Spain and Portugal.
24:35They carried gifts and goods with them for trading, of course.
24:38This was also a common practice amongst them back home, known as potlatch.
24:43Sure, they were received with suspicion by the Europeans, who had only ever traded with Asia.
24:49But with this inverted encounter, a different type of relationship began between Native Americans and Europeans.
24:57Since Europeans didn't claim ownership of the Americas, the people from the so-called New Land weren't considered inferior to
25:05them.
25:05Actually, they stood side by side as equals, each one with their own power and set of knowledge.
25:11Native Americans taught Europeans a new type of ruling system, a more decentralized one.
25:16So, modern-day structures of government would look really different.
25:21Maybe Europeans decided that four years was a long time for someone to hold decision power.
25:26So, they implemented smaller and more frequent elections.
25:30Oh, and the landscape of European cities also changed a lot.
25:34Instead of huge statues made of copper and bronze, showing men and ships on their way to the Americas,
25:40the Europeans built totem poles in honor of their alliances with first Americans.
25:46In terms of medical and medicinal knowledge, they had a lot to exchange about.
25:50While Europeans were making advances in traditional medicine,
25:54Americans had developed an impressive knowledge of herbs that could heal a series of things.
25:59Before they knew it, Europeans were selling different varieties of plants in their pharmaceutical establishments.
26:05They had one big barrier, though. Language.
26:09Since Europeans never arrived on American shores, they also never taught their language to Americans.
26:15So, maybe in this scenario, both cultures brought in their best linguists and tried creating a new language from scratch.
26:22Something that could be comprehensible from both perspectives, and that could encompass both of their worldviews.
26:29The implications of this on modern-day life would be really profound if you stopped to think about it.
26:35Let's say that this newly created language involved some symbols and drawings in it.
26:40You see, Native Americans often told stories using symbols known as pictograms.
26:45They were quite literal sometimes.
26:47As you can see, a mountain was represented by, well, a mountain.
26:52It's crazy to think that this system of communication has been around for 5,000 years, since it was actually
26:59invented by the Sumerians.
27:01And hey, maybe even our laptop keyboards would come equipped with these symbols,
27:05and you could write more visually hybrid and fun emails than the ones you write today.
27:11The American landscape would have also changed.
27:14You see, if neither Columbus nor any of the other European dudes that went after him reached the so-called
27:20new land,
27:21Central and Latin American cities would look completely different than they do today.
27:26Maybe the bustling empires of the time, such as the Inca, the Maya, and the Aztec, would have grown immensely.
27:33To be fair, they were already pretty big by the time Europeans got there.
27:37Some pre-Columbian Maya cities were as big as medieval London and Paris in terms of population.
27:44But oh my, the Mayan Empire would have grown so much that it could have spread out all over of
27:49Central America.
27:51They could have developed their pyramid building craft up to the point that they managed to build an even larger
27:56pyramid than the Giza Pyramid in Egypt.
27:59So tourists would come from all over the world to visit.
28:03Ah, and in South America, let's just say the region could have turned into a huge forest, bigger than the
28:09Amazon.
28:10The Inca could have spread through the Andes and then into the mainland.
28:14Places such as Brazil and Argentina never existed.
28:18But in their place, there would have been dreamy tropical settlements,
28:22which would have become a worldwide reference in sustainable living.
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