New York: A Documentary Film

How did a Dutch trading post become the capital of capitalism, the laboratory of modern urban life, and the world's most complex city?

Ric Burns's epic series traces New York across nearly 400 years—from its 1609 beginnings through the construction of the World Trade Center and September 11, 2001. The series weaves together the forces that shaped the city: waves of immigration that created unprecedented diversity, the Erie Canal that made it America's vital commercial artery, the robber barons and Tammany Hall corruption of the Gilded Age, and the city's dramatic decline and resurrection in the late 20th century.

A sweeping examination of the tensions between capitalism and democracy, wealth and poverty, transformation and tradition that made New York what it is.