TV Schedule for Smithsonian Channel USA - Pacific

How Did They Build That? Breakthroughs & Bridges

Visiting London's Gherkin, Seattle's Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and Lyon's Musée des Confluences to uncover how and why they were built.

How Did They Build That? Canyons & Curves

Engineers grapple with an apartment building, ripped apart by a man-made canyon; the Gateway Arch takes shape in St. Louis; an unpromising plot in Copenhagen, Denmark, is transformed by a gleaming new triangular office.

How Did They Build That? Supertalls & Firehouses

Alien port authority in Belgium; ultrathin skyscraper in Manhattan; hanging museum in Scotland.

How Did They Build That? Boxes & Birds

The American Museum of Natural History in NYC gets a cave-like extension; an arts center inspired by migrating birds is built on a lake in China; Boston University gains a fossil-free, Jenga-like tower.

How Did They Build That? Heights & Balance

A 1.2-million-square-foot office building balances precariously on a 39-foot wide base in Chicago; a building named Pterodactyl lands on top of a Los Angeles parking garage; the world's longest suspension footbridge.

How Did They Build That? Subways & Sightlines

A sculptural high-rise with rippling balconies breaks the mold in Chicago; Mammoth machines bore 26 miles of tunnels for an underground railroad beneath London's city streets.

How Did They Fix That? Volcano Power

Mike is in Iceland, where teams harness the power of volcanos to keep the geothermal energy flowing; they battle harsh weather to maintain and upgrade giant power systems, fixing miles of steam pipes, and bringing a dead well back to life.

How Did They Fix That?

An in-depth look at how things are repaired.

How Did They Fix That? Philadelphia Transit

In Philadelphia, Mike is on streets, in tunnels, on tracks and in trolley restoration garages; he is working shoulder-to-shoulder with the team that keeps one of America's largest and oldest mass transit systems running smoothly and on time.

How Did They Fix That? Water Work

In Florida, Mike tackles one of the dangerous jobs on the planet, commercial diving; he helps a specialized team keep waterways safe; fixing construction site leaks and removing dangerous structures, all while hurricane season is in full swing.

How Did They Build That? Mirrors & Marble

Visiting Australia's One Central Park, the Oslo Opera House and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco to reveal their architectural secrets.

How Did They Build That? Parking & Sparkling

A dazzling new 1400 foot tapering skyscraper is built right next to New York's Grand Central. A curving wine museum requires ingenious engineering in Bordeaux, France. And possibly the world's most glamorous parking garage.

How Did They Build That? Shipyards & Slender Builds

A 284ft wooden skyscraper built from 1,200 bespoke pieces tests fire safety limits in Milwaukee; a decaying Amsterdam crane track transforms into glass offices; a needle-thin tower stacks 28 apartments onto a 21ft-wide plot in Melbourne, Australia.

How Did They Build That? Arctic Modules & Auditoria

The engineering secrets behind a mobile research station in Antarctica, a gravity-defying concert hall on the Canary Islands, and a rotating boat lift in Scotland.

How Did They Build That? Reborn Buildings & Sacred Grounds

In Oklahoma, a sacred spiral mound rises on a former oilfield, honouring 39 tribes. London's crumbling Battersea Power Station is reborn with two million new bricks. And in Spain, Frank Gehry crowns a historic winery.

Air Disasters Second Thoughts

The turboprop plane begins its descent in thick fog, but things go wrong; Luxair Flight 9642 crashes a few kilometers from the runway; investigators discover that there was nothing abnormal about the two engines.

Air Disasters Blind Spot

In 1978, PSA Flight 182 collides with a Cessna and crashes into a San Diego residential area, killing everyone on both planes and seven people on the ground.

Air Disasters Dead Weight

Air Midwest Flight 5481 plummets to the ground just after takeoff, killing all on board and injuring one on the ground.

Air Disasters The Plane That Flew Too High

West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes down killing 160 people in 2005; it leads to the bankruptcy of the troubled airline.

Air Disasters Tree Strike Terror

After a passenger jet miraculously survives a collision with trees while landing, investigators attempt to uncover why the plane was flying so low.

Air Disasters Lethal Choices

Faced with a midair crisis, pilots must make a life or death decision, but the wrong approach can trigger a far more serious problem.

Air Disasters Deadly Crossroads

A look at the string of events that caused a midair collision in 2002 over the skies of southern Germany; a Bashkirian Airlines Flight collides with a DHL Flight in German airspace near Überlingen.

Air Disasters Operation Babylift

A United States Air Force transport aircraft conducting the inaugural flight of Operation Babylift suffers an explosive decompression when the rear cargo door fails and crashes into a paddy field while attempting an emergency landing.

Air Disasters Falling Fast

Investigators discover a shocking mistake when pilots must ditch their plane in the Mediterranean, killing 14 of the 34 passengers.