Mega Movers

From the Earth to the moon and beyond, NASA has made some of the most spectacular Mega Moves in history. They have the option to transport huge cargo through a route unavailable to most movers: the air. In Florida, the crew of one of the world's most unusual looking airplanes will move a piece of the International Space Station to a facility in Alabama. And in Colorado, NASA will use one of Russia's largest cargo jets to transport sections of the Atlas satellite rocket for an upcoming launch. Do these engineers have the right stuff to get the job done?

Everyday Mega Movers are asked to move some very strange structures. In Mississippi a crew tackles century old 150 ton oak trees. These eight story tall trees with root extending 60 feet survived Hurricane Katrina. Now they must survive this Mega Move. In Maryland a veteran Mega Mover will confront a 146 year-old Victorian house that is thought to be jinxed. For years many have tried to move it, and all have failed after facing major issues with utility lines, clearances, property, and accessible routes. In this episode Mega Movers prove that no matter how strange or eerie or haunted they will get the job done.

A large brick building constructed in 1906 is moved. A shoreline is reinforced with 2.7 million cubic yards of sand. A 60 ton steam shovel is moved 5 miles. A 30 ton rocket is transported inside an airplane.

Suppose the world's largest aircraft carrier, the 1,092 feet USS Ronald Reagan, came under enemy attack and was crippled at sea. There's not a ship big enough to rescue it and move it back to the U.S. for repairs. Watch as engineering theorists design and build the largest heavy-lift submersible vessel ever to lift it out of the water and haul it halfway across the world. Then, as war rages in the Middle East, the U.S. Naval fleet is at increasing danger of being destroyed by enemy deep-sea mines. Orders are issued to move a 224-foot long, 1,300-ton minesweeper halfway around the world. It's a job that can only be done by using an enormous heavy-lift ship to move this mighty war ship.

They are miracles of engineering dating back thousands of years -- remains of ancient structures around the world that seem too heavy to move. From the towering 80-ton statues on Easter Island...to the Roman God of Thunder's Temple 800-ton trilithon stones...to the colossal 30-ton stone heads moved eighty miles over brutal mountainous terrain. Scientists and engineers search for clues and set out to solve the mysteries of how primitive Mega Movers pushed the limits of ingenuity and pulled off the impossible.

Their soaring height is imposing. Their narrow design makes them some of the most difficult and dangerous structures to move -- from the 100-foot-tall obelisks of Ancient Egypt to the 1,483 foot tall Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Those that dare try to move these tall structures face almost certain defeat. Yet, despite the risks Mega Movers prove it can be done - first by peering into the future to move two of the world's tallest skyscrapers, and then taking on a present-day challenge never before attempted - simultaneously moving two towering silos connected by a common wall.

It's a scenario right out of a science fiction movie. What if in the future the Pentagon - the world's largest office building - had to be moved, while operating at full-capacity? That's 3.7 million square feet of office space and nearly a million tons of weight. Could it be done? One Mega Mover theorist lays out his plan for this extraordinary move. Then these same principles are put to the test when two thriving businesses -- a general store and a funeral home - must be moved with all its contents inside. For the general store, that means moving priceless antiques. For the funeral home, it's keeping caskets and embalming equipment from being destroyed. Will it be celebration or sorrow for the owners who put their trust in Mega Movers?

Ships are purposely sunk for different reasons - scuttled to keep out of the hands of enemy forces, or decommissioned and transformed into artificial reefs. But in the future it might not be only ships that are sunk. Imagine if a towering skyscraper was facing the wrecking ball and instead of demolishing it the owners brought in a Mega Mover to lower it onto a barge, float it out to sea and sink it as an artificial reef! In Brownsville, Texas a World War Two attack transport ship, the U.S.S. Queens - later renamed the Texas Clipper - needs to be scuttled to create a desperately needed artificial reef. But placing a 500-foot long ship at a precise spot 130 feet down on the bottom of the ocean presents enormous challenges. One mistake... one miscalculation and an ecological wonder becomes an ecological nightmare.

The team defy convention as they move a famous 1879 schooner - not through the sea, but rather the narrow city streets of Charleston

World War II aircraft...lost for more then 50 years, they are discovered in some of the most hostile locations imaginable. Driven by a desire to preserve these relics, Mega Movers risk their lives and go to extremes to salvage four aircraft. Braving sub-zero temperatures, they free a P-38 entombed 260 feet below a glacier. Working on the floor of the frigid North Sea they recover a rare Nazi Focke-Wulf 190. A B-24 on a remote island has to be hauled down towering cliffs and dragged aboard a recovery boat 250 feet off shore. And in a move that will claim the life of a crew member, a rare P-61 "Black Widow" is recovered from nearly 7,000 feet up a mountainside in a snake infested jungle. Braving the horrors of their surroundings this show is a testament to the spirit, courage and determination of Mega Movers.

Mega Movers salvages a submarine.

The task of relocating part of the Denver International Airport, and physically moving the TWA terminal at JFK International nearly a quarter of a mile

The world's oceans are graveyards for some of the greatest ships ever built. But thanks to Mega Movers some of them have risen from the dead. During the mid-1500's the English warship Mary Rose was sunk by a French cannon. Many times it was attempted to be recovered but they all ended in heartbreak. Finally, more then 400 years after it sank, its massive 580-ton hull would be raised from its watery grave. In the Baltic Sea the 17th century warship, The Vasa, was heralded as the greatest ship ever built at that time. On the day of her maiden voyage she sank. After early salvages failed, Mega Movers spent more then a year battling dangers to raise her to the surface. When the huge French liner Normandie capsized in New York Harbor, it created a deadly toxic cesspool. A team of Mega Movers with the Navy Salvage Service braved deadly conditions and pulled off the dangerous mission of bringing her back up. At the end of World War II in the shallow area of Scapa Flow a captured German Admiral gave the orders to scuttle 72 captured ships. Experts said they could never be raised. One man proved them wrong and raised 28 of them in what still remains the largest salvage operation in history.