Break It Down

Gershow Recycling - a sprawling 40 acre scrap yard in Long Island, NY. In just one day, this family run business will destroy three million pounds of scrap -- including as many as 500 cars and 20 city buses - to create a multi-million dollar mound of steel. This family of scrap connoisseurs has only 10 hours to get the job done. They must supply their monster shredder with a continuous lunch of discarded metal. But in the face of a volatile ferrous and non-ferrous metal market, will Gershow come out on top?

Los Angeles, California — home to the rich and famous... and their sports cars. Luxury is king here, and some say nothing shows off better than a Porsche. But when those cars crash and burn in accidents, their wreckage comes to "LA Dismantlers for Porsche". Here, an expert team tears down the totaled remains and pulls out the salvageable parts including the engines, transmissions, and seats — anything that wasn't damaged in the impact. Now, the team's got three new Porches to tackle: a 2002 Boxster, a first-generation 911, and a 997 Carrera. Each car has components that customers have back ordered, so these fresh wrecks need to come apart now.

Follow a breakdown crew as they tear apart a 50-year-old locomotive and rebuild it from the frame up, using the latest energy-efficient technology. This four-axle train must boast 1,400 horsepower and ride the rails for another 50 years. Chains and cranes do the heavy lifting, as power tools crank, torches flare and fires blaze. In just eight weeks, this loco will undergo a complete transformation and emerge again as a lean, green pulling machine.

Since 1949, the steel and concrete Piacenza Bridge had spanned a remarkable 3,300 feet across Italy's Po River. Then, disaster struck: A dangerous flood collapsed the bridge and took four vehicles with it. Now, a team of deconstruction experts have a radical plan to take down the bridge in just 90 days, with a recycling mandate of 90 percent!