The opening night of a three-night stripped event revealing the astonishing daily systems that allow America's biggest and busiest city to function. Anita Rani, Ade Adepitan, Ant Anstead and Dan Snow are in New York. From their base at Grand Central Terminal, they reveal the behind-the-scenes operations responsible for keeping the world's biggest railway terminal running to schedule. In this opening episode, Anita, Ade and Ant try commuting New York style, joining 5.5 million commuters on the iconic Staten Island ferry, the subway and citibikes. Ant visits the East Side Access and gets a privileged first glimpse of the new station beneath Grand Central. Ade takes a ride in a yellow cab and discovers that a taxi license can cost up to $1 million. Dan Snow heads to Times Square to discover how the 230 LED advertising hoardings are maintained. And we reveal the secret world of lost property at the terminal, where 3,000 items are handed in every month.
In the second part of this new series, which takes viewers on an immersive trip to New York's most iconic locations, presenters Anita Rani, Ade Adepitan, Ant Anstead and Dan Snow reveal the astonishing daily systems that allow America's biggest and busiest city to function. In this episode the team look at food consumption. From their base at the New Fulton fish market in The Bronx, from dusk until dawn, they uncover the hidden night time operations, hard-nosed negotiations and price fluctuations of this enormous wholesale operation. This time, Anita, Ade and Ant trace New York's food back to its source. Ade discovers that New York state produces an astonishing 600,000 tonnes of apples, more than 2.5 times Britain's entire production. Meanwhile Anita visits a cattle farm that supplies the steakhouses of New York and finds their diet includes chocolate, crisps and pasta. Ant visits the New NY Bridge, a $4 billion project that will replace the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River and provide a new transport artery for the city. And TV historian Dan Snow heads to Freshkills on Staten Island - once the world's biggest landfill with 150 million tonnes of rubbish, it's now been transformed into 2,200 acres of parkland. The team also reports on the revolution overtaking New York's food-delivery networks, as cameras follow the takeaway delivery drivers responsible for getting 180,000 chicken wings to hungry New Yorkers in one night. New York is a city that chooses convenience over home cooking, with businesses adapting to new technology and long-running restaurants using mobile apps - it's another example of a forward-thinking city responding to changing demands.
In the final part of this series exploring what it's like to live in America's biggest and busiest city, Anita Rani, Ade Adepitan, Ant Anstead and Dan Snow are in New York's Central Park. From their base, they reveal the hidden systems and organisational miracles that keep the world's busiest urban park clean and green. The team meets the behind the scenes team who look after all 843 acres. Ade heads to Harlem and meets residents who are benefiting and suffering at the hands of gentrification. The price of a townhouse here has gone from $50 000 to over $4 million in 30 years. Meanwhile, Ant is at Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan where an entirely new district is being built on top of a functioning rail depot - an innovative building solution to the island's lack of land. Historian Dan Snow is in Coney Island discovering that television, air conditioning and extreme weather almost killed off this historic amusement zone. And viewers are taken inside a multi million dollar penthouse apartment - accompanied by an estate agent who holds the record for selling New York's most expensive house - a cool $53 million investment.
