Trapped in an Elevator 1x53

Across North America, elevators move 325 million passengers every day, and most of the time people don’t give it a second thought. In this program, NOVA provides viewers with answers to a series of questions: How do elevators work? Are they safe? Why are so many people afraid of them? What role has the elevator played in the architectural evolution of the modern city? How will vertical transportation evolve in the future? And what about that space elevator? NOVA’s cameras will ride the world’s fastest elevator to the top of the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Viewers will find out if its elevator system is ready for the task of moving people to unprecedented heights. Other locations include the Otis Test Tower–a 28 story high-rise that’s the most over-elevatored building in the world–and one of the only places where elevators are purposely sent in to free fall; and the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, once an elevator disaster, which has been resurrected by new “smart” technology.

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