In this Globe Trekker Special we explore the world’s most historic sites of the modern era. Our hosts travel from the heart of Europe, across the Middle East, South Africa, the Far East, Australasia, and the USA, visiting spectacular sites dating from the mid 19th century right up to the present day. Eiffel Tower, Paris Exploring the historic sites that shaped the United States, Megan McCormick visits Gettysburg, site of the famous speech given by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, Ian Wright travels to the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana, site of General Custer’s Last Stand during the Indian Wars, while Justine Shapiro visits the gold mining ghost town of Bodie, once part of the great California Gold Rush that brought vast numbers of settlers to the West. The late 19th century in both the United States and Europe saw revolutionary developments in modern architecture: Justine Shapiro explores the birth of the skyscraper in Chicago, Adela Ucar visits the greatest expression of early steel technology – the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France – whilst Megan McCormick marvels at Europe’s greatest Modernist masterpiece – Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, Spain. Sadly, this golden age of modern European culture was brought to a shuddering end by the outbreak of World War I. Katy Haswell visits Ypres in Belgium, one of the most appallingly bloody of all Great War battlefields, where around half a million soldiers lost their lives. Megan McCormick, Barcelona After the terrible slaughter of the First World War, the other great upheaval in early 20th century Europe was the Communist Revolution in Russia. Ian Wright travels to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, where the Tsars were overthrown, and to Moscow, to visit Red Square, the Kremlin and Lenin’s Tomb. Moscow is also home to an extraordinary collection of Communist-era Gothic skyscrapers, but in terms of building skyscrapers as high as possible, the Soviet arc
