Mega Movers

Bridges have been pushed, airlifted and taken apart, but if needed, can one of the world's longest and most famous suspension bridges be moved? Experts say San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge can be relocated and they'll show how. In Rhode Island, the team is challenged when they take on the job to haul the world's widest network-arched bridge 15 miles up river and set it in place.

Join us on two treacherous trips as we follow two separate structural moving families in their struggles to relocate and save a 100-year-old homestead and an 1890 Queen Anne Victorian house. In Colorado, a father and son have to fight fierce weather and the fragility of a purported haunted log cabin and decaying barn to move them two miles across a rugged mountainside. In Illinois, three generations of movers are pushed to their limit when they are hired to transport a 180-ton monster house across town. Will these historic homes reach their final resting places in one piece and find peace?

The Matyiko brothers are a legendary Mega Mover family. Their company Expert House Movers entered the record books when they moved the historic Gem Theatre in Detroit, The Schubert Theatre in Minneapolis and the Cape Hattarass Lighthouse. In this Mega Movers episode the brothers battle time and the elements. In Massachusetts, the clock is ticking to move a 900-ton brick building to its new location. Any delays will cost the veteran house movers thousands of dollars. And in North Carolina, three vacation houses must make a perilous journey across 8 miles of open beach to reach their new home. Will the homes arrive safely? Or, will the treacherous waters of the Outer Banks claim yet another victim?

Oil is the lifeblood of the world's economy, and it's up to the Mega Movers to make sure that this flow is uninterrupted. Off the coast of Singapore, one of the largest and most unusual ships ever built will transport an entire 22,000-ton oil rig to the Gulf of Mexico. Making the 14,000-mile trek across two oceans will test the skills of both man and machine. And in Alaska, the pressure is on to move an 80-by-60-foot pump station on the Trans-Alaskan pipeline. But an approaching winter storm threatens to stop this move cold. Will these vital oil industry components successfully reach their destinations?

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.

Follow the massive move of the USS Intrepid from its New York City pier to Bayonne, New Jersey. This legendary carrier helped to destroy Japan's Imperial Navy and survived five kamikaze attacks. A New York real estate developer opened it as a museum in 1982. Watch as it gets stuck in the mud when attempts are made to move it for much needed repairs, then ultimately freed by Navy divers.

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.

War inspires ingenuity... some of the greatest battles have been won or lost based on the work of Mega Movers. In 218 B.C. the Mega Movers' tool was 37 elephants that transported men and cargo across the Alps, ensuring victory for Hannibal at the Battle of Trebbia. In 304 B.C. the famous 160-ton Helepolis siege tower, which required 3,400 men working in relays to move it, was used for the Siege of Rhodes. And in 1944, at D-Day, the battle turned on the work of military Mega Movers who built two massive harbors in just two weeks. It's not only on the battlefield where the military has earned their Mega Mover stripes but also during times of crisis. October 8, 2005 - Pakistan is hit by a major earthquake. With the death-toll climbing, aid is desperately needed to prevent thousands more from dying. In one of the fastest mobilizations of Army helicopters ever used for relief, four CH-47 choppers were loaded into two mammoth C-5 Galaxy cargo planes and flown from Hawaii to Pakistan, delivering life-saving supplies to thousands of refugees.