The programmes were dramatised versions of actual events: actors played the various figures involved, reciting monologues and dialogue based on their letters and writings.

[1][2] This episode focuses on the construction of the SS Great Eastern, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to be both the first ship entirely made out of iron and the most luxurious vessel of the day.

However, while the ship itself was a marvel of shipbuilding, its construction was marred by accidents, scandal and misfortune, including a fire that practically destroyed the shipbuilder's yard, problems with the launch and financial scandals, all of which contributed towards Brunel's deteriorating health and comparatively early demise in 1859 and the popular belief that the ship was jinxed (a rumour leading to the legend of two bodies being found trapped in the hull upon its dismantling).

The episode follows the efforts and work of Joseph Bazalgette, the brilliant engineer who designed the influential and modern sewer system that would purify the city, transform the streets above and would result in the end of the epidemics of cholera and typhoid that had ravaged the population—although, ironically not for the reasons that he initially thought.

The final episode focuses on the construction of the Hoover Dam during the Great Depression of the 1930s, focusing in particular on the ruthless pace set by Frank Crowe, the builder, whose eagerness to complete the project well before schedule and subsequent exploitation of the workforce (who were desperate for any employment and were forced to accept conditions of extreme hardship in the process) resulted in many deaths and the eventual construction of a new city to house the workers.