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Milwaukee to Chicago

Michael Portillo embarks on a new American rail journey from Milwaukee to Chicago. Michael learns how the first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built.

Michael Portillo is in Milwaukee, the cream city on the shore of Lake Michigan and home to an American icon: the Harley Davidson motorcycle. Michael learns how the first machine was built in 1903 and hitches a ride. German gymnastics is Michael's next challenge as he joins the Ladies' Auxiliary Exercise Class at the Turner Hall, a legacy of Milwaukee's 19th-century German settler community. In Racine, Michael discovers a man who knew how to sort the wheat from the chaff and made a business out of it. Michael is blown away by the skyscrapers in Illinois's Windy City, where he discovers how modern Chicago's skyline replaced a largely wooden city, destroyed in a fire shortly before his Appleton's Guide was published. Michael steps up to the plate with the Joliet Slammers, stars of the US national game of baseball, then sings for his supper at a quintessentially American restaurant bearing his name! Downtown at the Moody Church, Michael tracks down a pair of evangelists who toured Britain and the United States by rail at the time of his guide.

23 days left to watch

58 minutes

Audio described

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:45

    Teufelskicker

    50 - Ballzauber! (Teil 03)

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Michael Portillo
Executive Producer John Comerford
Series Producer Alison Kreps

Broadcasts

Steam Railways: Watch programmes from the archive collection

Shows from the 成人论坛 archives celebrating the beauty of locomotives.