Great American Railroad Journeys S01E02 - Manhattan: Lower East Side to World Trade Center

Michael Portillo continues his American journey in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he narrowly avoids a scrap with an historic gang of New York and visits the grim tenement buildings where thousands of the city's immigrants lived and worked.

On the West Side, Michael discovers how a once lethal run of track has been transformed into a public park, raised above the city streets. Forsaking the rails for a ferry, Michael heads for Ellis Island, where some 12 million immigrants entered America. Michael is given a privileged tour of the gleaming new transport hub under construction close to the site of Ground Zero.