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Michael Portillo crosses the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America with a new travelling companion. Armed with Appleton's General Guide to the United States, published in 1879, Michael begins his American adventure on Manhattan Island.

Starting at New York's Grand Central Terminal, he boards the Manhattan subway system, the busiest rail transit system in the US. He learns about Manhattan's iconic skyscrapers, then heads to the Financial District where, over a lobster newberg, he finds out how the dodgy political dealings of the era's most prominent industrialists earned them the nickname 'Robber Barons'.

In an urban oasis, Michael finds out how a swampy wasteland was turned into one of the largest and finest parks in the world - Central Park. A celebrity welcome from the resting actors of Broadway awaits him at Ellen's Stardust Diner. In the Lower East Side, Michael is drawn into a scrap with one of the neighbourhood's infamous historic gangs, and he visits the grim tenements where thousands of immigrants lived and worked.

Michael then heads by ferry to Ellis Island, the gateway to America for many millions seeking a new life in the new world. He finishes this leg of his journey with a tour of the gleaming new transport hub under construction close to the site of Ground Zero.