>> a beautification to my mind is far more than a matter of cosmetics. to me, it describes the whole effort to bring the natural world and the man-made world into harmony, to bring order, usefulness, the light -- to our whole environment, and that only begins with trees and flowers and landscaping. >> lady bird johnson was about beautifying the nation. her signature issue as first lady. she was a businesswoman and savvy political partner to her husband, lbj. lady bird johnson on c-span's ladies: series, "first influence an image." sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span 3.

all weekend long, american history tv is featuring buffalo, new york. during buffalo's 1901 world fair, president william mckinley was assassinated. theodore roosevelt took the oath of office in buffalo shortly thereafter, becoming the 26th president. our staffcities t visited many sites exploring the city's rich history. learn about buffalo all weekend on american history tv.

tom: right now, we are at buffalo's waterfront, which we waterfront is our the river and lake erie. lake erie is one of the five great lakes. they provide about 85% of north america's freshwater. the fact we are on the great lake is something significant to us. with our vision to be revitalized waterfront, we have now look at this 21-acre parcel on the water's edge and thought how to re-create it. where we are now is in a position to re-create the waterfront at a point in time. we have a master plan that was put together that tries to

re-create the feel of what it would have been like to live back then without taking you to a historic extreme. the area we are in now was built in 1817 in rome, new york. it was built across the state and completed in 1825. it is a marvel of its day. ditch called clinton's because it was somewhat of a folly at the time and not thought to be that productive. it turned out to be quite a success story in terms of bringing materials, transportation of materials, foods, people, from one side of was quite transformational in its time. while was only 40 feet wide and four feet eight, it still served a purpose of -- feet deep, it still served a purpose of getting goods from one side the state to the other and was an incredible technical marvel at the time. created, ital was

transformed buffalo from a small town into a major city and destination. this was a place where people wanted to be. this is a place where, as the western terminus of the eureka now, you could -- the erie canal, you could go from one side of the state to the other to the great lakes. it became a destination. we laid it out the way the erie canal came into the zone. you can look at the angles and say this is where the mules would take on the tow path to carry the boats down the path. we also have immigrant steps that we re-created. the immigrant steps are a great feature from the historic standpoint is there are so many people that use those steps and embarked up those steps to other parts of the country. they were so busy and it was so active at times that in a 10-year perio in the 1800s,d

there were so many people that itgrated across the country, beat the population of people that came to ellis island in that 10-year period. it made things different in terms of buffalo growing. if you look at a map, you will see building, building, building and they are put together like you would see rowhouses. there was so much activity because of all the ships coming in. if you think about this site with 350 houses on it, you would say it is impossible. wereour standpoint, there a lot of transients coming into town and they need a place to sleep, a place to meet, and a place to drink and that is what was happening in the early 1800s. erie once the -- once the erie canal was built, we are a major producer of grain and we have a lot of grain of elevators as one of the significant things that we have in buffalo. the freighters would come up and down the waterways and grain

elevators, i think we have 16 grain elevators in buffalo, and some of them are still active. they are massive, primarily concrete structures. have 16 remaining grain elevators and they are absolutely fantastic architectural structures. grain is a big thing that is big on the great lakes and the transportation of that along the erie canal was great in its heyday and we had a lot of passenger traffic and a lot of one side ofg from the state to the other. the rail came into play. once the railroad came into play, and offered a lot more opportunity for the same goods to be transported from one side of the state to the other. i think the erie canal was put to bed somewhat when the rail came to play. that offered an alternative route. ed theeally clos door on the erie canal.

and use iteet paths as highways to get traffic from one side of the city to the other. what we have done today is re-create a portion of the erie canal which we are proud of. we use historic lines of what was here on this site and ties it into the western terminus, which is done in an the stork fashion in terms of the way the fashion in terms of the way it looks on the lake. the folks and the citizens of western new york come down to this site and have a taste of history and get a feel and talk to people about what the erie canal was about and the significance of the erie canal. history plays an important part. one of the things i say that as buffalo means -- bu

ffalonians, we are not proud enough of our past. we can throw in pieces of history. it plays such an important role because it is part of our character. we think about our great-grandparents. they all came over on boats from other countries. this is a melting pot of different of different groups and populations that came to buffalo. that is how buffalo became a great neighborhood. there were so many ethnic groups that came into buffalo. it was a melting pot. it goes on for generations, what happened way back when. this is what the bridge look like back in 1825, and i think it is more important to have it look real and have a sense of where we came from. the cobblestone streets that the city of buffalo has built, that was official. that was the way the street look in 1825. the bridge is the way the bridge

looked in 1825. for us to have this stonework along the canal and have as much history and repeat as much of history as we can, it gives you feel that is really important. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring buffalo, new york. our city store staff -- cities tour staff recently traveled there to learn about its rich history. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. c-span's newy on series "landmark cases."

the grounds around new orleans had become a breeding house for color, -- cholera, partly because of slaughterhouses dumping in the water. other houses took them to court. follow the slaughterhouse cases of 1873. we are joined by paul clement, former solicitor general, and michael ross, author of "justice of shattered dreams to tell the personal stories of the butchers and the state of things in new orleans. be sure to join the conversation as we take your calls, tweets, and facebook comments during the program using the hashtag landmarkcases. for background on each case, order your copy of the "landmark

cases" companion book. it is available for a dollars $.95 plus shipping at c-span.org/landmarkcases. >> stephen fry recounts the lives of fred harvey. harvey owned 65 restaurants and lunch counters ran several hotels from chicago to los angeles. union station and kansas city missouri hosted the event. >> we were at the national archives last night. building.here in this in writing about the history of fred harvey, the harvey company was spread fromle