at 2:40 for the last speech of the afternoon. >> you are watching live civilge of the pamplin war park symposium here on c-span-threes american history tv. we will be back with stephen hood:author of "john bell the rise, fall, and resurrection of a confederate general." >> the portland headlight is the most photographed lighthouse in the country. c-span's american history tv's in maine to learn about this great icon. >> this is portland headlight in maine.

we are about five miles outside the city of portland. the white house -- the lighthouse was first lit in 1791. construction probably started several years earlier but was halted at one time when it ran out of funds. this was part of the district of massachusetts at that time and the funds weren't coming through. in 1789 all the lighthouses were placed under federal control and the portland lighthouse was the first lighthouse that was finished after that always signed by george washington. it rises above the surrounding land, so it is the portland head. at that time it was the portland head and when they built the lighthouse here it was portland head light. it was very treacherous for ships to sail into a harbor, when they didn't have much control over a sailing vessel at the time. i lighthouse was supposed to

guide a lighthouse -- guided shipping to a harbor on the right path. and this piece of land on portland head, there is nothing on this side of it or that side of it that is blocking the view. so it was a perfect place to build a lighthouse. for ships coming into the south or east, they could view portland head light and know that was the entrance to the harbor. lighthouses at that time were lit by whale oil or kerosene and it were just guiding a ship in at nighttime. outlight was put during the daytime and was lit during the evening and was lit all night until dawn. can't see where they are going at nighttime, and crashes along the rocks would not be good. there were several keepers that operated the lighthouse in the

early days and eventually the coast guard took over the operation of lighthouses. in our museum we have pictures of the strout family and the father and son team were keepers for over 60 years. this is named captain strout circle named after the strout's who were the keepers here at the lighthouse. they welcomed guests here and were friendly and treated everyone with stories about different events at the lighthouse. the lighthouse keeper had a harsh life. they had a lot of work with little pay and were expected to do it every single day of the year. there was very little time off. fuelwere expected to bring up to the top of the lighthouse, into the lantern room, like the light. come back in the morning and put the light out. they had to make sure the wicks were long enough to burn throughout the night. and that there was enough whale oil and kerosene in the pan to keep the light burning throughout the night. and then they came back up at don to put the light out, and

clean the light and the lantern oot that thethe s whale oil or the kerosene would on then the lantern room inside glass. and that is what they were expected to do every single day. expected to goe out and ring the bell several times an hour, when the fog was in, coming in. and there were expected to just go out there and keep that bell going several times an hour until the fog lifted. along the coast light of may, the fog lasts for hours or sometimes days, so it was another expected duty that they had to perform, being a lighthouse keeper. fog belly there was a and then it later converted into a foghorn. and the foghorn will probably sound during this piece, and you will hear the actual fog foreign.

horn. it is located in the whistle house at the top of the tower. the original tower was 72 feet high and the lantern room was lit by aow, and it was spider lamp. i don't know white is called spider lamp but it was basically a lamp filled with a weekend whale oil and the light keepers were expected to light each week in the evening. and then they added a couple of mirrors on either side of the lighthouse, in the lantern room, hoping it would reflect the light out further into the bank. and there was a new invention in by a frenchveloped physicist and he developed the lens.ll lands -- furnell

and those lenses improve the quality of every lighthouse they were placed in. and we received a lens from france in the 1800s. they come in different sizes, the lenses, and then when the lighthouse was raised up, we received a larger lens. you can see the part where it was adjusted up and down over the first 100 years of its existence. sometimes it was raised by 20 feet and lowered by 20 feet, and every time they would perform one of those operations they would have to change the type of light that was in the lantern room, whether was a different plans are a different light, depending on the height of the tower. the last coast guard personnel stationed here, they finished in 1989, and after that the museum in the former keepers

quarters, in 1992. is adjacentd light to for williams. you have to come to fort williams park to approach the lighthouse. the surrounding area was a fort that is now a park. it was opened in 1899 and used through world war i and world and after wasn't necessary to have the type of fort any longer, it was deemed surplus property by the government and the town of ples purchased it. right by where you come into the park, there is a battery and there are panels there that show what was there when it was inactive battery. but for the most part it has been converted into a park with lots of open spaces.

it was was first lit, probably the middle of a forest. as thee years, population grew and spread out from portland, you had settle out here in cape portland and visiting this spot became a thing to do. you would have a picnic, walk around, and it eventually grew to be a destination, definitely a tourist destination in maine since the 1920's. back then, i guess it was a place to come and pick up a postcard and say, we were here. the famous poet henry wadsworth longfellow lived in portland. and at that time it was a bustling city with a lot going , andind of noisy at time longfellow used to like to take a walk through the city of portland and take a long walk

out to portland head light. with the great friends keeper and used to sit for hours out of the rock, and later he did write a problem about lighthouses and it is primarily thought to be about the portland head light. the rocky ledge runs far out into the sea, and some miles the lighthouse, a pillar of fire by night, a crown by day. headny respects, portland light is a symbol of maine. it represents what people may think of maine, from other states. there is lots of buzz going back and forth all the time. you see the islands. there are sailboats. all of the activity that people probably think about, that a maine visit would be.

sounds] recently traveled to portland, maine, to learn about interest history. -- to learn about its rich history. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> interested in american history tv? website, www.c-span.org. preview our schedule, watch archival films and more. american history tv, at www.c-span.org/history. >> when i first went in i was barely able to get to the

surface and a bunch of them jumped in. of theme is a picture pulling me out of the lake. you can see my arm is broken. then, once they pulled me out, they weren't very happy to because i just finished bombing the place. [applause] and it got pretty rough. i broke my shoulder, i hurt my knee again. look, i don't blame them. i don't blame them. we're in a war. i don't like it. but at the same time, when you are in a war and you are captured by the enemy, can can't expect to have tea. john mccain talks about the impact of the vietnam war on his life and the country.

on american history tv, on c-span3. a maritime signal flag in time the portland observatory in portland, maine, where c-span is looking into the area's history. we are in the portland observatory, which is a national lastric landmark, and the remaining maritime-signal tower in the united states. it was built in 1807. portland observatory was built as a business center like captain samuel moody. created this business around the idea of signaling the arrival of ships into the port of portland. portland has a wonderful natural harbor and was a great center was aipping, and so there very important, competitive advantage that could be had of people knew the ships were coming into the port. so the idea was to build the

building, a tower on a high point of ground, and put a very powerful telescope in the top. and through that telescope captain moody could look into the harbor and identify ships that were coming in. and in those days, there was a lot of shipping here, and also many different kinds of ships. so captain moody's business idea was to charge people to have their boats, or the ships signaled as they came into port. they would actually provide a captain moody would actually raised a flag when he saw the ship coming into port through the telescope. from the beginning, that observatory was also a site where people could go to the top, as a tourist activity. as captain moody, being entrepreneurial as he was, he built the signal tower as a business center but he also charged people to go to the top. there are some wonderful early documents that, it is documented that he charged 12 and a half the top.go to

in 1817, president james monroe went to the top. the building has a six floors and we are not sure what those floors were for. but at least part of the purpose of the floors was to provide structural integrity to the building. it is built very much like a ship, so there are not existing plans at the observatory. wetain moody made a model, believe, a wooden model like a ship's model, and used those measurements to create a sign for it -- to create the design for the observatory. opening up the building's is built like a ship and is actually held down by a balanced, i heavyweight that is held in a cradle. so the building is actually just resting on the ground. it doesn't have a solid foundation or is tied to anything. it is held down by heavyweights, just like aghts,

ship would have been. today we still have 22 tons of rock in the lower level, that is holding the building down. in the recent restoration, all of these pillars were checked, so we know that timber cradle is weight of that heavy granite is still holding the building. fun, at this floor you can still see the tops of the large timbers that make the octagonal shape of the observatory. and you can see the parts of the tree that are still remaining in that were 65 foot timbers were used to create the observatory. so, there were very big trees brought in for this. he actually uses a complicated system where he built a frame for the building and then used a pulley system to raise up the eight posts. actually markings on those posts where the intervening structural members

were placed, and you can actually see some of the hardware. this is the hardware that holds the flagpoles that are at the top. andthere are three knots, some of the paperwork that actually holds the building together, evident in the tops of these timbers. we are just underneath the lantern deck and this is where captain moody stored the signal flags. when he saw the ships out there he would run down and grab a to indicate which ship is coming into port. today, the observatory continues and it is fun to think the observatory is still functioning 210 years later as a signal tower for those ships. i wanted to show you some flags that were like the ones that moody used. there were whole charts of types of flags that would be used to signal different kinds of ships,

to indicate to the owners of the business people that there was cargo coming and then they could line up their longshoremen and inform the families that the ships of coming back into port. this is important because when you are sailing you don't know exactly when you are going to arrive, so you have some lead time. he could see almost 20 miles out so that gave some lead time for the families in the business owners to get ready for the ships to come in. this is a flag to indicate the brig. one way up was for one break and another way up was for two brings. brigs. so he was very creative in the way he used his flags. used,were also pennants to add to the information. to add on numbers of ships, for instance with one

pennant and the flag, depending on which way it was lying, that igsld tell you how many br were coming into port. so, it was an ingenious system and it worked very well as a visual tool, to indicate to the people on land what ships were coming into port. the lantern of the portland observatory, where the top of the tower, the place where captain moody did all his work. he was looking out of through his telescope. the telescope would have been right here. the original one was unfortunately lost in the 1930's. now we are out on the lantern deck at the observatory and today happens to be a very foggy day. all the different weather conditions were evident up here and our friend, captain moody, cap records of all that while he was up at the top of the tower in nearly 19th-century. so it's interesting to see how he made lots of different uses,

being at the top, in those days. the exhibit tory operated until the 1920's, when there were better communications systems that came in, shipping changed. there were steamships starting and over the years the technology of transportation and communication changed. so by the 1920's, the observatory really was obsolete. thewhat happened then, was actual family, the descendents of captain modi who still owned the observatory, gave the observatory to the city of portland as a historic sites, as a tourist destination. and then it went through major renovation in the 1930's, in the works progress administration. and very recently, there was a partnership with greater portland landmarks in the city of portland in the 1990's to completely restore the building, so it content in you -- so it to be a center of

historic significance in the city of portland. the portland observatory gives people a sense of what portland is all about, which is, it is a seaport and very important in the transportation here. main ship-to-sure communication. it still has the role today. you can see this building from the water and from various sites come all over town. though it is a reminder the portland has a long and interesting history, and you can actually experience it by coming to the observatory. recentlyty tours staff traveled to portland, maine, to learn about its rich history. learn about more stops on our www.c-span.org. american history

tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span-three. journal, live every day with news and policy issues that affect you. mer house, forc speaker newt gingrich. georgetown university professor will join us to explain his path from prison to georgetown law and his fight for justice reform. a university of texas professor talks about the real reason nfl players kneel down during the national anthem, to protest racial injustice. watch washington journal, at eastern on sunday morning. join the discussion. [music] ♪ thousands of demonstrators

opposed to the vietnam war assemble in the nation's capital for a mass protest. part orderly, miters couples did occur between demonstrators and hecklers are. parade takes the protesters across the potomac on the way to the pentagon. 50,000 with a loose confederation of 150 groups and included adults, students, even children. it was at the pentagon were the first tensed -- the first test of strength comes. military police contain the break but clashes still out. federal marshals arrested several would attempt to break through the protective line. areforcing the marshals second wave of mps with fixed amanda, moving into position. 400 demonstrators are arrested, 200 are injured and

tear gas is used. campfires are lighted to hold off the autumn chill. soughtkend demonstrations supporting the gis in vietnam. protest and with over 600 arrested and the widespread opinion that the demonstration made everyone a loser. >> you are watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history, every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter, at c-span history. for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. >> we now return to our live coverage of the pamplin historic symposium inr petebu