>> welcome to omaha. with a population of just over 400,000, today omaha is nebraska's largest city. th the help of our cox communications cable partners, in the next hour we'll explore the history of this mid western city. coming up, we will hear about mority air force base, once home to the strategic air command, which controlled intercontinental miss aisles during the cold war. >> the might and strength of the military at that time which controls all the bombers now moved to omaha and made omaha a national site on the psyche of the cold war. announcer: later, how omaha and

the railroads helped take -- overtake chicago as the stockyards. >> south omaha was basically the stockyards much the city was incorporated in 1884 and it was called the manley city because people literally thought it bloomed overnight. announcer: first up, we will visit the durham museum, housed in the former union train depot. it tells the story of a once-thriving industry in omaha. >> we're standing in the main

room of the union station in omaha. e architect, william stanley underwood, wanted to make a statement about the strength of the railroads. in his mind it was strength, masculinity and that's what he really wanted this bl to embody. omaha really started out as a frontier town, typical frontier town. actually citizen from council bluffs decide they wanted to found the city on this side of the river. council bluffs was established to -- knew y wanted the railroad was coming through but they didn't know which side. have aid it would help to the city ready to go. and it worked.

but cities on the west side of the river developed greater because it's easier to move est. union pacific is one of the premiere railroad companies of america. it was founded in 1862 with the pacific royalway act signed into law by abraham lincoln, so it cowboys several railroad companies to make union pacific and then they were charged with building the trans continental railroad that would connect east and west coasts. they started with moving west and central pacific, started on the west coast and was moving east -- east and they met up at utah and that's well -- really what propels us even farther. we become that point of moving west, one of the gateways to the west of the that is what the railroad did for omaha. this facility came about as the

second union station to help the railroad traffing -- travel, owl -- all the passengers coming through omaha. the first railroad station had reached capacity. this was heralded as a step forward for ome open. it was a brand-new, art deco style building. the first was neoclassical. it was in vogue in 1931. so they decided to raze the old one to the ground and build this new one to show the nation that omaha had arrived as far as act itecture. the height of the railroad was 64 trains war ii, coming and going. you would see trains and then dead silence. they would have great times of activity and people running back and forth and then just dead calm and then it would

pick back up again. that would have been kind of the norm for a day at union station. we preserved the main hall, the main floor as it would have been in 1931 much the benches are what you would have hat on if you came to catch a train much the ticket windows are original. the windows, the artwork, all that is original to the building, even the terrazzo floor. so it really has been kept in its original state and we have restored it to what it would look like to -- so people could see the grandeur. when people would come, they were first off at the ticket counter purchase their tickets for wherever they were going, then drop their bags off at the baggage counter, or they would have a redcap help them at the curb, just like we have today at the airport. they would help taking bags to

and from people and making sure they were going where they needed to do. after you purchased your ticket, you had time usually to enjoy the amenities of the union staugs. they made sure people had a lot of things to do. this was a sit-down restaurant, invitational linens, china and then more of an a la carte lunch counter for those that needed a quick meal. they would visit the soda fountain which we still operate today, has the best malts in town, and get their sweet treats there. bond -- beyond that, there was a barber shop. if you weren't feeling well, there was a uso canteen which took up pretty much the entire fourth floor, our administrative offices today, which was all set aside for service men and women coming through the station.

magazine stands. as a traveler they took care of you, made sure you could get everything you needed here at the station. right now we're on the lower level of the original union station. where we're standing on this brick -- brick year is where passengers would have walked to get on their train, on track you would have had baggage carts, porters carrying luggage, passengers getting to and from, really cramped quarters, but this is where it all happens to get onto track one. this would have been open. it was enclosed in the 1990's, but that created an exhibit station for us. when the first union station was operating, this would have been your only protection from the cold, heat, and rain, and it would let you get on the train or down to the other concourse. there were 13 tracks operating

out of union station here on track one we have three passenger cars. those allow people to walk through, get an idea what it was like to travel on the railroad. you see an idea of something that we don't normally get to experience here in the u.s. very much. we are inside the southern pacific lounge car. this is in the 1950's, mid-1950's and this is the type of car that you would have come to to get a cocktail, read the newspaper, just have a little bit of recreation while you are traveling on the train. original car, original upholstery, benches and chairs, just to give visitors what life would have been like while you were traveling across the country on the train. the older visitors sometimes have memories of ride be on trains themselves and can reminisce about that. it's really one of those touch points where it's an opportunity for conversations

between generations. this car is a pullman sleeper car. there would have been open leeping -- seating as far as this would be doubling as seating and beds. the -- they actually fold on you. the porter would come along with a key, open this and wull -- bull -- pull it down and it would come down. this was a lower price point than some of the others that are more the individual rooms in the rest of the car. this was also public bathroom so you would have men on one side, women on the other. little bit of a cramped quarter, but it was the way they traveled back in the day. this is still within the pullman car but these are the individual cabins that you would have been able to purchase, sitting out in sort

of the public area. -- instead of signature out in sort of the public area. these would have been a little bit more sentence -- expensive. the berth that would fold out still with the net to keep you in. here also you could individually call the porter through the little button here on the wall. say you wanted to have your shoes shined, you could put them in the shoe locker, call the porter, and he would use this door, pop it open, take your shoes out and take them and get them polished and put them back in and never have to disturb you. it was a very luxurious way you could have things down without being disturbed. in 1971, congress signed amtrak into law to take over all the railroads for rail passenger have. they had been losing money to the automobile and the plane as

ways to travel faster and farther than the train travel. so that had started to decline after world war ii, the automobile travel when people can could go and do their own thing, drive route 66 and that whole lifestyle. with that 1971 legislation, all passenger travel outside of amtrak stopped and that's when the station stopped. may 2, 1971, the last train came out of union station at 2:00 a.m. and that was the end of passenger travel. the station was closed. for the past 40 years it had never closed its doors, 24-hour operation. they didn't even have a lock. they had to call a locksmith to close the doors. -- doors because nobody knew where the keys were. it had never needed to close. that's when omaha banded together to make sure that this building was not