Delegates of the Pan American Congress of Journalists visit industrial and educational sites in Washington DC. Heaps of harvested crop,a busy market street visible. Statues of parents of America freedom including,1st President of Greater Columbia Simon Bolivar, revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio,renowned poet and writer Jose Marti, 2nd Supreme Director of Chile Bernardo O' Higgins,1st Protector of Peru San Martin,1st U.S. President George Washington.
Delegates of the Pan American Highway Commission present a gift after a month-long tour of the United States in 1924. Ceremony at the Pan American Union in Washington DC. Tablet is unveiled inscribed with the title 'Highway of Friendship', and presented as a gift to the Highway Education Board. The first line of the tablet reads, "Commemorative of the Official visit of the Pan American Highway Commission to the District of Columbia and the states of North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey June 2 to July 3, 1924. The happiness and prosperity of the people of the United States have been greatly enhanced by your definite program of Highway education...." U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg accepts the tablet and speaks to those gathered.
Story Camp Hanford during the Manhattan Project in World War II. Scenes of Dr. Glenn Seaborg and colleagues: Arthur Wall, Edward McMillan, and Emilio Segre, who generated and isolated Plutonium at University of California in 1941 A sign on a container reads 'First Pure 94 (239) isolated from chain reaction source'. A model of the atomic pile under the stadium at the University of Chicago, where Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist, demonstrated controlled nuclear fission, on December 2, 1942. A map shows various sites chosen for Manhattan Engineer's District. Views of desert in Southeast Washington State. The Columbia River, for cooling. Electrical towers for power supply. An aerial view of project buildings in Hanford. Construction workers selected for the project in Hanford. Construction sites. Trailer houses for the workers. An aerial view of the plant ready for operation. Inserted view of Camp Hanford abandoned, in later years.
American farmers and their families leaving in trucks packed and loaded with their belongings. A car on desolated road. 'No more dust bowl', 'On to Oregon' and 'California' can be seen written on trucks and other vehicles belonging to farm families and workers heading west during westward migration from dust bowl and unemployment. Men and women can be seen working in farms. Migrant worker family groups in makeshift camps and tents as they move westward during the Great Depression. Views of deserted roads, trees on both the sides. A board showing direction and distance to various cities and places of Washington. A sign board marked 'Entering Grand Coulee'. Construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington is underway. Technicians and workers using large construction machines and dynamite blasts. Views of Grand Coulee Dam, a hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia river in Washington State, United States.
Film opens with montage of rapid images illustrating the outbreak of World War 2 in Europe. Appeals from the Allied powers are described. Shown is a field full of American Martin B-26 bombers ready for shipment abroad. View of men working in a construction site. Towers holding high tension electric supply lines are seen. Products needing electric power for production, such as aluminum and magnesium are shown as ingots in production facilities. View of the Columbia River waters surging along its course. Views of the Bonneville Dam and power plant, and the Grand Coulee Dam. Giant electric generators operating in the hydroelectric plants. Technicians in power plant control rooms, and views of transmission lines and switch yards outside a power plant. A ship under construction at a wartime shipyard. Workers using electric arc welders during ship construction. View of the SS Mormacwren launched 22 May 1942 at the Consolidated Steel Corporation's Wilmington, California yard. Launch on May 22, 1942, of the ship, Irving S. Olds, a Bulk Freighter built by the American Ship Building Co., Lorain, Ohio. (Her launch was coordinated with those of numerous other ocean cargo vessels in yards around the United States, to bolster the national morale, when German submarines were sinking many ships in the Atlantic.) Next, a ladle of molten aluminum, to be used in aircraft manufacture, is seen pouring its contents into ingot molds. Workers dislodge the ingots after cooling. Inside an aircraft plant, men assemble aircraft parts from aluminum. A partially completed medium bomber is towed outside the plant. View of Grand Coulee Dam and of many electrical distribution facilities. Herds of sheep moving across the Grand Coulee Dam to new pastures.
Views of a busy street, railway tracks, port area in United States. An electric power station, men working on the towers. Interior of an industry, men at work. Water flowing out of a dam. Views of the Columbia, a river in United States and flood. Flood relief activities are done. People and livestock trapped in flood, wrecked houses can be seen.