TV REVIEW : New York’s Robert Moses Featured on PBS

How one man possessed by power and a sense of himself and history fulfilled his vision of the future is the focus of the documentary “The World That Moses Built,” tonight at 9 on Channels 28 and 15.

The documentary, the latest offering in “The American Experience” series, tells the story of Robert Moses, who for nearly a half-century wore a variety of hats and intimidated both politicians and the public to reshape the New York region with roadways, parks, housing developments, bridges and other monumental projects. Moses, who died in 1981 at the age of 92, is depicted as a public servant who loved progress more than people.

Using dramatic footage of a vibrant New York being refashioned, the documentary produced by Edward Gray and Mark Obenhaus traces methodically Moses’ rise to power--at one time he employed 70,000 persons, including 1,900 architects--and growing arrogance.

Though the documentary is expertly edited, it races through Moses’ life at 50 m.p.h. in what should have been a 30 m.p.h. zone, with landscapes and faces whizzing by. What we get are glimpses of the changing times of the late 1920s through the 1960s. We also see how the Yale-educated, dedicated public servant was first hailed as hero, then, as his domain spread and bulldozers lurched forward, how he was perceived as an insensitive bureaucrat, and eventually as a villain.

Still, as the documentary notes, such impressive projects as Jones Beach on Long Island; the Triborough, Throgs Neck, and Verrazano bridges; Lincoln Center, the hundreds of city playgrounds and a web of suburban parkways are lasting memorials to a man for whom public service was a calling.