♪♪ [Helicopter blades whirring] [Door slams] [Engine roars] HUNTER HARRIS: "When we leave the ground, it's an unbelievable feeling.

And the beauty of it, turning into the sun, is just unimaginable.

It's beautiful!"

♪♪ CAL RIPKEN JR.: Whenever Hunter Harris flies aloft in his World War II era biplane...

He beholds a place of splendor... Of landscape and water.

In it, battles have been fought, [Boom of the cannon] industries born, And America built.

MAN: Whoo!

Wild adventure has been sought out and found within her embrace.

From wild pristine beaches to the earth's oldest mountains, follow us as we climb into the sky and enjoy wondrous views: heroic landmarks, towering achievements, revered icons, timeless traditions, miraculous rhythms of nature.

It's all Maryland By Air .

Maryland By Air is made possible in part through the support of the MPT Foundation New Initiatives Fund, established by Irene and Edward H. Kaplan.

And by Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman.

Honored to support Maryland Public Television and Maryland By Air .

With pride in America and the beautiful State of Maryland.

And by... University of Maryland Global Campus is an accredited public state institution founded in 1947 to fulfill the needs of adult learners and military service members.

Students can obtain in-demand skills leading to career success.

Explore how UMGC programs can help you achieve your professional goals.

And by...

I'm Eric Stewart, a Maryland native and Realtor focusing on seniors in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia who are interested in selling their home and right-sizing to a smaller residence or retirement community.

Learn more at ericstewartgroup.com.

[Whoosh of wind] [Tranquil music plays] CAL RIPKEN JR.: Maryland.

It's born here on the wind-swept Atlantic Coast.

[Crashing of waves] Wild waves rhythmically crash and splash onto sandy shores at Assateague Island.

[Birds chirping] The marsh-scape looks untouched, almost pristine, as it did to the native Algonquian tribes, and when European settlers first laid eyes on it.

They'd set out from England's Isle of Wight, Royal charter in-hand, to settle the distant land that would be the Maryland colony.

Legend has it that, here on Assateague, the wild ponies that still call the island home are descendants of horses that survived a long-ago Spanish shipwreck.

[Horse blows] These wild horses graze away their days, eking out meager meals of marsh grass and saltmeadow hay, bravely surviving on this remote windswept coast just as their ancestors have done for 350 years.

[Soft whir of the propeller blades] Further north...

Watching the breakers.

[Seagalls call out] The day unfolds in the quiet solitude of sunrise, interrupted not by the rhythmic whisper of gentle waves, but by the early morning awakening of, Ocean City.

One of the great beach playgrounds in the east.

Only 7,000 strong off-season, the town swells to more than 340,000 as fun seekers from near and far descend on the boardwalk and beaches, the bars and the boats to ride, sun, swim, fish.

[Whistle blows] [Slap of the water] "O.C."

as it's known is famous for its Beach Patrol.

A network of expert swimmers who protect beachgoers, allowing them to relax and safely enjoy the sun and surf.

The lifeguards perform drills to stay in tip top shape, so they are ready at a moment's notice to face the mighty ocean, its crashing surf and rip currents.

It's estimated that the Beach Patrol goes to the rescue more than 2,000 times in a summer season.

Looking down from the Silver Queen, it's plain to see that Ocean City hugs the lower tip of Fenwick Island, a skinny spit of sand that stretches northward all the way into Delaware.

Once, Assateague and Fenwick were one.

But a savage hurricane in 1933 sliced through the barrier island.

The new "Ocean City inlet" was suddenly a perfect port, and this once remote fishing village transformed into a summertime paradise.

Maryland's Eastern Shore, with a character, history, and mystery all its own.

Forty-five square miles of pristine wetland.

From the air, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a strange and striking vision; marshy creeks and rivers teeming with birds, fish, and muskrat... bending, curving and cutting their way through spongy earth toward Chesapeake Bay.

[Low rumble of plane engine] It was through these muddy, buggy, snake-filled marshes that Eastern Shore native Harriet Tubman, one of the most famous conductors of the Underground Railroad, rescued enslaved people by guiding them out of Maryland and secretly walking north to freedom.

The Bucktown General Store... Where, as an enslaved child, Harriet Tubman endured a severe head injury when she was hit with a heavy weight thrown by an angry overseer.

[Clap of weight hitting the floor] Tubman escaped slavery, then came back to lead her family and friends to freedom.

They crossed the Transquaking River right here, at Bestpitch Ferry.

Then followed the creeks and streams toward Underground Railroad connections in the North.

Between 1850 and 1860, Harriet Tubman helped more than 70 freedom seekers escape bondage on Maryland's Eastern Shore.