在探索战后席卷整个城市的社会，经济和物质力量时，第七集考察了40年代，50年代和60年代的非裔美国人移民和波多黎各移民。 白人逃亡和郊区化的开始； 以及高速公路和城市更新带来的巨大物理变化-所有这些都以令人惊讶的程度由一个人指挥：罗伯特·摩西（Robert Moses）。 电影因宾夕法尼亚车站的毁灭，曼哈顿下城高速公路的争夺，上世纪60年代和70年代的社会和财政危机以及纽约上个世纪25世纪的奇迹般复兴而达到高潮。

In exploring the social, economic and physical forces that swept through the city in the post-war period, Episode Seven examines the great African-American migration and Puerto Rican immigration of the '40s, '50s, and '60s; the beginnings of white flight and suburbanization; and the massive physical changes wrought by highways and urban renewal -- all of which were directed, to a surprising degree, by one man: Robert Moses. The film comes to a climax with the destruction of Penn Station, the battle over the Lower Manhattan Expressway, the social and fiscal crises of the '60s and '70s, and New York's miraculous revival in the last quarter-century.