Think back to the summer of 1976. Sunday afternoons meant tuning in to hear Casey Kasem count down the biggest hits in the land, while neighborhood streets were filled with kids on skateboards wearing striped tube socks pulled up to their knees. It was a season steeped in a collective, slow-building excitement as the entire nation braced for its 200th birthday.
Over in Manhattan, the newly opened Twin Towers stood as shiny symbols of modern architectural ambition, serving as a soaring backdrop for the massive parade of international Tall Ships that came to celebrate America's Bicentennial as part of Operation Sail.