Life After People: Las Vegas Crumbles into the Desert (S1, E7) | Full Episode | History

what would happen if every  human being on earth disappeared this isn't the story of how we might vanish   it is the story of what happens  to the world we leave behind in this episode of life after people mankind  like to gamble big and it's since cities   have uncertain futures in las vegas how quickly  will these famous faces suffer a meltdown what makes the wood of the atlantic  city boardwalk as durable as concrete   and what will be the fate of mankind's ultimate  gamble this is just part of a journey that will   take us to the future of once crowded cities as  well as a haunting site already devoid of man welcome to earth population zero one of mankind's most popular  vices was to play the odds in the time of humans they lined the streets of  their gambling meccas with outrageous spectacles and tributes to the great  civilizations of the world but these cities are built in hostile environments   las vegas springs from a barren desert atlantic  city is perched on a storm battered coast now that the final bets have been placed   can anything in either of these cities  beat the odds one day after people in las vegas the casinos are empty but there's one place in  town that still draws a crowd in the time of humans celebrities and dignitaries were  immortalized in wax by madame tussauds   each life-like figure was based  on as many as 150 measurements the melted wax was poured into plaster  molds where it hardened into its final form   hair was placed strand by strand now works in progress will never be finished in  las vegas more than 100 completed wax figures   are displayed in a 30 000 square foot museum the  temperature is set at an ideal 70 degrees for now two days after people power has started to fail  along the las vegas strip and a new rat pack is prowling the streets rats have been a problem in neighborhoods  around las vegas since the 1990s experts   believe they came hidden in palm trees shipped  in to beautify hotels and housing developments after people are gone they find  their way into the city's casinos   where they're more interested in  searching for food than rolling the dice more than 2 000 miles away atlantic city the only creatures strolling  down the world famous boardwalk   are cats in the time of humans 18 colonies of  feral cats already lived under the boardwalk   human volunteers put out food  for them on a daily basis without people the future of  these 140 felines is uncertain the boardwalk itself might just beat the  odds originally built in 1870 atlantic   cities was the first beachside  boardwalk in the united states   it's made of 216 000 planks of  wood and runs for over four miles the earliest boardwalk was made  of cedar a wood so fragile it was   dismantled and put into storage every  winter to keep it out of the elements the modern boardwalk is much tougher beginning  in 1990 many sections were replaced with a south   american hardwood called ipe or brazilian walnut  it's naturally resistant to insects rot and mold   it's one of the world's densest  woods with fibers packed so tightly   tests have shown it has the  same fire rating as concrete in june of 2007 a fire that started under  the boardwalk tore through local businesses   some sections of the boardwalk were  destroyed the parts made of pine   the hardwood wasn't even  damaged three days after people inside madame tussauds glass eyes  stare out at the empty hallways the power goes out emergency lighting keeps the figures  illuminated in the windowless galleries but in the museum's utility rooms the exhaust fans slow to a halt the air conditioning cuts out and  the temperature begins to rise inside the building the upper floors will really  compress the heat and be kind of like an oven   wax figures will start to droop  and sweat and melt beeswax   the main component in the figures  begins melting at 115 degrees   against these odds madonna has no chance and  within days the material girl dematerializes while the figure of madonna melts  6 000 miles away in buenos aires   the body of a famous lady she played in  the movies remains surprisingly intact   evita when argentine first lady evita perron  died in 1952 a doctor mummified her by a process   that included dipping her body several times  into a solution that left a plastic-like film   on her skin the doctor assured avida's  husband the body would never decompose   today evita rests in a tomb 20 feet underground  said to be able to withstand a nuclear attack   unlike madonna's wax figure evita will be  preserved as a living dog for many years to come one week after people   in las vegas where 37 and a half million people  once visited every year the streets are empty looming over the scene of desolation is the  stratosphere tower part of a hotel complex   it is the tallest freestanding  observation tower in america   at 1149 feet it is taller than the space  needle taller than the eiffel tower   but perhaps its most distinctive features are the  highest amusement rides in the world including one   that dangled visitors 64 feet over the  edge of the tower on a mechanical arm   now the screams of thrill-seekers no longer echo  across the las vegas valley in the time of humans many of the iconic hotels of this city  found themselves demolished in seconds at   the hands of men clearing the way for  bigger and more eccentric structures now nature may act more slowly  but with no less violence two weeks after people in las  vegas casinos that were once   filled with the flashing lights and  deafening clamor of slot machines fall silent and dark although there are no humans to exterminate  them vegas's new rat pack has plenty to fear this dog may not look like a predator  but he's called a rat terrier   for good reason his breed was originally  developed in the 1800s to hunt vermin   and they're better than most  cats at catching small rodents in the time of humans american  president teddy roosevelt   is said to have used one of these dogs  to eliminate rats from the white house once the rat terrier got out they'd be out there  sniffing around following my rats that you would   have here in the las vegas area there'd also  be lizards and a variety of other kinds of   species that were small that they would  probably have the ability to capture across the country in atlantic  city the ocean continues to pound   against the famous steel pier as it has since 1898 nearly as long as the las vegas stratosphere  is tall this enduring attraction once featured   entertainers from wc fields to frank sinatra  and even hosted the miss america pageant rebuilt in 1993 its concrete  supports are in good shape for now mankind's gambling meccas have always been  fertile ground for strange architecture unlike skyscrapers and monuments   these bizarre structures were built to draw  in customers today not to stand for tomorrow near atlantic city the strangest of  them all is lucy the margate elephant designed to attract investors to what  was then an undeveloped stretch of sand this 65-foot tall pachyderm was completed  in 1882 a year before the brooklyn bridge   but she's hardly an engineering marvel her  fragile skeleton had to be rebuilt in 1973   at a cost of 124 000 that she lasted  into the 21st century was a miracle lucy's exterior shell is made up of wood  covered with a tin sheathing being 100 feet   away from the atlantic ocean the structure  requires constant maintenance it needs to be   stripped and painted every three years at a  cost of around 65 000 uh rotted wood needs   to continue to be replaced rotted tin  panels need to be replaced all the time but the last time lucy was painted was  2002 by 2009 the deterioration was clear on average it rains every three  or four days in atlantic city   with wintertime bringing snow and ice in the  past every time lucy's future was threatened   concerned humans stepped in to  save her now she is on her own the fragility of our architecture  of amusement is clear it's a story   that is already being told at this haunting  abandoned amusement park in america's heartland welcome to the americana amusement  park in la swordsville lake ohio   when it was open it was a thrill seekers paradise  drawing daily crowds of up to 10 000 people park   in its heyday was quite beautiful it had a lot of  vibrant colors it was full of life and excitement and today to see it it's almost like a ghost  town it's very sad to see it in this state the park fell on hard times  and the gates closed in 2002   80 years after they first opened just a few  short years of abandonment have created a monster everywhere wood rots motors bearings and metal  components corrode gaping cracks permeate the park   the annual freeze thaw cycle that occurs in the  ohio valley is very hard on things water tends   to seep in cracks freeze overnight as the water  expands it applies loads that enlarge the cracks this amusement park holds some  clues as to what will happen   to the colorful spectacles of las vegas  and atlantic city when people are gone like all amusement parks it was once  distinguished by its bright colors   but protective paint steadily degrades  beneath the sun's ultraviolet assault this entrance looks like it's painted in pastel  colors but at one point they were much more   vibrant less than a decade the sun's ultraviolet  radiation dims the paint on an atomic level the sunlight makes oxygen already in the paint   combined with the color  pigments which fade as a result the loss of pigment the loss of volatiles within  the paint is going to reach a point where the   paint loses its elasticity its ability  to expand and contract with the material   and you'll see cracks that's  when the structural damage occurs without humans to constantly repaint the  park its first layer of defense is gone at its current rate of destruction the  americana will soon become unrecognizable   there's no fixed lifetime for  the rides in an amusement park   in theory they could last forever if they're  inspected and repaired as damage occurs but the inspection is long overdue  and the rides are beyond repair   especially this once proud roller coaster the screeching eagle built with 63 000  board feet of wood was the main attraction   cars raced plunged and swerved at top speeds of  55 miles an hour on the 180 degree turns what was   once considered one of the best wooden coasters in  america is now plunging toward complete collapse but rotting wood is not the immediate enemy here   the coaster support beams are  made of chemically treated wood   so they'll resist rotting for several more years  longer than the mechanism that binds them together a series of guy wires provides tension  to the tallest section of track   it's braided wire rope and we can see parts of  the rope where the strands are coming apart and   actually breaking so there are a few of these  ropes that are poised for failure right now the weakest link in this coaster is the fasteners   something as mundane as the nails that hold the  boards together over a single season we see nails   coming out and when those go that will permit  the vertical members to undergo buckling collapse   it just needs that one push  to start the dominoes falling with enough nails and guy wires loosened   a stiff wind will set off a dramatic  collapse in the coaster's upper reaches in time every structure in the  park will become a heap of rubble if everyone on earth disappeared within 10  years this park would start deteriorating so bad   the buildings would start falling down all the  rust and the steel and the maintenance on all the   equipment would just start deteriorating and the  concrete would be overgrown and being pushed up by   plants and overgrowth in a matter of  20 years you would be unrecognizable as the years pass view of humanity's familiar  landmarks will be recognizable and the absence of   people will bring surprising changes like water  to places where there was nothing but desert two years after people in las vegas   the climate of its mojave desert location skews  the odds toward a new kind of strange display   as the parched desert reasserts itself in  the mojave we like to say water is life   in the time of humans the city was lush with green  gardens fed by a water system holding nearly 700   million gallons in reservoir tanks scattered  throughout the valley lake mead a primary   water source is 25 miles away but without electric  pumps its water has been unable to reach the city it rains only four and a half inches per year here   and little will grow naturally  besides the scrub of the mojave desert three miles from the strip a one-time oasis stands  as a natural reminder of the city's lush past springs preserve is a museum built on the site  where artesian springs were discovered in 1829   the springs made it possible for people to  settle here las vegas in fact means the meadows the wells dug to tap the underground water have  long gone dry the las vegas spring started out   as rainfall and snow melt in the spring  mountains but inside the visitor center   the voices of man still echo down the halls an  aquifer layers of rock and silt through which   groundwater the museum exhibits don't get  their electricity from the municipal grid they are powered by the sun 2200 solar panels cover the parking lots  generating 409 kilowatts of electricity the las   vegas spring started so these recorded narrations  may be the last human voices heard in vegas five years after people in atlantic city  the waterfront casinos have gone for broke inside the city's feral cat population has  found a new home what's really interesting   about domestic cats they're not like bobcats  that don't tolerate others of their kind   the densities of house cats domestic cats can be  very very large and i think over time they would   set up a hierarchy and they would occupy these  buildings their new homes are dank ghostly tombs   cobwebs shroud the slot machines whose jackpots  will never be claimed humidity from the outside   encourages rot thick paper playing cards  have curled and grown moldy in the dampness the durable plastic poker  chips however are unharmed   though they are covered with  grime formed of dust and moisture in the gloom of the casino  bats also find a place to live   in the time of humans new jersey was  already home to nine species of bats   preferring to avoid human contact most of them  found homes in abandoned mines and tunnels   like the hibernia mine where thousands  congregated every fall and winter   now every casino is a potential bat cave  some of these buildings will end up being   roosts and for some species of bats these  colonies are limited only by the size of the   the cave that they live and in this case  the cave would be a very large building the las vegas spring ten the solar cells in the parking lot of the springs  preserve have kept the facilities power on for a   decade now but in order to operate efficiently  the panels need to be cleaned regularly   solar cells are great but they don't last forever  without people the solar cells are going to fall   prey to dust and debris yet they're going  to degrade seven or eight percent a year   that means after 10 years they will have lost  more than half their power as the voltage   dips the lights dim round and flow down the las  vegas valley and the voices of man are silenced 15 years after people down the coast from atlantic  city lucy the margate elephant is on her last legs after people the first thing that will happen  to lucy is her outer skin will begin to fail   and each piece of tin will eventually  start to peel off and fall to the ground but eventually one good storm will weaken one leg   when one leg goes the rest of  lucy will fall to the ground 50 years after people atlantic  city steel pier is just a skeleton it looks much the way the old garden  pier did in the time of humans after the hurricane of 1944   the buildings were demolished and  the piers foundations never repaired built a reinforced concrete the  steel piers caissons are strong   but not strong enough to withstand  the constant assault of the ocean   piers that extend into the ocean are already  subject to the constant wearing away by the ocean   but the water has sand in it as well as boards  and other debris this sand is essentially sand   blasting the structure and typically  within 50 years the structure is gone in las vegas a city long known  for giving second chances   a former star is making a  surprise return engagement 50 years after people rain has continued  to fall in the surrounding mountains   water from the mountains is flowing  down to the las vegas valley   where it permeates a porous layer  below denser rock at the surface 50 years after people water will return to  the valley in spots like this this is an old   well it was built in the early 20th century and  because of groundwater pumping the basically the   soil just sank down so about five feet all  the way down to here and when water returns   50 years after people little holes like that  will be where the water comes out of them   water's reappearance in las  vegas will alter the landscape   but only gradually in other parts of the  country change comes suddenly with violence   a hurricane is on its way up the coast toward  atlantic city the big one's coming in sometime   in the next hundred years much of the boardwalk  is already buried under sand but in the exposed   sections wind buffets the durable south american  hardwood that has survived the years intact   corroded metal tie-downs weaken as the winds  increase and whole sections of the boardwalk   are ready to give way portions of a boardwalk  will break up and become battering rams seawater floods the buildings soaking  their framework with a heavy solution   of salt that remains behind  long after the storm ends salt that's left behind sucks the water out of  the air the supports now subject to salt will   constantly be re-wetted and corrode much faster  than the rest of the structure since they're   subjected to the heaviest loads they'll start to  fail one by one in a progressive failure first   one then a second after the first one goes nothing  will probably happen but when the second and third   all go you'll start to have what amounts to be  a demolition of a building by explosives but in   slow motion because only half of the building  will fall and then the middle and the other a hundred years after people fine grains of  windblown sand are wearing out the welcome   that once greeted visitors  to the city of las vegas the blowing sand is actually an  unnatural consequence of man's   presence here a century ago before  las vegas was developed most of   the sand was held in place by a hard  layer called the cryptobiotic crust the crust is formed as soil particles held  together by microbes fungi lichens and mosses   filaments from photosynthetic cyanobacteria   spread out to bind specks of mineral material  into a tough matrix man's shovels and bulldozers   disrupted the crust and without it the  winds blow the sand around unimpeded wind gusts can be quite quite powerful in the  valley in fact las vegas is well known for its   wind storms with wind comes sand blown about most  of that results from us moving around through the   desert we've destroyed the cryptobiotic trust  which takes hundreds of years to come back and   because we've destroyed this crust we get a lot  of sand blowing about and that causes erosion in las vegas shafts of sunlight make their  way into the giant atrium of the luxor hotel when it was built in 1993 it was  the tallest building on the strip   now every one of the 28 500 pains in its  glass skin is broken the concrete structure   inside remains however its shape giving  it a natural stability we have seen the   pyramids last for thousands of years and in  las vegas we have a simulation of a pyramid   that building is probably amongst the most  stable structural systems that we can think of   the increasing amount of wind-blown sand may  grind away at the luxor but ironically other   particles of earth actually preserved its ancient  egyptian namesake the temple of luxor originally   built 3 400 years ago the temple of luxor stands  today because it was entombed in the layers of   silk deposited each year by the nile river the  river mud was a blanket protecting the site not   only from wind earthquakes and other hazards but  also from damage by vandals and treasure seekers   the site was largely buried until excavations in  the late 19th century will las vegas be as lucky 200 years after people in las vegas  a desert thunderstorm rumbles in because las vegas often gets its total  annual rainfall of four and a half inches   in one or two storms flash floods are  common there's two ways to die in the mojave   you can dive thirst or you can die of drowning flood waters have rushed past the las  vegas sign enough in the past 200 years   that rust has been able to start  spreading into its support beams   now another weather hazard comes into play  the wind can blow up to 90 miles per hour here   and today a powerful gust catches the city's  old greeting sign like a sail it torques the   weaker supports to the breaking point and the  sign falls flat on the empty crumbling roadway 300 years after people while the skylines of  most cities are stripped of their iconic towers   there are some surprises in  las vegas seen from a distance   the desert has preserved much of the  familiar skyline the artesian water   that began bubbling to the surface 250 years ago  is bringing new life to the ruins in the desert   it's kind of interesting to think about what  life might be like in the valley after people   when water returns the habitat will look very  much like this area right here we'll have   quite a bit of vegetation growing around scattered  throughout the valley it'll actually be quite lush plants like the western honey mesquite  grow in clumps along the strip   wherever the water happens to flow but the new pockets of groundwater in las vegas  wreak havoc on building foundations designed for   the dry desert terrain 300 years after people the  weakened foundation of the stratosphere will have   to endure a thrill ride courtesy of mother nature  although neighboring california is notorious for   earthquakes nevada experiences thousands of its  own tremors every year faults near las vegas have   the potential to unleash events as large as the  1994 northridge quake that jolted los angeles if you look at a place like las vegas it's  a seismically active area it has earthquakes   the buildings in las vegas because  it's a relatively dry climate   you might think would last a long time but  actually many of them will be shaken down we could potentially have a toppling failure  of a tower if we lost the corner of the tower   at its base and it tilted over we could  have the leaning tower of pisa effect a violent quake lashes the  tower back and forth like a whip   losing support from its base  its fall seems agonizingly slow the big observation pod hits  the ground at 150 miles per hour   the entire tower smashing in a cloud of debris a blanket of dust hangs over the city's remains   a place once called the  meadows is now a pile of rubble it has been a thousand years since the  last bets were placed in the gambling   meccas of atlantic city and las vegas their  long-term fates are not based on chance   but on the inevitable forces of nature thousand years after people even a trained eye  would have trouble recognizing that there was   ever a city in the las vegas valley in the  ten centuries after people las vegas is now   little more than a jagged mound in the desert  creosote bushes and other rough vegetation have   colonized any remnants of buildings remaining  under a thousand-year layer of desert dust it is this very vegetation that keeps  the winds from forming sand dunes   which might more deeply bury the remains  of the city 000 years after people   now subtle changes in earth's orbit and the  tilt of its axis have aligned to return the   planet to an ice age just as it did  when man was still a primitive hunter   as ocean water is tied up in the planet's massive  ice sheets sea level drops almost 400 feet in new jersey the entire continental shelf stands  above sea level atlantic city is surrounded by an   inland forest if i were standing in  atlantic city during the next ice age   i would see forest something like this  the ocean would be too far away to see in a million years a number  of ice ages have come and gone   the nevada desert has gone back to looking  much as it did when people gambled in las vegas the city is long eroded away but a vaguely  familiar-looking creature reminds us that once   there were humans here the animal is descended  from camels once kept at a ranch in virginia city   400 miles from las vegas but with low  growing vegetation as its primary food   it has evolved into a new species similar  to the camel-like guanacos of south america   because of the habitat in las vegas a new species  of camel might be a little bit smaller in stature   probably a thicker insulating layer of  fur because of the temperatures here   this new species of camel would probably be  fairly quick there's quite a few predators though our gambling meccas are now all gone  one of man's greatest bets is still in play   it's not a gold coin but a gold record  aboard the voyager spacecraft what if   humankind will actually last a million years  one pretty sure bet is the voyager spacecraft when the voyagers were launched in 1977 to explore  the solar system and beyond each carried a gold   record containing sound and images from earth  as well as greetings in 55 different languages   it was intended to inform other intelligent beings  of our existence on the third planet from the sun but interstellar space is not a pure vacuum it  is filled with widely scattered gas molecules   dust and micrometeoroids after 300  million miles and a million years   the stuff of space takes its toll on voyager it's  still recognizable but in pieces and full of holes even the gold record is so  damaged that there's little chance   anyone who finds it will be able to play it like all of man's great gambles this one has  proven to be a long shot in a life after people in the next episode of life after people  the fate of the armed and the defenseless   great warships come under renewed  attacks farm animals fend for themselves a secret nuclear warhead takes aim  and new targets on the ocean floor   and this abandoned island in new york city  has been out of view from the public until now you

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 354,043

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, life after people, history life after people, life after people show, life after people full episodes, life after people clips, full episodes, Life After People season 1 episode 7, Life After People s1 e7, Life After People s01 e07, Life After People 1X7, Life After People season 1, Life After People season 1 full episoes, Life After People season 1 clips, Watch life after people, Las Vegas, Crumbles to the Ground

Id: c1BA-IIoWmM

Length: 44min 20sec (2660 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020