NARRATOR: What would happen
if every human being on earth disappeared? [electricity crackling] 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," America's capital is under attack. [thunder rumbles] More than 2,000 miles away,
the entertainment capital faces its own threats, at
stake are national treasures. What would survive? Who might take our place? [growl] And could another capital
of mankind emerge at sea? This is just part of a
journey that will take us to the future of
once crowded cities as well as a haunting sight
already devoid of man. Welcome to Earth, population 0. [static buzzing] One day after people, in
the Rotunda of the National Archives building the
United States Constitution is now on permanent display. One day after people,
there will be no one to send it on its nightly
journey to the security vault. The parchment
document is preserved in a shatterproof sealed
encasement filled with argon, an inert gas that
replaces oxygen and moisture-containing air that
could wreak havoc over time. But how long can it protect
our most precious document? [static buzzing] Nearby, the Washington
Monument, built with 82,000 tons of stone, is now free from
the daily throngs of tourists. The US Capitol Building
is now ghostly quiet. Abe Lincoln gazes on a
pool that now reflects the absence of human life. In the time of humans, it took
350 park service employees to maintain the National Mall. It was already in
need of $350 million in repairs and upgrades. How long can its crumbling
infrastructure last? [static buzzing] Washington, DC, is threatened
by a stealthy enemy. MATT CHALIFOUX: Moisture is
what we battle all the time when we're working on buildings
or monuments of this type. It's what's going to act
as an accelerant in terms of deterioration. NARRATOR: Water, once the
key to human existence, now a threat to
everything man has built. [static buzzing] One week after people, in
the entertainment capital of the world, the notorious
Los Angeles freeways are free of traffic. The 73-story US Bank Tower,
the tallest building west of the Mississippi, was
designed to be occupied for more than 100 years. It was also built to survive
the big one, an earthquake measuring at least 7.5
on the Richter scale. But how long will it stand
without human maintenance? We shall see. [static buzzing] Two weeks after people, in
both the Washington, DC, and LA zoos, the animals are dying. Elephants are frantic
without humans to supply their vegetarian
intake of 150 pounds per day. Using their superior
intelligence and powerful trunks that
can lift up to 600 pounds, they are able to break out. JOHN ANDERSON:
Elephants are actually remarkably well-equipped
for operating in a world without people. They are able to defend
against just about any predator that's
likely to come their way. NARRATOR: Before humans
appeared in North America approximately
13,000 years ago, it was mammoths, the distant
relatives of modern elephants, that dominated the grasslands. JOHN ANDERSON: This
is a group of animals that did very well indeed in
the Americas before we got here. And there's every reason to
expect they would do just fine again without us. NARRATOR: They begin new
lives in the urban jungles. But will they be able to
reclaim their old territory? Meanwhile, two weeks after
people, 3,000 tons of garbage have gone uncollected
in Hollywood. Some sewer systems deliver
the garbage directly to the ocean, where it will
add to a floating trash heap in the middle of the Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii, contains 3.5 million
tons of nearly indestructible plastic waste, a floating
dump twice the size of Texas. After people, how long will it
take before the Pacific Ocean is free of man's garbage? [static buzzing] Three weeks after people,
the impossibly lush image of Los Angeles is
getting a facelift. BRENT KARNER: We see Los
Angeles as a paradise. But it's a paradise
we've created. NARRATOR: In the time
of humans, LA residents used 137 gallons of
water per person per day, with more than half that amount
used to water lawns and plants. 87% of that water came
from faraway places. For more than a century,
a large percentage came from the Owens Valley,
hundreds of miles to the north, through two aqueduct f FRED BARKER: This
particular cascade is carrying about 125 million
gallons of water a day, the major part of the water
supply for the city of Los Angeles. NARRATOR: The water
travels through a series of power-generating plants. When the power
plants stop working, the water backs up and begins
creating new reservoirs, denying the city its
main water source. FRED BARKER: If we think
about life after people in Los Angeles, all of a
sudden, there's nobody here to take care of it,
no one to control the outflow of the reservoir,
no one to control where the water goes in the city. [static buzzing] NARRATOR: One month into
a life after people, LA is returning to
its natural state. JIM HAW: Los Angeles
really is a desert. NARRATOR: Now, the thirsty
green lawns, trees, and manicured gardens
are withering, setting the stage for a massive
catastrophe soon to come. More than 2,000 miles away, the
problem is quite the opposite. There's too much water
in Washington, DC. And the city is
beginning to drown. TIM BEACH: Life after people
here in Washington, DC, along the Potomac River, will
be a very different place. Water levels will be higher. Floods will be greater
because more of that water is now flowing through the river
rather than being taken away for showers, and for bathing,
and for drinking water in Washington, DC. NARRATOR: The failure of
electric pumps beneath the city unleashes a deluge from
the water aquifers, flooding the streets. DAVID BRIN: One problem
with Washington, DC is that it was built with
permanent-looking architecture on a swamp. NARRATOR: When the first
settlers traveled up the Chesapeake Bay and came
ashore, DC was marshland. Beaver dams shaped
the Potomac River and created huge wetlands. In the time of
humans, park rangers trapped and relocated
beavers that gnawed on DC's famous cherry trees. Now, the beavers are
planning a return to power. [static buzzing] Two months after people,
across the Potomac in Arlington National Cemetery,
the eternal flame that marks the grave of
President John F Kennedy is in danger. The flame has been
extinguished only once in 1963, when visitors poured holy
water directly over it. Now, a constantly
flowing natural gas line with an electrically-powered
relighting system keeps the flame burning. But when the DC
power grid fails, the electric
relighter also fails. [thunder rumbles] The first heavy rainstorm snuffs
the flame for all eternity. [static buzzing] It's now six months
after people. Back in Los Angeles, while
some animal populations are desperate for water,
others are learning to adapt, including one
bloodsucking scourge suddenly deprived of its human
protein, mosquitoes. BRENT KARNER: We're sitting
here in Los Angeles, a place with a lot of swimming pools. If people disappeared,
these swimming pools would go into disrepair. There would be stagnant water. This would be a great place
for mosquitoes to breed. NARRATOR: In the time of
humans, when the wave of home foreclosures hit Southern
California in 2008, West Nile virus cases
more than doubled. To blame were the thousands
of suddenly abandoned swimming pools where the mosquitoes
rapidly reproduced. A single stagnant pool can
support hundreds of thousands of the pests. Within one year after
people, the natural world is rapidly taking
over the city streets. Soon it will set off a
chain of devastating events that will turn our great cities
into capitals of destruction. It is now one year after people,
and our nation's monuments are under attack. Towering some 550 feet,
the Washington Monument is the tallest freestanding
masonry structure in the world. The load-bearing walls are
15 feet thick at the base and 18 inches thick at the top. Completed more
than 125 years ago, it was intended to
endure for centuries. [static buzzing] But even in the time
of humans, the stone was already beginning
to deteriorate. MATT CHALIFOUX: We
can see, up close, some of the deterioration
that just happens on a regular basis. We can see the deterioration
in the mortar joints and the patching that's
been done over time. And this is a really
good example here. We can see that even though
this was recently renovated, we've already lost
this material. So even in that short time
span, the deterioration cycle is just ongoing. It's only 100 years
of deterioration. But it shows the kind of
loss of surface that we get and the kind of loss
that we would imagine would occur as we move forward. [static buzzing] NARRATOR: One year after
people, despite the neglect, the US Capitol Building
appears unchanged. Even the dome, made of
civil war era cast iron, is keeping out the elements. KIM RODDIS: The first
year, you wouldn't expect to see much change. However, that cast
iron dome is painted. And over time, the
paint protective system will start breaking down. So you would expect to
see some rusting starting to become visible as the iron
is exposed from the paint. NARRATOR: Even the solid
marble of the Lincoln Memorial is hinting at a future
without human care. With no routine cleanings,
the blocked drainage pipes are starting to cause cracks
and water damage to the roof. The vertical span
protecting Abraham Lincoln also contains steel
beam reinforcement. MATT CHALIFOUX: The tragic
flaw is the roofing system. You'll have water
penetration in. And where you have water and you
have steel, we have corrosion. NARRATOR: Our national
monuments remain under attack. Which one will
stand the longest? [static buzzing] It's three years into
a life after people, and downtown Los Angeles
is an overgrown metropolis. LA's famous freeway
system has gone green. DOUG FAILING: The concrete
itself would be relatively invisible within a very,
very short period of time. The roadways themselves
are great seed corridors. So the winds, the natural
winds that we get, would drive a lot of
seeds and other materials down those open corridors. NARRATOR: Grasses and other
small plants quickly take over. And soon trees begin growing,
their roots tearing apart the concrete. [static buzzing] One decade after
people, and Los Angeles is firmly on the path to
becoming a desert once more. FRED BARKER: Probably
within a few years, you would begin to see the
nonnative plants dying out and the native plants coming
back and gradually taking over. NARRATOR: Without the aqueduct
importing billions of gallons of water, the huge
Canary Island palm trees lining the streets of Beverly
Hills are now decaying trunks. This nonnative tree was
imported in the 1930s to add to the city's
exotic appeal. But it requires an average
of 30 gallons of water a day. And after 10 parched years, it
slowly dies from the top down. Los Angeles is nearly
unrecognizable, but it's nothing compared
to what's coming. [fire crackling] Wildfires can burn for
weeks and even longer if the conditions are right. In 2007, the Zaca Fire
in Santa Barbara County raged for two months, the
longest burning wildfire in modern California history. Now, [thunder rumbles] when
a lightning strike sets off a fire in the hills, there
won't be any firefighters riding to the rescue. JONATHAN STEWART:
The mountain fires that we see virtually every
year here in Los Angeles would penetrate into
the urban setting. And you have the potential
for a major fire event. NARRATOR: Downtown,
the US Bank Tower burns from the inside out. The structural steel frame
withstands the searing heat. It can endure temperatures of
over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit without degradation. But the interior
spaces burn quickly, turning LA's tallest building
into a charred skeleton. The stainless steel panels of
the Walt Disney Concert Hall are virtually fireproof. But the flames consume the plant
life that grows between them. In Hollywood, the rotting wood
of Grauman's Chinese Theater is engulfed in mere seconds. The foot and handprints
of Tinseltown legends, formed in cement, easily
survive the inferno. The Hollywood sign is engulfed
as its acrylic latex paint feeds the fire. But the 50-foot tall letters
will survive the scorching. Although they look
like wood from afar, they are actually made of steel. [static buzzing] It's 50 years into
a life after people. Now, 200 years overdue, the big
one, an earthquake measuring 8.0, hits Los Angeles. [earthquake rumbling] The US Bank Tower is a charred
teetering steel skeleton. The top 21 floors have
earthquake-damping struts installed between floors. But after wildfire damage and
years without maintenance, they can't fend
off the inevitable. STEVEN S ROSS: If you
think about a bullwhip, a slight flick of the wrist
will create a big motion out at the far end of the bullwhip. And it will snap. Well, it's the same
thing with the building. Part of the top of the
building could just topple away because it's moving. It's the tip of the bullwhip. NARRATOR: Just a few blocks
away, the 32-story LA City Hall is the tallest structure
in the world, fitted with a base-isolated
anti-earthquake mechanism. JONATHAN STEWART: What
the base isolators do is they allow the building
to remain relatively stationary while the ground
shifts beneath it. NARRATOR: But the base isolators
rely on rubberized bearings to absorb the shock
and minimize vibration. After fire damage and 50
years without maintenance, the rubber has deteriorated. City Hall is doomed. STEVEN S ROSS: Despite
the extra technology, nothing lives forever,
especially in the Los Angeles Basin. NARRATOR: That includes
another cherished symbol of the big screen. The Hollywood sign
is coming down. The quake shears off
the corroded bolts that once held the letters
securely to girders sunk into the bedrock. Faster than most
American cities, Los Angeles is shaking
off its human skin. But Washington, DC, faces
a much different fate. 100 years after people,
the imprint of man is fading in some places but
actually growing in others. A water bottle from
the California coast will float for many years before
it's sucked into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Garbage Patch
is still expanding as more plastic refuse arrives
from North America, China, and Japan. The century-old
plastic materials will remain intact
far into the future. GORDON MASTERTON:
Because of the durability of some of the plastics
that we have produced, we will actually see evidence
of those outlasting the evidence of the substantial buildings
that we built in steel, and concrete, and timber. [static buzzing] NARRATOR: After one century
on permanent display at the National Archives
in Washington, DC, the Constitution is facing
an invisible danger. The encasement seals are failing
and allowing in air molecules. The oxygen content
increases to 1/2 of 1%. But no known
microorganisms can attack the parchment without
at least 2% oxygen. So the documents will be
safe for many more years. MARY LYNN
RITZENTHALLER: You still would have a good, relatively
airtight, and moisture-proof container for the document. NARRATOR: The words of
America's founding fathers will live on, as long
as the roof holds out. [static buzzing] Over the last century, the
beavers have been busy. New tree growth on
the National Mall allows the creatures to build
dams and cut new water channels from the flooding Potomac River. Across the wetland, the dome
of the US Capital is rusting. With the paint
long gone, moisture is forcing open the joints
in the cast iron sheets. The openings attract
pigeons and other birds. Because the dome is built
atop an iron truss system, much like the
girders of a bridge, it's an ideal nesting place. KIM RODDIS: The birds will
build their nest there. When it rains, the rain
will collect there. That nesting
material will hold it like a sponge against the iron. And the iron will
continue to corrode. [static buzzing] NARRATOR: Corrosion
is also setting in on an iconic
structure in Los Angeles. The Walt Disney Concert Hall was
built with stainless steel, one of the most
anticorrosive metals. Its protective oxide layer
keeps corrosion from occurring. After 100 years,
the oxide is fading. And the silver panels
are slowly changing to the color of dried blood. The Walt Disney Concert Hall
is now a spectacular sculpture of rust. Corrosion is also
pulling apart what's left of the freeway overpasses. And rain is transforming some
parts into a water world. DOUG FAILING: A number of
locations here in Los Angeles, our roadways are
actually below grade. So when the water falls, we
have to be able to collect it. We have drainage inlets
like this in the roadway. The water collects in
the drainage inlet. And it goes to pumps
that pump the water out. [static buzzing] NARRATOR: Now, the inlets
are clogged with debris. And the pumps stopped
working long ago. So dozens of small lake
ecosystems dot the freeways. DOUG FAILING: It'll be a
gathering place for the animals because animals will come down
out of the adjacent mountains. And the freeway corridors are
a relatively straight easy shot for them to use to migrate
from place to place. So it'll be actually a
nice little reservoir. NARRATOR: But with the
prey come the predators. The jumbled overpasses
are now points of ambush. [static buzzing] 150 years after
people, the descendants of North America's zoo elephants
are enjoying their life after people. JOHN ANDERSON: You could
expect to see substantial herds within the first
100 to 150 years after the original
pioneers break loose from the sanctuaries
or from the zoos. [elephant trumpeting] A lot of the pasture land
that will be left behind when we disappear would be ideal
foraging country for elephants. And I think the elephants
would have no trouble at all in making a living. [static buzzing] NARRATOR: It's now 250
years after people. In Washington, DC, the Lincoln
Memorial is in dire straits. A few of the highly corroded
steel roof girders snap. [clatter] And the Lincoln
statue is no more. Atop the weakened cast iron
dome of the US Capitol Building, the 15,000 pound bronze
Statue of Freedom is now the architect
of destruction. KIM RODDIS: The statue is trying
to pull on one side of the dome and push on the other
side of the dome. That, then, means that the
entire statue will punch down through the dome. And it will all slump
over like a wedding cake. NARRATOR: Centuries
without maintenance have caused the Rotunda of
the National Archives Building to collapse, exposing the US
Constitution to the elements. Still protected
inside its casement, wind and rain are not
the greatest threat. It's sunlight. The damaging ultraviolet
rays cause ink to fade. And within a few
years, the words are slowly erased from history. [static buzzing] 500 years after people,
the Washington Monument is losing the
battle with nature. It's stone blocks
chipping away with time. At the tip is a small
aluminum pyramid. MATT CHALIFOUX: When it was
built in the 19th century, aluminum was a very
precious metal. It was actually valued
more than gold or silver. And it was put up
there, essentially, as a lightning rod. [thunder rumbles] NARRATOR: In the 1930s,
eight copper rods were extended around the pyramid
to help arrest the lightning. The aluminum pyramid outlasts
the corroded copper rods. But it's lost its ability
to channel lightning bolts. [thunder rumbles] Lightning strikes the Washington
Monument an average of once a year, a long-term
threat to the pyramid. 500 years after people,
the masonry structures of Washington, DC, are failing. It is a future that has already
happened 9,000 miles away at a mysterious site that was
once a great capital of men. [static buzzing] Six centuries into a life
after people, in great cities, like Washington,
DC, brick and stone are the only remaining
markers of human architecture. How do we know this? The proof is found in
another great capital city that people abandoned long ago. Deep in the interior of
Cambodia in Southeast Asia, five ancient towers rise like
thistles from the surrounding jungle. This is Angkor Wat, the
largest religious monument in the world. Surrounding it are dozens
of smaller temple complexes. In 1860, a French explorer
hacking through the jungle came upon these great towers. His journals would introduce
the world to Angkor Wat. For more than 500 years, Angkor
was the center of the Khmer Empire, a civilization
ruled by all-powerful kings. Their drive to build
stone monuments rivals that of the
ancient Egyptians. The colossal stone work
was all done by hand. JOHN SANDAY: They are massive,
as you can see, enormous size. And they probably weigh anything
between 2 and a half to 3 tons. These exceptionally fine joints,
there's no mortar between them. They're just laid one
on top of the other. And they're fixed by gravity. NARRATOR: Evidence indicates
that Angkor Wat was abandoned nearly 600 years ago,
in the year 1431, after enemy Siamese soldiers
ransacked the temple. JOHN STUBBS: Everything began
to go downhill because there was no maintenance of these vast
temples that required thousands of people to maintain them. Nature took over
almost immediately. And within 100 years, it
was engulfed by forest. NARRATOR: Of all the temple
complexes in the area, Angkor Wat is the
best preserved. Most believe that a nearby
community of Buddhist monks worked to save it from
the jungle's grip. But the other abandoned
temples in the area saw no human intervention
for 600 years. And the jungle showed no mercy. Beng Mealea is a smaller
version of Angkor Wat. In 2002, the local
authorities finally began to peel back the jungle. Nature had the temple
in a death grip. On a daily basis,
the temple stone is being ripped
apart by tree roots. At Beng Mealea, it's the
prolific strangler fig, a type of ficus tree. JOHN SANDAY: So here is probably
one of the best examples of the damage
these trees can do. This is a ficus. And it always grows
from the roof downwards. The birds like the
seeds of this tree. And they eat the seeds. And the seeds will germinate
in the bird's stomach. And then it will excrete them
out onto the top of the roof. And the seeds will then
start developing, growing. The roots will come
down into the ground, soak up an enormous
quantity of water, and then slowly, slowly
expand the roots. In this case, it's actually
broken through the stone. And you can hear, it's hollow. The roots come right
the way through. And it causes untold damage. NARRATOR: The assault
is relentless. In many cases, when the
ficus tree grows old, a new ficus grows
up and devours it. JOHN SANDAY: Here you
have a very good example of a ficus that is entwined
around one of the old trees, the original tree here. And it's ringing
the life out of it. And the tree is now, actually,
causing a lot of trouble to the structure because
it's got quite a sail effect. And once the winds go, it
starts swinging around. And this causes an enormous
amount of destruction. NARRATOR: At the nearby
temple of Ta Prohm, silk cotton trees use
their oversized roots to jack apart the stone blocks. JOHN STUBBS: This tree is
holding up this entire shrine. The roots are growing
from beneath the shrine. Look here, for instance, at
where this lentil has separated from a window jam. It's only hanging on an
inch of bearing surface. I'd say in 2, 3 years at least
this half of the building will be on the ground. This little plant
is the culprit. The roots of the plant travel
into the stone and the joints seeking moisture and nutrients. NARRATOR: As the roots
expand over many years. They pry apart the stone until
a single load-bearing element dislodges and brings down
the entire structure. Hundreds of years of unhindered
growth has done immense damage. But one tiny insect
needed only a few years to impose its destructive power. JOHN STUBBS: I'm standing
on top of a giant termite mound in a portal to a shrine. This thing must be
seven feet tall. It's an extinct
population of termites. Certainly after abandonment of
the site in the 15th century, they went to town,
working, eating the wooden ceilings, and
furnishings, and fittings throughout the place. NARRATOR: Wildlife of all kinds
inhabited these sacred stone monuments for centuries. When men move out, the animals
they most feared moved in. Even today, the
deadly king cobra favors the temples closest
to the encircling moats. In 2003, a hunter
near Beng Mealea survived an attack
by two Bengal tigers. [tiger growling] The cats were reportedly
living in the destroyed temple complex. Could the lessons learned from
these deteriorating temples provide some insight
into the future of a place like Washington, DC? 600 years into a
life after people, without man to repair and
protect his greatest monuments, nature will slowly
and inevitably take sole possession. 600 years after people, the era
of great collapses in mankind's capital cities is almost over. The previous centuries
have witnessed the fall of man's houses of brick, wood,
and our rigid towers of steel. The last recognizable edifice
still standing in Los Angeles was the heavily
corroded US Bank Tower. [fire crackling] The steel skyscraper
survived the wildfire that charred the
rest of Hollywood and much of the LA Basin. The big one snapped
off its top 21 floors. The lower 52 floors defied
the odds of hundreds of years. STEVEN S ROSS: This
building is an odd one in that it has a central core
that's fairly stiff concrete. And it has a steel
framing around the edges. The concrete core would
have collapsed sooner if the building was in a climate
that had more freeze-thaw cycles. But this doesn't
really happen in LA. Earthquakes are what's
going to get you. NARRATOR: A moderate
quake finally brings down the weakened structure. Little has changed in the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Over centuries, the
sunlight causes the plastic to further degrade into
smaller and smaller compounds. Now, it's a poisonous stew
containing immeasurable amounts of toxins like PCBs. Ocean creatures
and birds continue to ingest the plastic soup. And the Garbage Patch
lives on long after people. After 1,000 years,
Washington, DC, is becoming like the
lost city of Atlantis. Centuries of sea level rise are
finally drowning the evidence of a once great capital of men. TIM BEACH: We would expect
a good portion of the Mall to be underwater and
many of those monuments to be capsized, something
like modern Alexandria today in Egypt, where a number
of the monuments are underwater and capsized over. NARRATOR: Still above
the waves are the ruins of the US Capitol. KIM RODDIS: The various
rooms in our Capitol would become exposed to the sky. It would start looking like what
we see in Rome with the Forum. NARRATOR: The Washington
Monument is no longer a proud structure. Erosion and the encroaching
seas are causing the foundation to sink. Submerging is the only chance
it has to survive intact. JAN ZALASIEWICZ: The
buildings, they're going to sink beneath the waves. They're going to get covered
with mud, sand, and silt. And those will encase the
remains of the buildings and effectively fossilize them. NARRATOR: Atop the
sinking stone edifice, the aluminum pyramid is
discolored by lightning strikes but still recognizable. KIM RODDIS: In life after
people, after tens of thousands of years, that
aluminum pyramid could be the last clearly man-made
object left in our capital. NARRATOR: Unlike most
naturally-occurring metals, aluminum contains
an oxide coating that protects and preserves it. On one side of the
pyramid is the inscription Laus Deo, praise be to God. These could be our nation's
final words to the future.
