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00:00What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared?
00:10This isn't the story of how we might vanish.
00:15It is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind.
00:23In this episode of Life After People,
00:27man tried to preserve his legacy by hiding his treasures.
00:31People buried important objects, locked them away, launched them into orbit.
00:38And in one mysterious site in America, some literally created a crypt of civilization.
00:45But can any of these crypts stand the test of time?
00:50This is just part of a journey that will take us to the future of once-crowded cities,
00:55as well as this abandoned metal hospital that some say is haunted.
01:01Welcome to Earth.
01:03Population Zero.
01:04One day after People,
01:26On the campus of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia,
01:32there is a small axe carved in stone.
01:37Buried a few feet underneath is a forgotten crypt
01:42filled with strange relics of mankind that wait to be rediscovered.
01:47Mannequins stare with painted eyes into the dark, as if they're waiting, waiting for people
01:59to open the nearby cans of newsreels, waiting for human hands to open the violin case in
02:06the corner, or touch the keys of the typewriter.
02:12These fashion mannequins stand at a bizarre intersection between the immortal and the forgotten,
02:19waiting to be released from one of the world's strangest rooms, a time capsule called the Crypt of Civilization.
02:27The Crypt of Civilization, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was the first successful attempt to bury a record of our culture
02:39for future inhabitants or visitors to the planet Earth.
02:44Everyday objects, from toys to dental floss, rest in steel cylinders filled with inert gas.
02:55Microfilms of 800 books, including the Koran and the works of Shakespeare,
03:00remain next to lipstick tubes, cigarette lighters, radios, the screenplay of Gone with the Wind.
03:08All objects carefully chosen to represent life in the 1930s.
03:14The crypt was conceived in 1936 by the university's president, Thornwell Jacobs.
03:23Inspired by recent excavations of Egyptian burial chambers, he wanted to create a 20th century version of King Tut's tomb.
03:34The objects in the crypt wait behind a stainless steel plate one-eighth of an inch thick,
03:41with instructions not to open the crypt until the year 8113.
03:48The Egyptian calendar, most historians would say, begins in 4241 B.C., 6,177 years that elapsed.
04:00So Dr. Jacobs, in his words, projected forward 6,177 years from 1936.
04:10And this is how he comes up with 8113 A.D., so whoever opened the crypt would see what it was like at the midpoint of human history.
04:19But can this crypt endure 6,000 more years?
04:25Two days after people, all of man's attempts to preserve his legacy are in a battle against time.
04:42At Washington, D.C.'s Marine Corps War Memorial, six bronze heroes of the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima still raise the American flag.
04:54The memorial was based on a photographic image of heroism so moving, people wanted it immortalized, not in fading celluloid, but in bronze.
05:11But with no people to remember the battle or protect the monument, how long will the Marines continue to hoist the flag?
05:19Thirty-two miles away, in Annapolis, lies the crypt of a Revolutionary War hero, naval legend John Paul Jones.
05:35But what few knew was that this ornate crypt was not Jones' first resting place.
05:41Largely forgotten after the Revolutionary War, he was buried by a few friends and left in an unmarked grave for a hundred years.
05:59In 1905, Jones' lead coffin was found and opened for an autopsy.
06:06The doctors expected to see the mocking grin of a skeleton.
06:11Instead, what the doctors saw shocked them.
06:20Although partially decomposed, John Paul Jones was preserved enough to be recognizable from 18th century busts.
06:30How was this possible?
06:31The answer, hoping Jones would someday be rediscovered, his friends had his coffin filled with methyl alcohol.
06:42This slowed down autolysis, which is the body breaking down itself, the cells starting to break down.
06:51When those cells break down, bacteria move in and disintegrate the cells even more.
06:57But alcohol creates a near aseptic condition.
07:00That is, it kills the bacteria.
07:01John Paul Jones was reburied with fresh methyl alcohol in a tomb in Annapolis, Maryland, a quarter mile from shore.
07:13But doesn't a naval hero deserve a burial at sea?
07:18Four days after people, at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California, some Marines remain on duty.
07:43German Shepherds, who were part of the U.S. Marines' Canine Corps, are now without superior officers.
07:59But they remember their years of intense training.
08:02Their memory is fantastic.
08:05There's dogs that are trained to attack and find explosives.
08:09And then there's dogs that are trained to track humans and find them.
08:14They need to be able to, you know, have that drive just like a Marine will.
08:23Now, the more aggressive alpha males, uncaged when their masters vanished, go AWOL.
08:29Following orders from a new commanding officer, hunger.
08:37The German Shepherds would definitely go after little animals and whatever they could eat.
08:42They are survivalists.
08:45We had one dog at the Kennels once attack a snake.
08:51But outside Pendleton, the Shepherds will not be the only predators.
08:56What will happen when hungry coyotes meet the last Marines?
09:07Meanwhile, some attempts to preserve man's legacy race against time by standing still.
09:13This CD-sized object holds the key to preserving mankind's written languages.
09:22Created in 2008 by an organization called the Long Now Foundation,
09:26it is etched with micro-sized writings.
09:30When magnified 1,000 times, it reveals 13,000 pages of text from vocabulary lists to Bible verses
09:40in more than 1,500 human languages.
09:45It was named after the Rosetta Stone,
09:48an ancient artifact which enabled researchers to decode Egyptian hieroglyphics.
09:53Copies of the Rosetta Disc were sent to safe havens around the world,
10:01including the Smithsonian Institution,
10:04where thousands of other treasures are stored.
10:09Now, the lights have gone out.
10:13Can this modern Rosetta Stone actually survive?
10:16While the ancients preserved vital objects and great leaders behind walls of stone,
10:29modern office buildings of steel and glass are crypts of information.
10:35In the time of humans,
10:37one-third of most office buildings was devoted to storing papers,
10:42from personnel files to government secrets.
10:48This was true from the canyons of Wall Street
10:50to London's Financial District,
10:53where the most notable building was the 591-foot tower nicknamed the Gherkin.
11:01The Gherkin Building, called that because, of course,
11:04it looks like a pickle on end,
11:06is a very unusual building.
11:09It's 745 double layers of glass panels
11:14let in so much natural light,
11:17the costs of heating and lighting the building were drastically reduced.
11:21It uses only about half as much energy
11:25as a conventional office building does today.
11:32Shortly after it was completed in 2003,
11:35one panel came loose and shattered over 300 feet below.
11:41And that could be a clue to its eventual demise.
11:46Although it's an extremely well-designed building,
11:49it still needs to be maintained.
11:51In the time of humans,
11:53a maintenance crew of 90 kept the Gherkin in good shape.
11:57In a life after people,
12:00how long before another panel falls and another?
12:16One week after people.
12:19There's trouble on the high seas.
12:24This cargo ship was carrying 30,000 tons of wheat.
12:29The crew is gone.
12:33But the ship is not quite abandoned.
12:36The rats have taken over.
12:44In the time of humans,
12:47ships, crews battled rats with traps and poisons.
12:51But those days are over.
12:55A large rat of 12 or 13 ounces
12:58can eat 15% of its body weight in a day.
13:02But the rats won't just eat.
13:05They'll also breed.
13:09Female rats can have six litters in a year,
13:12with perhaps a dozen rats in each litter.
13:16And at the age of only three months,
13:19the young rats are themselves ready to breed.
13:27As vermin take over the world's shipping lanes
13:30on the land,
13:31architectural wonders fall prey to hidden flaws.
13:35While a strange time capsule
13:37tries to preserve the memory of man
13:40870 miles above the Earth.
13:51Six months after people.
13:54In Washington, D.C.,
13:56the bronze Iwo Jima Marines remain undamaged.
14:00But the polyester flag was subject to fading in the sun
14:03and had to be changed once a month by an honor guard.
14:09In 1961,
14:11John F. Kennedy directed that the 190-square-foot banner
14:14on the 60-foot flagpole
14:16should be flown day and night forever
14:19to help people remember the courage and sacrifice at Iwo Jima.
14:23Now,
14:27half a year of sun, wind, and rain
14:30have torn the flag to shreds.
14:33And one gusty afternoon,
14:35the presidential proclamation is overridden
14:38by a harsh wind.
14:40One year after people.
14:52In just 12 months,
14:54a pair of rats can produce 2,000 offspring.
14:58The green, greedy rats on the cargo ship
15:00have experienced a population explosion.
15:03The dark hold of the ship
15:05has become a moving wave of hungry, bleeding roars.
15:09The rats' need for half an ounce of water a day
15:12has been satisfied by rainwater.
15:16But there's a problem.
15:18With no humans to work the bilge pumps,
15:21the cargo ship is taking on water
15:23in the middle of the ocean.
15:24As seawater saturates the grain,
15:28thousands of rats flew to the upper decks.
15:31But this is one sinking ship they can't desert.
15:41Around the world,
15:43man's attempts to measure the passage of time
15:47are fading away.
15:48When the power went out,
15:54electric clocks went dark forever.
15:58The batteries in some wristwatches
16:01may last for three years or more,
16:03but they too will stop.
16:10But what about a clock that won't stop?
16:15At least,
16:16not for 10,000 years.
16:18The idea for the 10,000-year clock
16:23was developed by Danny Hillis,
16:24who is one of the people behind
16:26the development of the modern computer.
16:32To create a clock
16:33that will keep accurate time
16:35for 10,000 years,
16:38Hillis designed a 60-foot-tall machine
16:41made of corrosion-resistant titanium
16:43and stainless steel.
16:44The sun will keep the mechanical clock accurate.
16:51At noon,
16:52solar heat focused through a lens
16:54makes a strip of tungsten buckle,
16:58and this motion resets the clock
17:02to exactly noon.
17:03To guarantee precise measurement of time
17:07over 100 centuries,
17:09the clock uses a sophisticated system
17:11of levers and pins
17:13that perform binary calculations.
17:17So the 10,000-year clock
17:18is essentially the world's slowest computer,
17:20but there's nothing electronic in it.
17:23It's all mechanical.
17:24Two years after people,
17:35the coyotes that prowled the wild landscape
17:38that was once Camp Pendleton
17:40have learned to fear the strength
17:42of the last Marines.
17:44One of our aggressive dogs
17:47came up to a coyote.
17:48They would definitely, you know,
17:49overtake it
17:50just because of the training
17:51that our dogs have,
17:52and the dog will most likely kill a coyote.
17:57Unlike most dogs kept as pets
17:59in the time of humans,
18:00many military-trained German shepherds
18:03have survived.
18:05I believe they would retain their training
18:07for a very, very long time.
18:10If they come up to a wall,
18:11they're not going to stare at the wall
18:12and go, whoo-hoo!
18:13They're going to jump over that wall
18:15and they're going to complete
18:16the task that they need to.
18:20Meanwhile, in the open ocean,
18:23the hungry rats have turned on each other.
18:26Now, everyone is dead
18:28of starvation or cannibalism,
18:32and their bodies are food
18:34for the hungry seabirds.
18:43Five years after people.
18:48All is quiet at the world's largest library.
18:53The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
18:56contains nearly 142 million items
18:59on roughly 650 miles of shelves,
19:03including Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs
19:07and the personal effects
19:08Abraham Lincoln was carrying
19:10on the day he was shot.
19:14All of this is of little consequence
19:16to the swamp creatures now returning
19:18to this former capital of man.
19:2110 years after people.
19:35The once manicured grounds
19:37of Oglethorpe University
19:39are choking under kudzu
19:41and wild poinsettia.
19:42But the granite building
19:45holding the crypt of civilization
19:47still stands secure.
19:52The crypt itself,
19:54surrounded by Georgia bedrock,
19:57was reinforced to survive
19:58the centuries by scientists
20:00who strengthened the cement floor
20:02of a 200-square-foot
20:04indoor swimming pool
20:05and waterproofed the walls
20:07with layers of porcelain enamel.
20:09After the crypt was sealed in 1940,
20:16some 20,000 other time capsules
20:19were buried around the world.
20:22When the publicity died,
20:24most were quickly forgotten and lost.
20:28For a while,
20:30this even happened to the crypt itself.
20:33I was an undergraduate in 1970,
20:36and this area where the crypt is
20:38was sealed off.
20:40And I saw this stainless steel door,
20:42and I saw cobwebs on it.
20:45And then I pulled off the cobwebs,
20:47and I saw this message
20:48about 81-13 A.D.
20:50I had no clue what this was.
20:54The crypt was only 30 years old,
20:56and it had been forgotten.
21:00Now, forgotten again,
21:03nothing much has changed
21:05inside the crypt.
21:08When its creator,
21:09Dr. Thornwell Jacobs,
21:11was choosing items to place inside,
21:13he was sure to include
21:15a vial of beer,
21:16specially brewed and bottled
21:18by Anheuser-Busch.
21:20Jacobs thought that even 6,000 years from now,
21:24whoever opened the crypt
21:25would still enjoy a foamy brew.
21:28Dr. Jacobs admitted
21:30he had no notion of the far future,
21:33but he did think that people
21:35would be drinking beer
21:36just the way the Egyptians drank beer,
21:39and the Egyptians put earthenware jars
21:42in their pyramid chambers.
21:4320 years after people,
21:55not all time capsules
21:57are intended to remain on Earth.
22:00In the early 21st century,
22:02Europe's Keio satellite
22:04was designed to orbit the planet,
22:06carrying a DVD
22:07with thousands of email messages
22:09from people around the world
22:11to the remote future.
22:13It's called Keio
22:14because K-E and O
22:17are sounds that are in most
22:18of the languages
22:18that humanity uses.
22:21While the crypt of civilization
22:23was inspired by the first calendar,
22:26Keio looked to an even earlier
22:28landmark of civilization.
22:31The Keio concept
22:32was that the first art
22:35on the planet
22:35was about 50,000 years ago.
22:38Therefore,
22:38the Keio is scheduled
22:40to return to Earth
22:41to be open
22:41500 centuries
22:43after its launch,
22:45having completed
22:45almost 300 million orbits.
22:48At 870 miles high,
22:51it's out of the path
22:52of most other satellites
22:54and space debris.
22:56But while an astroaccident
22:57is unlikely in the near term,
22:59what happens
23:02when it's time
23:03for Keio
23:03to plummet back to Earth?
23:08There's no need
23:10to wait to find out
23:11the fate of this haunted place.
23:14At this hospital
23:15that once housed
23:16the criminally insane,
23:18a life after people
23:19has already begun.
23:29Forty years after people.
23:33There are some places
23:34on Earth
23:35where mankind
23:36made no attempt
23:37to preserve his memories.
23:41Places so horrible,
23:43it was better
23:44just to forget.
23:48One of these places
23:50still stands
23:50on a sprawling patch of land
23:52in southeastern Connecticut.
23:54It's as if
23:57there was a fire drill
23:58and nobody came back.
24:00It's kind of spooky.
24:05Once,
24:06this was the
24:07Norwich Mental Hospital.
24:08It opened in 1904,
24:11and among its patients
24:12were some of the worst
24:13criminally insane offenders
24:15in the state.
24:17Men like Ernest Skinner,
24:20a teenager
24:21who attacked his neighbor
24:22with an axe
24:23before setting him on fire.
24:26And Matthew Knapp,
24:27who stabbed
24:28his 85-year-old grandmother
24:29to death with scissors
24:31because he thought
24:32she was possessed
24:33by the devil.
24:35It's no wonder, then,
24:36that many report
24:38strange happenings
24:39at the abandoned hospital.
24:41There's a lot of people
24:42that think
24:42these buildings are haunted.
24:45The souls here
24:47would have reason
24:48to be restless.
24:49Even for patients
24:50who weren't criminals,
24:52life at Norwich
24:53was a terrible ordeal.
24:57Back in the turn
24:58of the century,
24:59they weren't sure
24:59how to deal
25:00with mental illness.
25:02This facility
25:03utilized straight jackets
25:05and rubber rooms
25:06and all the things
25:07that people think
25:08are horrible.
25:09I would imagine
25:10the cost of treatment
25:11in the early years
25:12was very punitive.
25:13In the 1930s,
25:17Judith Riley's mother
25:18was a nurse
25:19at Norwich.
25:21Every day
25:21as she passed
25:22this building,
25:23she heard the screams
25:24of the criminally insane.
25:29It must have been
25:30very chaotic,
25:31very noisy,
25:32just nonstop.
25:33It's a very gloomy outset.
25:43The windows,
25:44first of all,
25:45consist of a grate
25:46inside,
25:47and then outside the glass
25:49you have steel bars,
25:52and outside of the steel bars
25:54you have a thinner grate.
25:55So there's a lot of metal
25:58between the people inside
26:01and the beautiful view outside.
26:07In the 1970s,
26:10most of Norwich's
26:11criminally insane
26:12were transferred
26:12to Connecticut's prison system.
26:15The building that once held them
26:17was abandoned
26:17to everything but nature.
26:22The vines
26:24and the trees
26:25and the shrubs
26:26infiltrate
26:27anything that has water.
26:30So if they can get
26:31to a crack in a building,
26:34they're in.
26:36That wall behind me
26:38is three bricks thick,
26:40yet a small imperfection,
26:43in this case,
26:44a missing piece of downspout,
26:47has put extra water
26:48into the bricks.
26:50During the winters here,
26:52the water freezes,
26:53expands,
26:54pushes the bricks out,
26:56more and more water gets in,
26:58and the entire wall
26:59begins to collapse.
27:01The building itself
27:03was abandoned
27:04in roughly 1970,
27:06but probably
27:08the downspout
27:09went missing
27:10about 15 years ago.
27:12It only took 15 years
27:14to do all of this damage.
27:16At its height,
27:22the Norwich Metal Hospital
27:23covered 1,000 acres
27:25with 5,000 staff
27:27and patients.
27:29The hospital had its own farm
27:31and livestock,
27:32its own power plant,
27:34its own movie theater,
27:36chapel and bowling alley.
27:39Norwich shut down for good
27:41in 1996.
27:43But parts of the hospital
27:45have been deserted
27:45since the 1970s.
27:52By the late 1970s,
27:55when Judith Riley followed
27:56in her mother's footsteps
27:58to become a nurse
27:58at Norwich,
28:00medical practices
28:01had changed.
28:04Once popular surgical procedures
28:06like lobotomies
28:07were halted.
28:10Other controversial treatments
28:12like electroshock therapy
28:14were administered
28:16with greater care.
28:19It was done
28:20perhaps inhumanely.
28:22Now I think that people
28:23are anesthetized properly.
28:27And before,
28:28it wasn't always true.
28:29So people suffered.
28:31I've heard third-hand
28:36of people
28:37that have been tortured
28:38and experimented on.
28:44No one knows
28:45all the secrets
28:46Norwich hides.
28:48Abandoned rooms
28:50like accidental time capsules
28:52are still being discovered.
28:55Here, a basement
28:56with suitcases and clothes
28:58from patients
28:59who came to Norwich
29:00many decades ago.
29:03Here, a room
29:05from the 1970s
29:06stacked high
29:07with typewriters.
29:11It was as if
29:12somebody snapped
29:12their fingers
29:13and everybody was gone.
29:18Equally eerie
29:19are the deserted tunnels
29:22that once connected
29:23every section
29:24of the hospital.
29:25They carried
29:26hot water pipes
29:27and much more.
29:30They would have to move
29:32patients around
29:33from building to building
29:34in the dead of winter
29:35or late at night.
29:38The tunnels
29:39were not always
29:40brightly lit.
29:42You had to make
29:42your way through
29:43with some caution.
29:45The patients
29:45weren't too happy.
29:47It is kind of spooky.
29:48The administration building
29:54constructed in 1904
29:56was finally abandoned
29:58in 1996.
30:00Dust blown in
30:01from the outside
30:02mixes with peeled plaster
30:04from water-soaked walls.
30:06The decay is not a straight-line
30:09linear progression.
30:11It's exponential.
30:14I was on this site
30:15six months ago
30:16and it was deplorable
30:19and falling apart.
30:20And then I was just on it
30:21recently, you know,
30:22a few weeks ago
30:23and I couldn't believe
30:24the difference.
30:25The state just
30:30closed the door
30:31and took off.
30:33It shows disrespect,
30:35I think,
30:36for the years
30:36that the people
30:37were here.
30:42Once,
30:43this was a place
30:44where people like
30:44Judith Riley
30:45hoped they could help
30:46others find their way
30:47back to society,
30:49to modern civilization.
30:50Now,
30:52Norwich is under
30:53the care of nature
30:54and may never
30:56be discharged.
31:02As decades
31:03pile up into centuries,
31:05an architectural treasure
31:06meets its fate.
31:08A storehouse
31:09of civilization
31:09is attacked
31:10from below
31:11and a rising tide
31:13conquers the crypt
31:14of a hero.
31:20Fifty years
31:27after people,
31:28the marine German shepherds
31:30are not even a memory.
31:32Although their training
31:34helped them survive
31:35while other pets died,
31:37they could not breed
31:38among themselves.
31:39To prevent fraternization
31:41in the ranks,
31:42the marines spayed
31:43their female dogs.
31:45Although some shepherds
31:46mated with feral dogs,
31:48after a handful
31:49of generations,
31:50the distinctive
31:51German shepherd breed
31:53has disappeared.
32:04100 years
32:05after people,
32:07even towers
32:09that still stand tall,
32:11like London's
32:12Gherkin Building,
32:13are being stripped away.
32:16In a life
32:17after people,
32:18individual glazing
32:20panels will begin
32:21to fall out
32:22of the external skin
32:23as the effects
32:24of wind
32:25and sun
32:26and rain
32:28have an aggravating effect
32:30on the condition
32:31of the materials.
32:35Moisture slowly rusts
32:37the thin steel file cabinets
32:39and spreads mold
32:40on the forgotten files within.
32:42In place of file cabinets,
32:46some humans used home safes
32:49of tempered steel
32:50to protect valuables,
32:52not just from water,
32:54but from fire.
32:57Paper burns
32:58at 451 degrees Fahrenheit.
33:02Many qualifiers
33:02can burn three or four times
33:04that hot.
33:06Safes could keep the interiors
33:07at 350 degrees
33:09for a while.
33:11But though man thought
33:12his precious papers
33:13would be protected
33:14from the flames,
33:16even the strongest home safes
33:17are no match
33:18for the fires
33:19that burn unchecked
33:21for days on end.
33:23It only takes two hours
33:25for the heat
33:26to begin penetrating
33:27the weakened steel
33:28and start incinerating
33:30the papers within.
33:31150 years after people,
33:44time has run out prematurely
33:46for the 10,000-year clock.
33:49How could this happen?
33:51Because the real 10,000-year clock
33:54was never completed.
33:57Right now,
33:57there is just one prototype
33:58of the 10,000-year clock.
34:01The nine-foot-tall prototype
34:03was put on display
34:05at the Science Museum in London
34:06as the year 1999
34:09changed to 2000.
34:12But humans had to wind
34:14the prototype
34:14every few months.
34:17It stopped dead
34:18in the first year
34:20after people
34:20and now lies in pieces
34:23as the stone structure
34:25around it has collapsed.
34:26had the real 10,000-year clock
34:32been completed
34:33before mankind vanished,
34:35it would have been installed
34:36in a unique home,
34:38a hollowed-out limestone mountain
34:41in Nevada,
34:4210,000 feet up
34:43and miles from civilization,
34:46where the sun
34:47would reset the clock
34:48by shining through
34:49a four-square-foot window
34:50made of sapphire.
34:51The purpose of the clock
34:55was not to tell people
34:56the time,
34:58but to get them
34:58to think about
34:59humanity's future.
35:02A future
35:03that never happened.
35:09Not far from London's
35:11Science Museum,
35:12the Gherkin Building's
35:14joints,
35:14exposed to corrosive moisture,
35:17fail where they have
35:18the most weight to bear,
35:19the floors.
35:22Eventually,
35:23one floor
35:24could pancake
35:25onto another below.
35:31But remarkably,
35:33the diamond-shaped supports
35:35maintain the building's skeleton.
35:39The Gherkin is weakened,
35:42but unlike most
35:43other skyscrapers,
35:44it still stands
35:46for now.
35:49300 years
35:57after people,
35:59rising sea levels
36:01have thrust
36:01Maryland's tidal basin
36:03relentlessly inland
36:04to the crypt
36:06of John Paul Jones.
36:10One of the world's
36:11greatest sailors
36:12has finally received
36:14a burial at sea.
36:16For London's
36:23Gherkin Building,
36:24the loss of most
36:25of its windows
36:26and floors
36:27has reduced
36:27the weight load
36:28on its steel frame.
36:31Partial collapse
36:32has prevented
36:32complete destruction.
36:36But 300 years
36:37of English weather
36:38has seeped
36:39into cracks
36:40in the structure's
36:41sealant.
36:42attacked by corrosion.
36:46The structural elements
36:47will be progressively
36:47weakened
36:48until finally,
36:50in a very extreme storm,
36:52a gust of wind
36:53will deliver
36:55the final blow.
36:57A brace buckles,
36:59triggering chain reactions
37:00of failure
37:01and fracture
37:02in the trusses
37:02until the entire
37:0430,000-ton
37:05framework
37:06fully yields
37:07to the force
37:08of gravity.
37:08where steel
37:18has failed,
37:20bronze survives.
37:22The Iwo Jima Marines
37:24still strain
37:25to raise a flag
37:26that has been
37:27gone for centuries.
37:30Although swamp weeds
37:31cluster,
37:33one of war's
37:34most dramatic monuments
37:35endures.
37:38as the centuries
37:43turn to millennia,
37:45nature presses
37:45its advantage
37:46even into
37:47the best
37:48protected places.
37:50Can the treasures
37:51of the crypt
37:51of civilization
37:52really be safe
37:54from destruction?
38:03500 years
38:05after people.
38:07Man tried
38:07to preserve
38:08his civilization
38:09in libraries.
38:11Here,
38:11the memory
38:13of the past
38:13was available
38:14to all.
38:15But libraries
38:16were always vulnerable.
38:19The original
38:20Library of Congress
38:22was burned
38:22by the British
38:23in the War of 1812.
38:25Some 3,000 books
38:27on law,
38:28economics,
38:28and history
38:29were lost.
38:32Now,
38:33the dome
38:33of the library's
38:34Jefferson Building,
38:36completed in 1897
38:38and rising 160 feet
38:40over what is now
38:41swampland,
38:43is putting too much
38:44strain on the
38:45supporting walls.
38:47Because of the way
38:48that all domes
38:49are constructed,
38:50there is a weak point
38:51at the base of the dome
38:52where the dome
38:52wants to expand.
38:54It wants to push down
38:55and expand out.
38:57The pressure
38:58becomes too great
39:00for the dome to bear.
39:02Concrete
39:02can no longer resist
39:04the greedy pull
39:05of gravity
39:05and falls
39:07in a shattering
39:08surrender.
39:222,000 years
39:24after people.
39:26Copies of the
39:27Rosetta disc,
39:28preserving 1,500
39:30human languages
39:32and dialects,
39:33still exist.
39:35Each disc
39:35was made of nickel,
39:37a metal that forms
39:38much of the core
39:39of the earth.
39:40Nickel resists
39:41corrosion,
39:42but the texts
39:43of the disc
39:44are still vulnerable
39:45to the corruption
39:46of time.
39:48It does accumulate
39:50a kind of
39:51microscopic goo
39:52over time.
39:52It is just,
39:53you know,
39:53whatever's ambient
39:54in the air
39:54that lands
39:55on the disc.
39:57So fairly quickly
39:58that material
39:59could build up.
40:012,000 years
40:03after people,
40:04a great deal
40:05of material
40:06has built up
40:07around one
40:07of the Rosetta discs,
40:09the Smithsonian
40:10institution itself.
40:12May 28th,
40:238113,
40:248113.
40:26Time for the crypt
40:27of civilization
40:28to be opened.
40:31But it's long
40:32been buried
40:32by the collapse
40:33of the building
40:34around it,
40:35which now lies
40:37beneath a blanket
40:37of grass and trees.
40:39outside the crypt.
40:43Mold and plants
40:44pushed in
40:44through broken windows.
40:47Pressure from above
40:48cracked the crypt walls.
40:51Water and dank air
40:52seized the opportunity
40:53and invaded.
40:58Metal began to corrode
40:59and rust.
41:01The beer,
41:02which long ago
41:03went flat,
41:04then turned
41:05and soured
41:05and moisture
41:07seeped into
41:08the plaster skins
41:09of the mannequins,
41:10oxidizing and cracking
41:12the idealized images
41:14of a lost humanity.
41:2550,000 years
41:27after people,
41:29as planned
41:30500 centuries earlier,
41:32the Keogh satellite's
41:34orbit decays.
41:36On the way down,
41:38it's hit
41:38by micrometeorites
41:40and tiny fragments
41:41from other ancient satellites.
41:43But the Keogh
41:44is prepared for this.
41:47The basic idea
41:48of the design
41:49is to have
41:50concentric spheres
41:51of different materials,
41:52titanium,
41:53aluminum,
41:54some Kevlar,
41:56like multiple thermos
41:57bottles within itself
41:59and then the payload
42:00is inside that.
42:00The Keogh,
42:03laden with messages
42:04from the 21st century,
42:05re-enters the atmosphere
42:07intact
42:07with sunlight
42:08gleaming off its wings.
42:11The Keogh satellite's wings,
42:12they will be shiny
42:13and the hopes are
42:15that anybody left
42:15on the planet
42:16could look up
42:17and see these shiny glints
42:19coming by
42:20and hopefully watch
42:20where it's going to land.
42:22But if nobody's there
42:22to see that,
42:23then it's not going to be
42:24a very useful alert system,
42:26will it?
42:26The Earth
42:30is two-thirds water
42:31and that's probably
42:33where the Keogh
42:34will end its mission,
42:35in the place
42:36where life began.
42:41Now,
42:42sealed for eternity
42:43in the blue crypt
42:45of the sea,
42:46the 50,000-year-old
42:48messages wait
42:49for the future.
42:50Why do we want
42:57to take stuff
42:57from today
42:59and put it in a box
43:00and have people
43:01dig it up in the future
43:02and try to figure out
43:03what it is?
43:05I personally think
43:06that it's sort of
43:07our need
43:08to connect ourselves
43:09to humanity's future
43:11forever.
43:12You know,
43:12we really want to feel
43:13like we were important
43:14or a part of humanity.
43:16Every crypt of civilization
43:20assumes that someone
43:22will be there
43:23on the other side
43:24of the valley of time.
43:27While some vessels
43:28won't survive the journey,
43:31each message
43:32to the future
43:33is a gift of hope,
43:35even in a life
43:37after people.
43:41In the next episode
43:42of Life After People,
43:44the Last Supper
43:45has been served.
43:47Now,
43:48some of the highest
43:48restaurants in the world
43:50satisfy an appetite
43:51for destruction
43:52and see what happened
43:54when one real-life
43:55American supermarket
43:56was abandoned
43:57with all the food
43:59still inside.