At the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence is housed in the West Wing. Of 200 copies printed on July 4, 1776, on 25 survives, and the document at the Independence Hall is prized because it was the first to be read aloud in public and is virtually entombed. Karie Diethorn stated that the Declaration of Independence is protected in the case like a Russian nesting doll where it was contained within an oxygen-free environment, inside a climate-controlled case, room, and building. Without power, humidity creep into the case and threaten the document, however the document is contains natural cotton and linen fibers that make it stronger. Kaire Diethorn stated that if it wasn't subjected to any environmental forces, it would last thousands of years.
Outside of the Independence Hall is the Liberty Bell, the bell that hung above the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. It is heavily protected by two thick marble walls and its design were top secrets but were engineered to withstand extreme shock. Kaire Diethorn stated that the strength and thickness of the marble wall provide bomb protection.
At the Louvre Museum in Paris, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa faces its own risk from within, it was painted on wood, where it can swell and shrink. It was protected by an airtight case that can withstand a rocket propelled grenade and sensors in the case can detect the tiniest swelling in the wood. Steven S. Ross stated that the sensors can sense one-micron expansion or contraction.
While some icons are left buried, others are left bound. The cable cars of San Francisco are out of service. The cable cars were pulled up and and down on some of the world's steepest urban hills by a wire cable in the time of humans. Steven S. Ross showcase a sheave room where it move the cable at 9.5 miles an hour and explains that the cable cars grab onto the cable as they move. After 1 day after people, power went out and the pulleys stop, frozen in their tracks and hanging by wire thread.
2 Days After People[]
The Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, arching across the water and are silent. In the time of humans, the Golden Gate was an engineering marvel and were crossed by 108,000 cars every day. 2 days after people, the only thing crossing the Golden Gate Bridge is a silent assassin. Steven S. Ross stated that it will die by fog and moisture is within the fog, condensing the bridge and forming rust.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge stretches more than four miles, connection San Francisco to Oakland. In the time of humans, no single bridge could span that distance before in 1933 when engineers solved the problem by building a series of bridges: a causeway section, a cantilever in the middle, and a double suspension design for the deepest part over the shipping channel. Steven S. Ross stated that the bay Bridge is a bit of a mongrel but in a good sense. When a section of it collapsed in a 1989 earthquake, it was retro-fitted with new bolts, plates, and steel, sturdier than before. 2 days after people, the bridge only traffic is dust.
At the waterfront, the only sound is wavelets lapping at the hull of a cargo ship. Despite the explosion of technology, ships were tied to the pier with the same piece of equipment used by ancient mariners in time of humans. Steven S. Ross stated that ropes hold the ship to the pier. After 2 days, eight ropes made of synthetic as strong as wire secure the vessel to the deserted pier, with a single line can hold 125,000 pounds.
1 Week After People[]
The Petronas Towers soars over the vacant city of Kuala Lumper in Malaysia. It is the world's tallest twin buildings, connected by a skybridge that is the highest ever built. Gordon Masterton stated that the skybridge sits 400 feet in the air across the 41st and 42nd floors. In the time of humans, human Spider-Man Alain Robert tried to scale one of the 1,483-foot towers with his own bare hands in two separate events. Both times, he climb 60 floors before allowing himself to be apprehended. 1 week after people, only the sun climbs its walls.
2 Weeks After People[]
In North America, a pungent smell of old food sitting in kitchens is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase wolf at the door. 2 weeks after people have let some of the 400,000 wolves living in the wild invade homes for an easy meal. While the wolves moves in, the dogs tried to move out but the dogs remain bound to humans. David Brin explains that humans started manipulating the genetic makeup and characteristics of animals before agriculture. He explains neoteny, a tendency of retaining childlike characteristics, and is a reason why dogs accept authority without challenge. Ray Coppinger stated that dogs aren't good at little tasks like breaking out of the house and most of the dogs would sit and starve to death. However, one kind of canine would be ideally suited to the new world, the stray dog. Belonging to no one, stray dogs live on the outskirts of town and are lean survival machines. Ray Coppinger stated they weigh 20 pounds, can eat rotten food, and been doing it for thousands of years. For the first few months, large populations of stray dogs live, eat, and battle for food at landfills & dumps and survival becomes a riskier proposition.
3 Months After People[]
One of the oldest treasures of mankind's continue to endures, the prehistoric art on the Lascaux cave in Southern France. For ten of thousands of years, the paintings and engravings, thought to have been drawn by Cro-Magnon, were entombed in the caves before in 1940 when the discovery by modern man stunned the world. Paul Bahn commented that the quality and dynamism at Lascaux is astounding and it is among the most beautiful art ever produced by mankind. 3 months after people returns to being undisturbed and it could survive for thousands of years as long as it stay buried.
4 Months After People[]
At the frozen wastes of Norway's northernmost islands, a doorway in the snow leads to Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Also known as the Doomsday Vault, it was meant to secure the world against a disaster. The disaster was sparked in the time of humans by the need to feed an exploding population, agricultural companies engineered seeds to produce super-crops and maximize output where huge tracks of farmland were planted with the single best variety of seed. However, it sacrifices the crop's strongest protection, diversity, against pests. Cary Fowley stated that the diversity allowed farmers in the 1700s and 1800s to establish agriculture in the United States is largely gone including 95% of corn varieties and wheat varieties that existed back in the 1800s. He continues that a single pest or disease likes it, it will like all the rest of it. Formers protected their crops with pesticides in the time of humans, however 4 months after people have let insects to mow down hundreds of thousands of acres. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was built precisely as a kind of doomsday plague and has a capacity to store billion seeds and millions of different kinds in order to bring life back on Earth. Cary Fowler if there will be going wrong like an asteroid hitting earth or global nuclear war, the seed vault would restore agriculture in the world. Artificial cooling system chilled the vault to -4 degrees in the time of humans, however with electricity failed, the vault has warming up and stabilize at 25 degrees, the temperature of the surrounding permafrost.
2 Years After People[]
A cable car in San Francisco is becoming a bullet train. The inner core of the cables that run beneath the streets is simply made of plain rope and two years after people has rotted away, enough for the car to break free and becomes an eight-ton missile of wood and steel. Steven S. Ross stated that the most likely to run into first for a cable car is a vehicle blocking its way, and the speed would make the cable car slice right through the vehicle.
At the bay, the eight high-strength lines continue to held the massive cargo ship for two years. Steven S. Ross stated that the ropes hold the ship loosely, allowing the ship to rise and fall with the tide. He continues that in San Francisco Bay, it rise and fall at 6 feet. A howling gale put the rope into an ultimate test. Steven S. Ross stated that the rope can withstand on 50 to 75 ton pull but the ship weigh 50,000 tons. The cargo ship, rocked by wind and waves, generates stress, and once the first line snaps, the others swiftly follow and the ship sets coarse to the bay. Steven S. Ross stated that after the ship break free of its mooring, it will be propelled from the south, and north toward the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, where the cargo ship destination. He continues that after the central part of the hull is hit, it will take on water, become heavier and the two ends of the ship become more buoyant till it snap the ship into two.
10 Years After People[]
In Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence is being exposed to a foe far worse than the British redcoats that were keep out by the windows of Independence Hall's west wing, which were covered with panels, and the foe is the caustic rays of sunlight. Karie Diethorn explains Ultraviolet light excites the molecules within the paper causes the deterioration quickly. She continues that the slower frequency produces radiant heat drying out the paper and can also increase the speed of deterioration. The failure of a single window pane makes the Declaration of Independence in harm's way. Steven S. Ross thinks a small rock, a piece of another building, or a branch blown by the wind would broke the glass and the deterioration of the paper accelerates. Without people, the wind makes quick work of the panels and the daylight streams into the buildings causing the words of the Declaration of Independence to start disappearing.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, something is mysteriously happening to the Lascaux caves, it is deteriorating and it's walls are flaking. The show questions how the caves survive 30,000 years fade so fast before answering itself that the it is not the original cave. In the time of humans, the original was damaged by the effects of too many visitors, and so the French built an exact replica for tourists in 1983 and called it Lascaux II. Paul Bahn stated that it was made in an old quarry close to the original cave and was a fine piece of work for its time. 10 years after people have its steel and plaster construction falls apart. Paul Bahn explains it would be disintegrating markedly and no hope for Lascaux II to survive.
The opposite is happening to the original cave, without body head and daily disturbances of people, the caves that were dubbed the Sistine Chapel of the Ice Age have returned to a natural balance. Paul Bahn stated it would survive 25,000 to 30,000 years and would be sitting in the darkness.
25 Years After People[]
In a windswept park, an engraved stone marks a mysterious vault referring to a town and yet there's almost nothing within the area. Battered signs mark streets and regulate parking but no cars, graveyard walls are in disarray, streets are paved and lined with curbs yet no structures except for the occasional house, and a nearby road is buckled. The show then revealed that the location is referring to is Centralia in Pennsylvania.
Visiting Centralia, it was abandoned for 25 years after people due to the an underground disaster that cause its demise. David Dekok guide and explains the history of the town and how nature conquers it. David Dekok explains there are no physical trace of people left with the exception of the curbs, sidewalks, and the occasional street sign. Its history began in 1983 when Centralia hummed with more than a thousand residents with businesses, churches, and a high school anchored the village along with Highway 61 with is main street. David Dekok stated Centralia is just a classic small town where everybody knew each other. However, being located in the heart of Pennsylvania's coal country, Centralia always lived by mining, and is being die from it. David Dekok stated that anthracite can burn very hot and last a long time. 20 years of hellish underground fire burning in a maze of abandoned coal shafts have ran directly beneath the town where deadly gases seeped into the homes, leaving residents little choice but to leave. David Dekok explains the fire created three dangerous gases, all can asphyxiate, and carbon monoxide is feared the most. The federal government bought up hundreds of homes in 1984 and a mass exodus began, with a handful of residents refused to leave.
While many abandoned towns were tear down by nature first, Centralia gave nature a head start by demolishing almost all the buildings. A nearby trailer home is being rot and the inside is chewed by moisture along with its plastic Christmas ornaments. David Dekok stated that the sidewalks and curbs once served a neighborhood. The main highway have been crack by the subterranean inferno forcing the state to reroute it. 25 years later, the fire torn a huge fissure in the old highway with sulfurous smoke and steam still rises up. Meanwhile, thick trees grow in the middle of the abandoned pavement, and the last abandoned house in the town, destruction is imminent with the basement contains remnants of family's possessions. David Dekok shows an intersection of Locust Avenue and Wood Street where it once filled with houses, now only one house remains. Outskirt of the town, pipes have been rusted and overgrown, the iron gates of the cemetery have oxidized over the years, and the wooden roof a warehouse is riddled with rot but the cinderblock walls will stand several more decades until the mortal crumbles and bricks collapse. The fire would burn for another 250 years. David Dekok stated that the most enduring part of the story is the power of nature. He continues that while people can be resilient, ultimately in the end nature wins. One final legacy of Centralia is an engraved stone on once the center of the town, a time capsule that was buried nearly 50 years ago, it's due to be unearthed in 2016. The contents of it will be the last mystery before land returns to wilderness.
50 Years After People[]
At the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the first seeds have begun to die that was meant to preserve it. Cary Fowler thinks the first seeds to last the shortest amount of time are sunflower seeds or lettuce seeds in 50 to 75 years under the conditions. Scientists believe that seeds have a special anti-aging protein, when the protein fail, the seeds die, like corroded rebar in a concrete column, and cause a structural break-down in the seed. The collapse of the proteins makes the lettuce seeds the first casualty.
75 Years After People[]
In Kuala Lumpur, 75 years of tropical heat have corroded a part of the Petronas Towers where steel is vital, the supports under the skybridge. Gordon Masterton stated that the skybridge is constructed primarily in steel and it is vulnerable to natural decay. The corrosion then buckles a supporting leg, causing the skybridge to fall and turning it into a one-way elevator, crashing into the roof of the Suria KLCC mall below. The Petronas Towers still remain intact, but the connection is severed forever.
Thousands of miles away in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell is about to ring for one last time. While it is made of bronze and can last thousands of years, its structural integrity is threatened by its large crack and it is much less visible the could be just as damaging. Karie Diethorn explains that the crack itself can be seen which extends all the way past the inscription of the crown of the bell where it's greatest weakness. The elm wooden support that holds the bell is where the final split will begin and 75 years of moisture & insects have left it too weak to hold the weight of the one-ton bell, causing the Liberty Bell to split and ring for one last time. Although it is split in two, the symbol of freedom remains recognizable.
Freedom has become the very essence of stray dogs. Once dependent on human leftovers, stray dogs evolved back into the wild predators before domestication. Ray Coppinger explains stated that there are places that stray dogs evolved back into a wild animal like a dingo in Australia. Dingoes were bought to Australia around 2,000 B.C. as domesticated dogs, when it was released into the outback, it soon numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Ray Coppinger stated that they're doing perfectly well in the wild. However, without humans to provided the stray dogs with most of the food, the population were decimated. Once the population of 300 million where just a few million yet they endure because of a unique running ability that distinguishes from every other creature in the animal kingdom. Ray Coppinger stated that cheetah's was the fastest animal in the world that can go 300 or 400 yards before they become exhausted while a good dog can do hundreds of miles. He continues that no other animal have in the world could do that and take it really successfully.
100 Years After People[]
The steel of the Golden Gate Bridge has been humbled by common oxygen. Steven S. Ross stated that the bridge is painted rust with red but after years it still be the same colour but its already rusting. The dense fogs feed the rust, threatening the point of highest stress, the vertical cables that bear the crushing weight of the deck. Steven S. Ross explains that the roadway is not designed to support itself and was designed to be suspended from the cables. The failure of one cable quickly triggers others around it, and once it is unsupported, the roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge then plunges 245 feet into the chill-gray waters of the San Francisco Bay.
Few miles to the east, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is located in a dryer and warmer location, slowing rust but also triggers another kind of growth by moisture. Steven S. Ross stated that bridge will look like a forest with trees and vegetation growing on it. Without maintenance crew to clear the fledgling, the dirt clogs the expansion joins, and with no room to expand, one of the span's goes down/fate is sealed, (to the deck).
At the inside of the Louvre, the protective case entombing the Mona Lisa that built to withstand a terrorist attack has been infiltrate by dust into the neoprene seals and forge a path for moisture. Steven S. Ross stated that the tiniest crack or tiniest hole in the case would have moisture easily making the case itself the Mona Lisa's enemy. The dampness sounds a death knell for the painting which creates a perfect habitat to deathwatch beetle. Gene Kritsky explains the deathwatch beetles, where it was named during the Middle ages when people were waiting out the death of a love one and during the time of silence, they could hear the tapping sounds from the walls where it make a hardly audible tapping noise. The beetles have nothing to do with dying but the beetles were wood-eating and the Mona Lisa is painted on wood, consuming it. Gene Kritsky stated that for the dessert, they might save the smile for last.
200 Years After People[]
The skeletal specter of the Golden Gate Bridge soaring towers only remain at the Golden Gate.
By the shallows of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, enough debris has built up around the piers, forming a more permanent passage. Steven S. Ross stated it will create land by creating an obstruction where natural silt flows in the bay start piling up and becoming an island or a peninsula all by itself.
300 Years After People[]
Rain has spawned a new occupying force in Philadelphia, which turned into a dense forest. Amidst the trees are the two blast walls still rising out of the earth and surround the half-buried Liberty Bell. Karie Diethorn stated it will look like a tomb or crypt. The inscription may be one of the last visible pieces as the forest buries the bell.
A hundred yards away, the Declaration of Independence still lies in the rubble of the once west wing of Independence Hall and it is still intact in its bulletproof casing. It was built to withstand the blow of a sledgehammer and has shielded the document since the year 2000 in the time of humans. However, heat and light have left the linen rag paper brittle & desiccated and three centuries after people have let the first blast of air to penetrate through a worn seam of the case, causing the document to disintegrate.
500 Years After People[]
Back in Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas Towers may be the tallest manmade structure still standing on Earth thanks to an extraordinary quirk in the design. It is the tallest buildings in the world supported by a frame of concrete in the time of humans. Gordon Masterton stated that while most skyscrapers around the world are steel-framed, Malaysia doesn't have an indigenous steel industry, making it unique. Five centuries of exposure to tropical sun and torrid humidity have weakened the super-strength cement and the collapse of the Petronas Towers begins at the columns where are thinnest, the top. The cascading of one tower triggers the collapse of the other and in seconds, the monument structures are reduced to dust and rubble. Gordon Masterton stated that it will have a progressive effect where both towers collapsed in a crashing heap to the ground at the same time.
2,000 Years After People[]
Back in Paris, while the Mona Lisa is long gone, another famous woman in the renowned collection of the Louvre Museum thrives. The Venus de Milo, the six-foot statue that was buried for nearly two millennia before she was unearthed in 1812 by a farmer, still surviving as she is being slowly reburied. Sculpted from marble, the ancient goddess of love is built to last.
Across the river from where the Louvre once stood, the medieval cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris remains. It was built entirely of stone, it is being held together by the eternal force of gravity. Steven S. Ross stated that the basic structure of Notre Dame, especially the two towers, will be standing and recognizable 2,000 years later.
20,000 Years After People[]
The last of the hundreds of millions of seeds stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault have died and the potential to generate new life is gone forever. For the contents of the vault, the doomsday vault has its doomsday to arrive.
10 Million Years After People[]
The show questions could the remains of San Francisco be fossilized like the bones of the dinosaurs before answering itself that for fossilization to occur, it will need to be buried before being completely eroded away. The fate is decided by large sections of the Earth's crust on where they sit are pushing the ground up or down. In regions where Earth's crust slowly rising, the surface erodes wiping away the remains of human civilization, but for the parts of the crust moving downwards, under the sea or into the Earth, it will remains to be buried and the forces of fossilization began. San Francisco was perched along the San Andreas fault in the time of humans, which are marked the boundary between two large tectonic plates. The spot once triggered punishing earthquakes, it is in an extreme slow motion of geological movement where it delivered the ultimate blow to San Francisco. Jan A. Zalasiewicz stated that the piece of crust around San Francisco has little chance to be fossilized where the landscape is going up. When the landscape goes up, the landscape will erode. He continues that while San Francisco is a beautiful city, it is destine for oblivion.
Epilogue[]
Worldly goods prove fleeting and the surface of the Earth is no place for the artifacts of man in life after people.
Transcript[]
Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.
At the same scene, the right bottom of the Southern Tower is missing.
The ink words of the Declaration of Independence doesn't fade when shown in 300 years after people despite mentioning of the words of it starts to disappear in 10 years after people.
In the segment about the Petronas Towers, Malaysia actually has an indigenous steel industry, albeit it produce 6.9 million metric tons of steel in 2007.[2]
Trivia[]
Bound and Buried is the second episode where the producer is uncredited.
Coincidentally, the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is already in progress at the time of the episode first production.[3]
Bound and Buried is the first episode where the font on the title is used differently.
It is also the first and only episode where the title is not all capitals.
Gallery[]
The thumbnail of the episode (Mona Lisa), as seen on History's Official YouTube Channel.
The thumbnail of the episode (Mona Lisa), as seen on History.com.
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