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New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. New York City is a global cultural, financial, high-tech, entertainment, glamor, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City comprises five boroughs, each of which is coextensive with a respective county of the state of New York. [1]

Coverage[]

New York City is the main setting for the documentary & Heavy Metal, one of the settings in The Bodies Left Behind, The Invaders, Toxic Revenge, Home Wrecked Home, & Take Me to Your Leader, and an abandoned location is examined in Armed & Defenseless.

Starting in 1 day after people, Times Square is still a glittering urban shrine but the streets have turned eerily quiet. It was once one of the loudest places in New York City, but only the 50 decibel hum of air conditioning units remains. [2]

TimesSquareBlackOut

Times Square goes dark.

In 2 days after people, the New York City power grid is failing, and so is the trademarked glow of hundreds of illuminated signs, this time is permanent. In the light of day, only the illuminated Ricoh Billboard still alight the city. Horses that once carried police officers and pulled Central Park carriages starts to adapt without humans to care for them.[2]Deep within New York City, more than 700 pumps constantly struggle to keep out a flood of ground water into the subways, an average of 13 million gallons a day. Gordon Masterton stated that without people to switch the pumps on, the tunnels will fill with water in 36 hours.[2][3] At the United Nations Headquarters, the almost 200 flags still flutter along First Avenue and the 39 story Secretariat Tower looms over the cavernous General Assembly Building. Inside, an eerie glow still filters through hallways and offices, but it can only glow up to 20 hours. Without electric lights to recharge it, it soon turn to dark.[4]

In 5 days after people, millions of gallons of raw sewage is flowing into the rivers around Manhattan as electricity shuts off and 93 pump stations around the city fails one by one. 500 million gallons of raw sewage overwhelmed the pipes and spilled out into New York's waterways, producing methane gas and finding it's way into the city's rail and subway tunnels, drifting to the area around Grand Central Terminal.[5]

SanRemoFire

The fire at The San Remo.

In 1 week after people, at The San Remo, the high-end paint emanates danger. Steven S. Ross stated that the rags painted in linseed oil are time bombs. As linseed oil interacts with oxygen in the air, the chemical reaction produces heat and without adequate ventilation, spontaneous combustions occurred causing The San Remo to burn. At Co-Op City, the 50 thousand pilings sinks at a fraction of an inch each year due to it sunk at the reclaimed marshland.[6]

In 10 days after people, the Asian long-horned beetle no longer have to worry on mans massive eradication effort. Frank Lowenstein stated that the beetle would again begin to spread with 2.4 million of the 5 million trees present in New York City are susceptible to the Asian long-horn beetle.[7]

In 1 year after people, at the Rockefeller Center, only the animals gathered at the plaza. In winter, the plaza turns into an ice rink, but at the spring, it becomes a flower pot. The Statue of Prometheus presides over the destruction of what man has created. Steven S. Ross stated that the statue would survive due to bronze but for the gold layer, it will continue to shine for the first five or 10 years till rain, hail, and dust blows around and scour it down to original bronze.[2]

In 3 years after people, at Times Square, the Ricoh Billboard finally flickers out due to nobody changing the lightbulbs. Meanwhile, horses have escaped New York City and begun to find habitable places like yards and gold courses till all of it becomes a forest.[2]

CentralParkIntro

Central Park is overgrown.

In Central Park, after 5 years without gardeners, the great lawns sprout with saplings have turn the park to look more like a forest. Ray Coppinger stated that Central Park will go bananas and the animals and plants at the park will increase in population levels and start to spread out into the city.[3]

MetLifeBuildingExplosion

An explosion rocks the MetLife Building.

A decade after people, the Grand Central Terminal became a gathering place for owls. Beneath the building, methane gas has been building up in rail tunnels below, but the tracks ran under the MetLife Building. Other toxic fumes began mixing in the tunnels below the MetLife Building. Steven S. Ross stated that the volatile materials itself in the presence of oxygen begins to oxidize, head up, and explodes into fire. A ball of flames erupt from below and the explosion occurred right at the side of MetLife Building.[5]

At 25 years after people, windows in the high rises of New York City begins to cracked and fall into the street below. Gordon Masterton stated after some windows fall off, the wind pressure effect changes dramatically which aggravates the problem and causing more windows to fall off. The copper lightning deterrent system on top of the structures are corroded and useless, and as the summer storm rolls in, a lightning bolt turns one of the towers, the 500 Fifth Avenue, into a raging inferno. Holes in the buildings provide homes for pigeons.[3]

In 30 years after people, the walls of the buildings at the Rockefeller Center have undergone a transformation. Steven S. Ross stated that the seams catch a lot of seeds and dirt and within 30 years, the green grid start to appear and spread out over the buildings.[2]

In 50 years after people, the strain of neglect began to appear on the Brooklyn Bridge cause by corrosion on the cables, which are made of steel.[3] The stainless steel crown of the Chrysler Building still shimmers and on the 61st floor, eight stainless steel eagle gargoyles keep watch over the city, constantly buffeted by high level winds. Steven S. Ross stated that the Chrysler Building is exposed to the wind on the east of it and the gargoyles are simply bolted into the place. The connection to the building of the gargoyles corroded and one of it buckles and takes its first and final flight before smashing into one of the roofs of the Chrysler Building.[2]

At 60 years after people, the MetLife Building is falling to pieces as its already weakened by methane explosion and 6 decades of neglect that assaulted the building's steel and glass facade. Steven S. Ross stated that it was built in a exposed area where it gets more wind and rain, he also stated that at time, the sections of the framework will peel away. This makes the Grand Central Terminal in the line of fire of the MetLife Building.[5]

Brooklyn-tmh

The Brooklyn Bridge collapse into the East River.

A century after people, the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge are failing. The cables are galvanized, covered in a protective coating of zinc to slow corrosion. Alan W. Pense stated that the wires will go to rust after the galvanize fails and have failures by fracture of individual wires till it begin to break, fray, and the rope will fail. As the cables fail, the deck and railings begin to warp and sway till the deck pulls free and the roadway spills into the East River.[2][3] Nearby, the trams at the Roosevelt Island Tramway hasn't moved along the cable for 100 years where wind has continued to buffet the tramway and causing stress on the wires near the tower making it to snap and the tram car plunges 250 feet into the East River.[2] At Liberty Island, the skeleton of the Statue of Liberty begins to disintegrate. Steven S. Ross stated that the steel straps that hold the copper to the steel framework, along with the rivets, would pull away over a period of 100 to 200 years.[8] At Co-Op City, water has attacked from above and below. Steven S. Ross stated that the buildings are flat roofs drain to the inside to internal drains where water leaks into the building. Meanwhile, the sinking land has reverted to tidal mudflats turning the areas into a splash zones. From the northeast, a massive winter storm blows in the weakened splash zones buckles under the northeaster's assault, swallowing one of the buildings into the floods.[6] Meanwhile at Grant's Tomb, a century of unchecked tree growth and creeping vines by the London plane has draped the granite mausoleum like a shroud.[4]

NewYork100Years

A sampling of some buildings, zoomed in.

In 150 years after people, the subways that had started to flood in the first 36 hours are flowing subterranean streams and the beams & archways that hold up the roofs are on the verge of collapse. Gordon Masterton stated that the tunnels not just support the roof of the tunnel but also the street above and in time that the tunnels are inundated with water, corrosion will take hold and it'll start to collapse. The tunnels echo with the sound of cracking steel and cement as the streets of New York City are sucked into the underground. Above ground, life in the city is once again bustling as vines grown up the sides of abandoned skyscrapers which adapt to feed off rainwater that pools in crevices and on ledges. Ray Coppinger stated that vines would provide some source of energy for animals in the vertical ecosystem that get birds nesting in, hunting in through, and snakes established. When the insects and smaller animals get established, cats move. While hunting out in the open was hard work, the pickings are easy high above the city where they'll find all that they need to survive without touching the ground and turning them into the kings of the new high altitude food chain with million-dollar views of a bizarrely altered cityscape. Ray Coppinger could pictured that New York City would be covered with vines and hawks sailing around making it lovely.[3] Meanwhile at the Rockefeller Center, the greenery is on permanent display where humans once had to truck in a tree to celebrate the holiday season. The skyscrapers that made New York famous have also transformed into vertical ecosystems. Frank Lowestein stated that the bottom of the building would get rubble, soil accumulatio, and sorts of dry environments like oak, hickory, and a wide variety of grasses while the higher areas where there's more wind and drier, the places where plants colonize are going to be cliff dwellers.[2]

MetLifeBuildingcollapse

The MetLife Building collapse into the Grand Central Terminal.

150 years after people signals the beginning of the era of the great building collapses in New York City and surprisingly, it's the newer buildings that are crumbling the fastest because the new types of steel developed in the 20th century allow most of a building's weight to be carried by the inner columns and so most of New York City's post-war skyscrapers were built using a glass and steel curtain wall technique in which the outer walls form a lightweight protective skin of steel and glass. Steven S. Ross stated that one of the big complaints New Yorkers have with newer buildings is that they all leak and so most modern buildings would go first and the buildings built up through the 1940s would last the longest.[2] At the MetLife Building, after enduring a gas fire and shedding steel from its top floors for decades, finally breaks and a giant section falls southward which tumble onto the roof of Grand Central Terminal. However, despite the attack from the MetLife Building, Grand Central Terminal's 4 granite wall still stand. Steven S. Ross stated that the outside walls are very thick granite, which hold themselves up, and even with the head start on aging, the Grand Central Terminal would still be recognizable as a building 250 years to 500 years.[5]

SecretariatCollapse

The Secretariat Building collapse.

In 175 years after people, the General Assembly Building at the United Nations Headquarters is long out of session and is about to adjourn permanently. Steven S. Ross stated that the structure has a very irregular roof and the roof beams have to span a very wide area and at any time, there'd a large space with enclosed with no interior columns which cause a failure point. After 175 years, the roof of the General Assembly Building collapses. The 39 story Secretariat Building outlasted the General Assembly Building but just barely because the steel curtain frame is a teetering rusted skeleton and it was built on filled in land reclaimed from the East River. Steven S. Ross stated that the problems are the areas of the sub-basements being below the level of the waterline and because the lower levels flood, it expose the steel framework to brackish water to saltwater. He continues that the saltwater itself could cause enough corrosion to bring the building down all at once. The Secretariat Building collapses into the East River. Meanwhile at Grant's Tomb, it is losing its battle with the tress and while it was built to last, the destructive London plane have breached the inner sanctum. The relentless soil production and tree growth have covered Grant's body beneath 6 feet of Earth and for the first time in history, there's truly someone buried at Grant's Tomb.[4]

EmpireStateCollapse

The Empire State Building slips from the skyline.

ChryslerCollapse

The collapse of the Chrysler Building.

In 200 years after people, New York silhouette is a throwback to the Great Depression with the collapse of the modern skyscrapers.[2] Over 2 centuries, saturated soil from the rising sea levels have cause the Empire State Building's foundation pilings to lean. Gordon Masterton stated that once a building strays from the vertical, then gravity forces start acting against the structure, increasing the stresses at the base of the building, and once it start to incline, gravitational force would cause the top of the building to collapse downward on top of itself, and so the Empire State Building slips from the skyline.[3][2] The Chrysler Building is once again the tallest building in the city but it's reign won't last for long as the deteriorating columns can no longer support the floors. Gordon Masterton stated that it is a critical point where the skyscraper becomes on the verge of total collapse when the several columns buckle in a single floor which allow another floor to descent rapidly to another, it would trigger a cascading collapse. As the Chrysler Building collapse, and the skyline of New York City is unrecognizable.[2]

LibertyTorch

The torch of the Statue of Liberty falls.

At Liberty Island, 300 years after people have suffers the Statue of Liberty a fatal relapse of an old complaint being galvanic corrosion. The torch bearing right arm is the first to fall and other parts quickly follow including the face. But on the ocean floor, the shattered symbols of hope become the fossils of the future. Jan Zalasiewicz stated that the hand with the torch would embed itself up to 1/2 meter into the mud and the impression would stay in the way that footprints are preserved in mud and sand.[8]

TimesSquareTransformed

Times Square is transformed.

In 1,000 years after people, New York City, like the rest of the planet, are unrecognizable and has changed radically. The future of the cities in life after people can be best imagined by looking to the past like in Minetta Street. Eric Sanderson explains that the street curves because there was a stream called Minetta Brook, all flowing down and carrying rainwater to the sea and if there's no one to maintain the sidewalks and the streets, it'll start to crumble, break apart, trees and vegetation come back, and the hydrological cycle would reestablish itself and Minetta Brook would return. Another example is at Foley Square in Civic Center by using the historic maps and computer modelling to rediscover what Manhattan Island looked like when explorer Henry Hudson first sailed around its shores in 1609. Eric Sanderson stated that 400 years ago, the collect pond was at Foley Square, the freshwater source for New York City and behind him are streams draining to the Hudson River shore and another to East River and once people disappear, the buildings tumble down, soil start to reform, trees start to grow, and the buildings would become the new hills. The most shocking transformation is in Times Square as the once beating heart of the city is silenced by nature's onslaught.[3] The skyscrapers would become canyons and rivers flow where taxis once patrolled. Frank Lowenstein stated that the course would follow of the once streets and the pseudo canyons at the bottom of the strangely shaped hills are the rubble left of the skyscrapers.[2]

FederalReserveUnderwater

The gold vault of the Federal Reserve Bank remains.

In 10,000 years after people, on the shoreline of New York City are a pack of wild horses, descendants of the urban equines that once protected and entertained the humans of New York City. The high salt content in their seaside food supply means it would drink twice as much water as their domesticated ancestors once did and the grasses are deficient in nutrients that the horses have evolved in a shorter stature in response to the poor quality of their diet, but still they survived. However, while most evidence of New York City have long gone, buried in the ground is a corroding steel crypt that still holds tight to its precious contents. Once 80 feet below street level, the gold vault of the once Federal Reserve Bank is at hundreds of feet below ground and is inundated with water from rising seas but despite 10,000 years, the largest stockpile of gold ever assembled on Earth still remains well preserved. Jan Zalasiewicz stated that while the steel would be much less happy underground since it tend to pit and corrode. Although the steel will eventually corrode, the gold bars would last not just for thousands of years but even millions. The 24 carat gold would live on as a precious metal and it is returned to the Earth as the last remaining evidence of New York City.[2]

Transformation[]

Out of all the cities in Life After People, New York City is the best explained city for the city nature transformation, with most of it being seen and talked in the original documentary, with 5 districts and streets being featured in the transformation.

Park Avenue[]

NewYorkCanyonRuins

One of the two transformation scene in Park Avenue.

There are two conflicting transformations within Park Avenue. The street view firstly shows Park Avenue to goes green which covers the skyscrapers and the avenue itself, the next transformation shows much of the skyscrapers within Park Avenue collapsed with a few ruin skyscrapers remain. The last transformation shows a complete transformation with the skyscrapers turns into a rubble of mountains. The birds eye view shows Park Avenue to be covered by the rubble of the fallen skyscrapers before the last transformation reveals that Park Avenue becomes a river with the skyscrapers becomes a valley.

Brooklyn[]

An area somewhere in Brooklyn would first transform with plant life covering the surface as the roads turns into body of water and the structures begin to crumble. The next transformation shows the ruins of the structures with a river flowing through a city before finally consuming by trees with mountains made up of rubble of the skyscrapers.

Civic Center[]

Civic Center would first transform with the streets including Foley Square to be consumed both by vegetation and water as the building crumbles then the river consumed much of the streets within Civic Center before the skyscrapers become the new hills within the transformed district with the river expanded.

Minetta Street[]

Minettastreet4

The Minetta Brook returns.

Minetta Street would transform back into Minetta Brook with the street starts to crumble and break apart at first and trees and vegetation returns as the hydrological cycle reestablish itself. The buildings around it would be consume by the stream itself.

Times Square[]

"The transformation is more shockingly is Times Square"

—Life After People Special Documentary 2008

Times Square would transform into a plains with a few trees and a river flowing through the former streets. The recognizable skyscrapers of Times Squares collapse with no evidence of it remains, save for a few ruins.

Abandoned[]

Heavy Metal[]

Main Article: High Line

The High Line is briefly featured in Heavy Metal where trains pick up and delivers supplies from meat packing district to Hell's Kitchen. Rail traffic decline in the 1950s and was last used in 1980. After 20 years of plants growing on the old railway line, the city seized the idea to make the High Line a natural park, and in 2009, the High Line was open once again, albeit to pedestrians rather than trains.

Armed & Defenseless[]

Main Article: North Brother Island

North Brother Island is featured in Armed & Defenseless where it was first used for returning World War II veterans, then contains the Riverside Hospital which housed Typhoid Mary before being demolished in the mid-20th century, and finally treated drug addicts. It was abandoned around 1960.

Gallery[]

References[]

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