The Capital Threat

The Capital Threat
Episode Information
Episode	3
Season	1
No. in Series	3
Air Date	May 5, 2009
Directed by	Jim Hense
Produced by	Louis C. Tarantino (Executive Producer) Douglas J. Cohen (Executive Producer) Arthur Maturo
Wrtten by	Jim Hense
Episode Guide
Previous	Outbreak
Next	Heavy Metal

The Capital Threat is the third episode of season one of Life After People: The Series. It originally aired on May 5, 2009.

Synopsis

In this episode, the capital is under attack. Washington D.C. could fall into ruins & America's national treasure would be erase from history, zoo animals like elephants would escape and reign the land, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch continues to grow, and Los Angeles wouldn't be as entertaining from raging inferno, to suffering an earthquake, and returning to its original state. The episode also explores Angkor in Cambodia, which was abandoned by people in the 15th century.

Plot

1 Day After People

In Washington D.C., the United States Constitution is on permanent display inside the rotunda of the National Archives Building. The document is preserved in a shatterproof seal encasement which is filled with argon, a gas that replaces oxygen and moisture containing air, but there's no one to send it to the security vault. On the Washington Monument, it is free from the daily visits of tourists, the US Capitol Building is ghostly quiet, and the statue of Abe Lincoln on the Lincoln Memorial gazes on a pool without people. The National Mall was already in need repairs and upgrades in the time of humans, it took 250 park service employees to maintain the National Mall and the maintenance cost at $350 million. One day after people have left the capital to be threaten by water. Matt Chalifoux stated that moisture is a problem and battling for when working on buildings and monuments in the National Mall and it is an accelerant in terms of deterioration.

1 Week After People

Los Angeles during the day.

In Los Angeles, its freeways are empty and lack of traffic noise. On the city center is the 73 story U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles and west of the Mississippi river, was designed to be occupied for more than 100 years and was built to survive the "big one", an earthquake measuring at least 7.5 on the Richter scale. But now it is no longer occupied, and the episode ask how long will it stand without maintenance.

2 Weeks After People

An elephant roams through the empty streets of Los Angeles.

In zoos of Los Angeles and Washington D.C., the animals are dying of starvation. But for the elephants, without humans to supply their intake of 150 pounds per day, they became frantic and using their intelligence and powerful trunks, they are able to break out. John Anderson stated that elephants are well-equipped for operating without people and able to defend against any predators. In history, mammoths used to dominate the grasslands 13,000 years ago and the mammoths are the distant relatives of modern elephants. John Anderson explains that mammoths did very well in the Americas before humans arrive and elephants can be fine without people. The elephants begins a new life in the urban jungles of man great cities.

Meanwhile, 3,000 tons of garbage have been uncollected in Hollywood, and some of its sewer systems deliver the garbage directly into the ocean, where its destination would reach in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretch between San Francisco and Hawaii containing 3.5 millions plastic waste that is nearly indestructible to decompose, twice the size of Texas. 2 weeks after people, the garbage patch still afloats on the Pacific Ocean.

3 Weeks After People

The Los Angeles Aqueducts are empty.

Water began to scarce in Los Angeles. Brent Karner explains that Los Angeles is a paradise that humans created. LA residents used 137 gallons of water per person per day in the time of humans, these are used to water lawns and plants, and most of them came from the Owens Valley, knowingly from the Los Angeles Aqueducts. Fred Barker explains that it carries 125 gallons of water a day making a major part of water supply for the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Aqueducts uses a series of power-generating plants where water travels through but when the power plants stop working, the water backs up and it begins creating new reservoirs, prohibiting Los Angeles its main water source. Fred Barker stated that when no one to control the outflow of the reservoir, then no one to control the water to go into the city.

1 Month After People

Plant life begins to wither as Los Angeles returns into a desert.

Los Angeles is returning into its natural state. Jim Haw stated that Los Angeles is a desert. The thirsty green lawns, trees, and gardens are withered, setting a stage for a massive catastrophe.

In Washington D.C., there's too much water in the city, especially the Potomac River, where the city begins to drown. Tim Beach stated that water levels will rise higher and floods will be great due to water flowing through the river rather than lifestyles like showers, bathing, and drinking water. The failure of electric pumps beneath city unleashes the deluge from water aquifers causing the streets to be flood. David Brin stated that another problem in Washington, D.C. is that is was built on a swamp. The problem came also arise in the Potomac River, the return of the beavers. When the first settlers arrived in the Chesapeake Bay and came ashore, Washington D.C. was marshland because of the beavers shaping the Potomac River by building beaver dams which create huge wetlands, and in the time of humans, park rangers trapped and relocated the beavers to the different places. Beavers return to the city as usual like nothing has happen.

2 Months After People

The eternal flame snuffs out during a rainstorm.

In Arlington National Cemetery, the eternal flame of the grave of the former US President John F. Kennedy still alights, but it is danger. It was only extinguished only once in 1963 in the time of humans when visitors poured holy water directly over the flame causing the eternal flame to established an electrical powered relighting system which flows by natural gas line to keeps the flame burning. But when the electricity of Washington D.C. turns dark, the electric relighter fails. It only took the first rainstorm to snuffs the flame that once thought eternal.

6 Months After People

A stagnant swimming pool, a breeding place for mosquitoes.

In Los Angeles, while animal populations are scavenging for water, others are learning to adapt, including mosquitoes. Brent Karner explains that Los Angeles contains a lot of swimming pools and the pools went into disrepair and causing water into stagnant, a great place for mosquitoes to breed. West Nile Virus cases were doubled in the time of humans in 2008 when wave of home foreclosures hit Southern California which caused mosquitoes to rapidly reproduced. 6 months after people, mosquitoes have multiplied in a stagnant pool where a single one can support hundreds of thousands of these insects.

1 Year After People

In Washington D.C., the national monuments are beginning to be under siege by nature. On the center of the National Mall is the 550 feet Washington Monument, the tallest freestanding masonry structure in the world and completed more than 125 years ago. The walls are 15 feet thick at the base, and the top are 18 inches thick. Even though it was intended to endure for centuries, the stone was already beginning to deteriorate, even in the time of humans. Matt Chalifoux shows the deterioration that happens on a regular basis are on mortal joints and patching down over time. He shows a good example where a recently renovated already lost some material in a short time span and the deterioration cycle is ongoing.

Rust begins to appear on the dome of the United States Capitol.

At the US Capitol Building, it still unchanged despite the neglect. The dome was constructed in civil war era cast iron, which keeps out the elements. Kim Roddis stated that the the cast iron dome was painted, and the protective system will starts to break down over time. She continues as the paint deteriorates, rust starts to be visible in the iron dome.

The Lincoln Memorial is also hinting the fate of the structure. The drainage pipes starts to cracks and water damage the roof without routine cleaning causing the pipes to blocked. The vertical span contains steel bean reinforcement. Matt Chalifoux shows a tragic flaw which is the roofing system where water penetrates it causing corrosion on the steel.

3 Years After People

Downtown Los Angeles is now a place for a new set of rainforest. The freeways of Los Angeles is turning into lush green. Doug Failing explains that the concrete itself begins to be invisible and the roadways are known to be seed corridors, this makes the wind drive seeds into the cracks. Grasses and other small plants quickly take over the freeways, and soon, the trees begin to grow, causing their roots to tear apart the concrete.

10 Years After People

At the streets of Beverly Hills, huge Canary Island palm trees are decaying. These were imported in the 1930s to add to the city's exotic appeal. Without the aqueduct to import billions of gallons of water, it slowly dies from the top to bottom.

Downtown Los Angeles during the wildfires.

Outside of Los Angeles, wildfires can burn for weeks, and even longer if the conditions are right. One of the example is the Zaca Fire in Santa Barbara County in 2007. The fire burns for two months, making it one of the longest burning wildfire in modern California History. Without firefighters, lightning strike sets off a fire in the hills, and the fire rage across the city. Jonathan Stewart stated that Los Angeles would be penetrate by the mountain fires turning it into an urban setting and a potential for a major fire event.

The Grauman's Chinese Theatre burns down from the wildfires.

In Downtown Los Angeles, the U.S. Bank Tower burns from inside out. While the structural steel frame withstands the heat and endure the temperatures of over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit without degradation, the interior spaces is still vulnerable, turning the skyscraper into charred skeleton. Nearby, the stainless steel panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall are fireproof, but the flames consume the plant life between inside the steel panels. In Hollywood, fire quickly burns the rotting wood of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is engulfed in mere seconds, but the foot, handprints, and signature of Tinseltown Legends which are formed in cement easily survive the inferno. The 50-foot tall letters of the Hollywood Sign is engulfed as its acrylic latex paint feeds the fire. Although it look like wood from afar, it actually made of steel, the sign survive the scorching fire.

50 Years After People

The top floors of the U.S. Bank Tower collapse during the Big One.

The Big One, an earthquake measuring 8.0 and 200 years overdue, strikes Los Angeles. In Downtown, the U.S. Bank Tower is already a charred steel skeleton, and its top 21 floors is shaking thru the earthquake. The top 21 floors contains have earthquake-damping struts, but after wildfire damage and years without maintenance, the floors snap, and collapse into the side of the building, including the roof, which damage the side of the skyscraper. Steven S. Ross explains a bullwhip, a slight flick of the wrist create a big motion at the far end of the bullwhip which snap. He continues that it is similar to the building where the top of the building just topple away because its moving due to being a tip of the bullwhip.

The deteriorating base isolators cause the Los Angeles City Hall to collapse during the earthquake.

Nearby, the Los Angeles City Hall, known to be the tallest city hall in the world fitted with base-isolated anti-earthquake mechanism. Jonathan Stewart explains the function of the base isolators which makes the building to remain stationary while the ground shifts beneath it. However, the isolators rely on rubber bearings to absorb the shock and to minimize vibration. Since the wildfire damage and fifty years without maintenance, the base isolators has deteriorate, failing the building to be stable during the earthquake, and the Los Angeles City Hall collapse. Steven S. Ross stated that despite the extra technology, nothing lives forever especially in the Los Angeles Basin.

The letters of the Hollywood Sign falls from Mount Lee.

The earthquake also shakes the Hollywood Sign, and it shears off the corroded bolts. The bolts held the letters securely to the girders that sunk into the bedrock. With the earthquake and 50 years of corrosion, the bolts buckle and snaps, and the letters of the Hollywood Sign comes down into the hill like a landslide. Unlike most American cities, Los Angeles is losing faster and turning the city into a chaotic rubble.

100 Years After People

In the Pacific Ocean, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is still expanding as more plastic arrives from North America, China, and Japan. Gordon Masterton stated that the durability of plastics that humans produced, there will be evidence in the future that outlast the evidence of the buildings made of steel, concrete, and timber.

In the National Archives Building, the United States Constitution is facing a danger, its encasement seals are failing. It allows air molecules to enter the seals and oxygen content increases to 1/2% to 1%. However, there is no known microorganisms that can attack the parchment without at least 2% oxygen. The Constitution is safe for many more years. Mary Lynn Ritzenthaller stated that the United States Constitution would still have a relatively airtight and moisture-proof container.

Beaver dams along the Potomac River causes a flood along the National Mall.

The beavers are busy as usual. New tree growth on the National Mall had allows the beavers to build dams and cut new water channels, causing the Potomac River to flood the National Mall and its surrounding areas.

On the U.S. Capitol Building, the iron cast dome is rusting. Moisture have force the joints in the cast iron sheets with paint have long gone, allowing the openings to attract pigeons and other birds. Because the dome is built atop of an iron truss system, it became an ideal nesting place for these birds. Kim Roddis stated the the nesting materials collects rain water, and it sponge against the iron, making the iron continue to corrode.

Corrosion along the silver panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In Los Angeles, corrosion is taking toll on the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Built with stainless steel, it is one of the most anticorrosive metals and the protective oxide layers keeps the corrosion from occurring. But after a hundred years, the oxide fails, and the silver panels are slowly changing its silver color to the color of dried blood. The stainless steel have been corroded and it is now a sculpture of rust.

Animals along the Los Angeles Freeways.

On the Los Angeles freeways, rain is transforming some parts of it and corrosion is pulling apart. Doug Failing introduce that the number of locations in Los Angeles contains drainage inlets which used to collect water and pumps the water out of the freeways. A century have let the inlets to be clogged with debris and the pumps have already stopped years ago causing an appearance of dozens of small lakes and rivers in the freeways. Doug Failing stated that the freeways are a gathering place for animals thanks to the little reservoir created by the corrosive freeways and the freeway corridors easy to migrate. But when the prey have arrived, the predators will also arrived. The jumbled overpasses are becoming points of ambush.

150 Years After People

The descendants of elephants have no trouble by living in the North America. John Anderson stated that the elephant herbs begins to appear in the first 100 to 150 years after the original pioneers break loose from the zoos and the pasture land became a foraging country for elephants.

250 Years After People

The roof of the Lincoln Memorial collapse, destroying the statue in the process.

In Washington D.C., after years of leaking and water deterioration, the Lincoln Memorial is being conquered by nature onslaught. Water have damaged the steel girders, which cause it to corroded, and the steel roof girders snap. The roof of the monument collapsed, and the Abraham Lincoln Statue is destroyed in the process.

The dome of the United States Capitol collapse.

On the United States Capitol Building, atop of the weakened cast iron dome is the 15,000 pound bronze Statue of Freedom cause too much pressure on the weakened dome. The dome has already lost too much weight. Kim Roddis stated that the statue tries to pulls on the side of the dome and push the other side to the other where then the statue punch down through the dome and slump over like a wedding cake. The statue cause the dome to fail and the entire statue slumps down into the rotunda of the United States Capitol.

The words of the United States Constitution fades away.

Corrosion is taking its tolled on the National Archives Building, and without maintenance have caused the rotunda to collapse, this exposed the United States Constitution to the elements. While it is still protected in it's encasement, wind and rain are not the one to erase the constitution, but sunlight. The ultraviolet rays have damaged the United States Constitution, causing the ink to fade and the words of the Constitution have erased from history.

500 Years After People

The Washington Monument after 500 years.

In the center of the National Mall, the Washington Monument is losing its battle against nature. The stone blocks have chipped away within time, and atop of the monument is the aluminum pyramid. Matt Chalifoux explains the history of the aluminum pyramid beginning when it was first installed in the 19th century when aluminum is still a precious metal and was more valued more than gold or silver. The eight copper rods were extended in 1930's to keep the pyramid from getting constant strike from lightning, especially if the aluminum pyramid became a lightning rod. Lightning only strikes at an average of once per year on the Washington Monument. Half a century without maintenance, the copper rods have failed and broken, a lightning strikes the Washington Monument, damaging parts of the masonry material and leaving the burned marks.

600 Years After People

Act 1

In great cities like Washington, D.C., brick and stones are the only remaining markers of human architecture. The episode questions that how they know it before answering to themselves that the proof is found in another great capital city that people abandoned long ago located deep in the interior of Cambodia in Southeast Asia, Angkor.

Angkor

Angkor, abandoned in 1431 before it was rediscovered in 1860 by a French explorer.

The episode visits Angkor in Cambodia, where it sees 6 centuries without people and to answer how the show knows it. John Sanday and John Stubbs visits Angkor and explain how nature took over the ancient city. Its history started when Angkor was the center of the Khmer Empire for more than 500 years, a civilization ruled by powerful kings and their drive to build stone monuments rivals the ancient Egyptian, all colossal stone work made by the Khmer Empire are all done by hand. John Sanday stated the enormous size of the temples are weight anything between 2 and a half to 3 tons fixed by gravity. It was abandoned in 1431, nearly 600 years ago, when the Siamese soldiers ransacked the temple. In 1860, a French explorer hiking through the jungle rediscovered Angkor and his journals would introduce the world to Angkor Wat.

Of all the temples in Angkor, Angkor Wat was the best preserved and it is mostly believed that a nearby community of Buddhist monks worked to save it from the jungle's grip. But other abandoned temples saw no human intervention like Beng Mealea, a smaller version of Angkor Wat, which then saw human intervention in 2002 when local authorities began to peel back the jungle. It is being ripped apart by prolific strangle fig, a type of ficus tree. John Sanday showcase the ficus tree and how the seeds eaten by birds excrete them onto the roof causing it to start developing and expand the roots. When a ficus tree grows old, in many cases a new ficus grows up and devours it, creating an enormous amount of destruction. In Ta Prohm, the oversized roots of silk cotton trees jack apart the stone blocks. John Stubbs shows the tree roots growing beneath the shrine where it seeks moisture and nutrients. As roots expand, it pry apart the stone until a single element dislodges and brings down the entire structure. John Stubbs showcase a giant termite mound where termites used to live when the site was abandon in the 15th century in which they eat the wooden ceilings, furnishings, and fittings. Wildlife also inhabited the stone monuments for centuries like the deadly king cobra favors the temples closest to the encircling moats, Bengal tigers whom 2 of the species attack a hunter near Beng Mealea in, who survived the encounter, and reportedly cats living in destroyed temple complex. The visitation ends stating that it could give insight into future of a place like Washington, D.C..

Act 2

The U.S. Bank Tower collapses

Centuries have witness the fall of man structures made of brick, wood, and steel. While the era of the great collapses is almost over, in Los Angeles, a familiar structure still stands. The U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles is still standing, it is last recognizable edifice in the city and it is much heavily corroded. The skyscraper survived the wildfire that charred Los Angeles, including Hollywood and much of the LA Basin. During the Big One, the top 21 floors snaps, and the lower 52 floors have defied the odds at centuries thanks to its central core that is made of concrete and the edges are made of steel framing. Accordingly to Steven S. Ross, The US Bank Tower would have collapsed sooner if the climate in Los Angeles had more freeze-thaw cycles, but it doesn't happen in Los Angeles. Finally, a moderate earthquake brings down the weakened U.S. Bank Tower, ending its reign as possibly the tallest structure on Earth still standing.

Sunlight has degrade the plastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

In the Pacific Ocean, only little has changed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The plastic have further degrade into smaller compounds created by the sunlight over centuries. The plastic contains the immeasurable amounts of toxins like PCBs. The ocean creatures and birds still continue to digest the plastic, and the garbage patch lives on, as a poisonous stew.

1,000 Years After People

Washington, D.C. is consumed by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Washington Monument begins to sink.

In Washington, D.C., the city, including the Potomac River, have become the lost city of Atlantis came from the Atlantic Ocean. Tim Beach explains that a good portion of the National Mall and many of the monuments of the capital would be underwater and it would be similar to the ruins of Alexandria in Egypt. The ruins of the US Capitol still rises above the waves and explanation from Kim Roddis stated that the rooms of the United States Capitol would become exposed to the sky and would be similar to the Forum in Rome. The Lincoln Memorial is seen to remain intact, although parts of the monument have collapsed, the entire structure lives on underwater. The Washington Monument is beginning to sink caused by erosion and the encroaching seas and submerging may be the only chance to remain intact. Jan A. Zalasiewicz explains the buildings sink beneath the waves will be covered in mud, sand, and silt, and it will encase the ruins of the buildings and fossilize the structures.

Epilogue

Atop of the sinking Washington Monument is the aluminum pyramid, although it had been discolored by lightning strikes, it is still recognizable. Kim Roddis stated that the aluminum pyramid would be the last man-made object left in the capital. Unlike most metals, aluminum contains oxide coating which protects and preserves. One side of the aluminum pyramid contains the inscription, "Laus Deo", translated to Praise be to God. This inscription may be the final words of the nation of the United States to the future.

Transcript

Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.

Errors

• The JFK Eternal Flame was actually extinguished twice, the aforementioned 1963 holy water incident and in 1967 during a heavy rain that floods the electrical equipment disabling the spark igniter.
• The transition of 1,000 years after people doesn't appear despite the fact the episode stated "After a thousand years."

Trivia

• The Capital Threat is the first episode where it ends in a structure instead of the overall conclusion.

Gallery

The thumbnail of the episode (United States Capitol) on History's official Youtube channel.

The thumbnail of the episode (United States Capitol) as seen on History.com.

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The ? as seen on Hvault.

Life After People- MASSIVE FLOODS After Human Extinction (Season 1)

A clip of the episode beginning.