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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.
00:14It is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind.
00:23In this episode of Life After People,
00:26man harnessed dangerous substances to dominate the world.
00:31But he was playing with fire.
00:35A common chemical turns into a cloud of death.
00:39A spontaneous explosion rocks New York City.
00:42And power plants find a secret way to go nuclear.
00:47Welcome to Earth.
00:50Population Zero.
00:56Man may be gone.
01:14But the world will now face an assault from the toxic chemicals and deadly substances he left behind.
01:20One day after people.
01:39Nuclear reactors across the world begin shutting down into safe mode.
01:44When you lose power from outside the reactor,
01:49the safety systems are designed so it tries to shut down the core.
01:55A mechanical system automatically engages to halt the nuclear reactions.
02:01The uranium used for fuel in these plants is naturally radioactive.
02:05Meaning it releases energetic particles as it decays.
02:11And there's more uranium at a nuclear plant than just what's in the reactors.
02:18Every 18 months, uranium in the core stops producing enough energy to sustain a nuclear reaction and has to be replaced.
02:26At that point, the fuel is dangerously hot.
02:33When they pull the fuel from the reactor core, that's when it becomes radioactive waste.
02:40It's thousands of times hotter than when you put it into the core, thermally and radioactively.
02:45So you then take that fuel and you put it in the fuel pools to keep it cool.
02:49Freshly removed fuel rods can reach a scalding 2,000 degrees.
02:57And it takes 40 feet of water maintained below 120 degrees to keep them from overheating.
03:08The amount of waste in the pool depends on how long the reactor is operated.
03:13The reactors here in the U.S. have been operating between 30 to 40 years at this point.
03:18So you have 5 to 10 times the amount of radiation in the spent fuel pool that you actually have in the core of the reactor.
03:28The cooling pool may look harmless.
03:32But danger is simmering just beneath the surface.
03:40Another threat looms at rail yards like these, where train cars wait for engines that will never arrive.
03:48In the time of humans, 31 million cars carried 2 million tons of cargo.
03:58And 40,000 of these cars carry a common chemical that can be lethal if accidentally unleashed.
04:07Now, without people, it's waiting silently for the time to strike.
04:12Five days after people.
04:31One of man's toxic leftovers is already ravaging the planet.
04:36Raw sewage.
04:38Millions of gallons are flowing into the rivers around Manhattan.
04:48As electricity shuts off, 93 pump stations around the city are failing one by one.
04:57Sewage is backing up and flooding the 6,000 miles of piping beneath New York.
05:02This happened before, during the Northeast blackout of 2003.
05:15When the power went out, the sewage system could not pump all of the water through the sewage treatment plant.
05:24As a result, water went right out into the Hudson.
05:28500 million gallons of raw sewage overwhelmed pipes and spilled out into New York's waterways.
05:36Left unchecked, sewage produces methane gas, a nasty byproduct of decaying organic matter.
05:42And it's now finding its way into the city's rail and subway tunnels.
05:51All of the tunnels are interconnected.
05:54They're interconnected with each other.
05:56And they're interconnected with the sewer lines of the city.
06:01Lighter than air, methane naturally seeks the highest tunnels as it creeps below street level.
06:07The ultimate destination for much of the methane gas is the area around Grand Central Terminal.
06:15Because it sits on one of the highest natural points in Manhattan.
06:21Because Grand Central Terminal is such a high point, after people, one of the dangers is collection of gas.
06:29Especially during the spring, when there's a lot of water, a lot of bacterial growth.
06:34So you will get small amounts of gas collecting naturally in the platform area and in the terminal itself.
06:44Ventilation intakes inside the terminal would normally clear the air of dangerous fumes.
06:50But without power, those aren't working anymore.
06:56And wherever flammable methane flows unchecked, the risk of an explosion follows.
07:02You should really think of the city as a machine.
07:09Not as a pile of static structures.
07:12And that machine is in mortal danger once the people leave.
07:18One week after people, the stench from garbage left behind by people is a sure sign of a delicious meal for this nocturnal rodent.
07:38Raccoons are really attracted to things that smell really bad.
07:44Something that would repel people is an attractant for raccoons.
07:50The average raccoon weighs about 15 pounds.
07:53But those with easy access to human scraps can balloon to over 60 pounds.
07:59The raccoon is the ultimate omnivore.
08:03Basically, they'll eat anything.
08:06Without people, raccoons are continuing to exploit the structures that resemble their natural habitats the most.
08:13Our chimneys function a lot like hollow trees.
08:19That's actually one of the favorite refuges for raccoons.
08:24And so they can easily climb up to the outside of a chimney and then come down through the bottom.
08:32Raccoons seek interiors because they offer protection from weather and predators.
08:37But nothing beats the allure of free food.
08:44That sense of smell is going to draw them into the kitchen and any other place where they have garbage in the house.
08:50For a raccoon, this is heaven on earth.
08:55A very highly developed sense of touch means that their long fingers and toes are a raccoon's point of first contact.
09:03Their brain is connected to their feet, basically.
09:05They forage with their feet or their hands instead of with their nose and with their eyesight like a lot of other carnivores.
09:14They can open up cabinets.
09:16They can open up your refrigerator.
09:18They devastate the kitchen.
09:20They devastate it.
09:22For these masked little bandits, the shoplifting has never been easier.
09:28They'll literally simply walk from their den site to that refuse site and eat, get a little bit to drink, and simply walk right back and go back to sleep.
09:40And that's pretty much it.
09:42Actually, they become couch potatoes very quickly.
09:45Ten days after people, discarded fuel rods are primed for a toxic reawakening.
10:03In the time of humans, spent fuel rods were kept below water for up to ten years before they were cool enough to be removed safely.
10:13But now, with power lost to the cooling pools, heat from the rods is causing the water to boil away.
10:22Once the water level dips below the tops of the rods and their temperature hits 700 degrees,
10:29the entire pool becomes a bonfire.
10:35And that would help propel all the radiation, 10, 20 cores worth, that are sitting in those spent fuel pools,
10:43out into the environment, so whichever way the wind blew, those are the areas you'd be contaminated.
10:49An invisible killer has been unleashed.
10:52And nothing is safe for miles in each direction.
10:56One month after people, Niagara Falls.
11:11The 170-plus foot drops on the American and Canadian side of the Niagara River continue to put on their spectacular show.
11:19Although once a destination for honeymooners and family outings, Niagara Falls also conceals a toxic secret.
11:38One month after people,
11:411.5 million gallons of water continue to gush over Niagara Falls each second.
11:47But this awesome natural wonder is hiding a very unnatural past.
11:58One of the surprising things about the Niagara region is that it was always very industrialized.
12:03One of the signs that you see is a large number of landfills.
12:07Perhaps the most lethal is the one at Love Canal, where 20,000 tons of toxic waste lie buried.
12:20A hazardous waste landfill is lined usually with plastic or with cement.
12:29The fluids that leak out are constantly monitored, and leaks are adjusted and corrected and repaired.
12:37In a life after people, none of that is going to be happening.
12:40But it's not the small leaks of toxins that will cause the most damage.
12:47It's the massive surges of water that are about to wreak havoc on Niagara Falls.
12:53In the time of humans, the region attracted heavy industry because of access to inexpensive hydroelectric power.
13:08One month after people, a pair of plants seven miles from the falls are still generating electricity.
13:15Hydroelectric plants don't require humans to load the fuel into the plant the way, say, a coal plant requires humans to load the coal in.
13:26So the water would continue to flow into the plant and would continue to spin the turbines, even without people there running it.
13:35Enormous intake tunnels continue to draw water into the turbines and divert it away from the falls.
13:46But that's about to change.
13:51In a life after people, there won't be people using electricity, so there won't be a need for electricity.
13:58The substations that accept the electricity coming from the Niagara power plants will then speak back to the power plant and say,
14:08don't send me any more power, and Niagara would automatically begin to shut down.
14:16As the plants turn off, the intake tunnels close.
14:21The tunnels will no longer be pulling water out of the river, and that will be a very interesting moment.
14:32The river rises 13 feet almost instantly and doubles the flow of water over the falls.
14:41Downstream, the Maid of the Mist docks, the launch point for up-close views of the falls for over 150 years,
14:49gets blasted away.
15:04Two months after people.
15:10The free ride for urban raccoons is coming to an end.
15:15Trash cans aren't providing the bounty they've grown used to.
15:19But access to water is keeping some raccoons close to abandoned homes.
15:32Domestic gardens also provide a lifeline.
15:36They do take advantage of the fruits quite a bit.
15:40So that would continue for some period in time.
15:44But that probably is not enough to sustain them over the long haul.
15:47Raccoons moved into cities in the early 1900s, as they discovered the good life near people.
15:56In peak conditions, one square mile of urban space can support over 200 raccoons.
16:03But without the bounty supplied by people, fewer than 1 in 10 urban raccoons will survive even a year.
16:13So they're going to have to start looking and actually working for their food, which means chasing their prey.
16:18They're going to eat clams, crayfish, that type of thing.
16:21So they will go back to eating the things that they're really supposed to be eating anyway.
16:27It's no longer a picnic, but after a massive die-off, the species will survive.
16:36One year after people.
16:49At nuclear plants where overheated fuel rods burst into flames, miles-wide dead zones leave a scar.
16:57A radiated ring of death already happened once in the time of people.
17:06It was caused by a malfunctioning nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.
17:13Radiation decimated pine forests within a two-mile radius.
17:17This is the damage wrought by the failure of just one power plant.
17:23In a life after people, there are hundreds of sites where spent fuel rods will unleash their deadly radiation.
17:32What you're looking at are 440 commercial reactor sites plus the military sites that would become basically irradiated dead zones.
17:47Five years after people, an abandoned freighter still plies the waters of the Great Lakes.
18:05In the time of humans, vessels of all types shuttled 162 million tons of cargo through the region each year.
18:15There are a lot of ships on the Great Lakes.
18:17These are very large tankers.
18:20They are up to 1,000 feet long.
18:24And all vessels still floating on the Great Lakes are headed in the same direction.
18:30Niagara Falls.
18:34The falls are almost like a bathtub drain.
18:37They're pulling all of the water out of the Great Lakes through and into Lake Ontario and ultimately out to sea.
18:43So everything that's in the Great Lakes is moving towards Niagara Falls.
18:50However, the International Railway Bridge near the entrance to the Niagara River bars the way.
18:59No ship taller than 22 feet can pass underneath.
19:04The bridge, built in 1873, is holding for now.
19:09But more ships are on the way.
19:20A decade into a life after people.
19:23Grand Central Terminal, once visited daily by half a million people, now is just a gathering place for owls.
19:34Methane gas has been building up in the rail tunnels below.
19:40But it's not Grand Central that's in the most danger.
19:45That's because the tracks don't actually run under the building.
19:48The tracks are under the MetLife building, but they're beside Grand Central Terminal.
19:56People don't realize the original railroad terminology.
20:01A terminal is where tracks end.
20:11Now, in the tunnels below the MetLife building next door,
20:15other toxic fumes are mixing with the methane.
20:18There are a lot of volatile materials.
20:22There's a fair amount of oil and residue on the tracks below.
20:27These areas are very well maintained right now.
20:31But after people,
20:34you're going to see a fair amount of kerosene fumes, gasoline fumes, alcohol fumes,
20:40all the cleaning materials that are used to keep the tunnel dust-free and grease-free.
20:45And all of these things are in metal cans.
20:49The metal cans are subject to corrosion.
20:53Sitting over the tunnels,
20:55the MetLife building is absorbing a dangerous cocktail of gases.
20:59Volatile material itself in the presence of oxygen begins to oxidize and heat up and at some point explodes into fire.
21:12A ball of flame erupts from below and shatters the silence of the abandoned city.
21:2120 years after people,
21:35there's a log jam at the International Railway Bridge made up of giant ships.
21:42But it's not only the boats bearing down.
21:50In most winters, lake airy freezes.
21:54Typically, two percent of that ice works its way towards the upper Niagara.
21:58Well, that's 200 square miles of ice wanting to go down the river and find its way to Lake Ontario.
22:06In the time of humans,
22:11a boom laid out on the lake every December blocked ice from colliding with the bridge.
22:17So far, it's lasted 20 years without help from people.
22:25Can it stand forever?
22:27I would say no.
22:28And the reason is ice coming off of Lake Erie.
22:31There's no boom anymore after people to stop it or deflect it.
22:36In 1938, the so-called Honeymoon Bridge over the Niagara River collapsed after a 100-foot-high ice jam plowed into it.
22:54Now, the railway bridge collapses under the pressure.
22:59Massive ghost ships begin a new voyage.
23:02And the way to Niagara Falls, just 20 miles downstream, is wide open.
23:16In the decades ahead, some areas will be visited by three forms of toxic revenge.
23:23In this American town, it's a future that's already happened.
23:32Forty years after people,
23:38a toxic wind blows through the abandoned streets of middle America.
23:46It's a future that's already happened.
23:49Here, in Pitcher, Oklahoma, the most toxic town in America.
23:55The residents were evicted not by one, but three forms of toxic revenge,
24:03all caused by the very thing that built this town, mining.
24:11Pitcher, Oklahoma, was once at the center of the largest lead and zinc deposit in the world.
24:16Now, all that remains is poison that can't be removed and a land that can't be fixed.
24:30Things were different in the first half of the 20th century.
24:34As the world plunged into two world wars,
24:41tanks, guns, and ammunition created a huge appetite for lead.
24:49But the wars ended,
24:51and in the 1950s and 60s, the mines shut down.
24:56One by one.
24:57The last closed in 1970.
25:00It was a one-commodity town.
25:04They were based upon lead and zinc.
25:06So, like in other industrial towns,
25:09once that goes away,
25:11the population decreases.
25:16As many as 30,000 citizens filled Pitcher at its height,
25:21now, it's almost entirely abandoned.
25:27Only a few dozen souls remain.
25:31Pitcher was a lot like a lot of small towns in the middle part of America.
25:35You know, these were hard-working folks.
25:37They had a mining history.
25:38The salt-of-the-earth folks you hear about.
25:41They raised their families, and they made do.
25:45While the mine closings drove some of the residents away,
25:48it was what the mines left behind that killed the town for good.
25:55Mountainous gravel mounds, known as chat piles,
26:00are one form of toxic revenge.
26:05The chat pile is the material that was left over
26:08after the minerals were processed.
26:10So it's a gravel-like substance.
26:12The material that was recoverable was taken.
26:15This was the waste.
26:16No use for it.
26:17It sat on the surface for the better part of the century.
26:20The chat piles contained toxic doses of lead, zinc, and other metals.
26:29Gusty winds blowing over the plains of the Midwestern United States.
26:34Scattered dust off the 75 million tons of noxious gravel piled up here.
26:38One of the casualties was this Little League baseball field.
26:45Still in use for years, even as citizens fled from pitcher.
26:55Kids came out here to play.
26:58You know, everybody was using it.
27:01You know, it was just kind of a playground.
27:02Picnic tables, you'd go have a picnic over there.
27:08This was just a hangout.
27:11And now, a dozen years after people,
27:16a tree claims the pitcher's mound.
27:21And native prairie grass, displaced for decades, is returning.
27:25The seeds for the old prairie are still in the dirt.
27:33That doesn't go away.
27:34You can burn it.
27:36You can till it.
27:37Those seeds will always be there.
27:40And if you give them the right conditions,
27:42you know, they're going to come back.
27:46Pitcher's Main Street has been abandoned for more than 30 years.
27:50It wasn't closed by poison dust wafting from chatt piles.
27:56It was another form of toxic revenge.
28:00The underground void created by the removal of all that rock.
28:05Main Street initially was shut down because of a collapse.
28:11The ground gave in over on the left side of the street.
28:15In the process of digging an estimated 300 miles of tunnels,
28:23miners had removed so much of the rock and soil beneath Main Street
28:26that sinkholes had started forming and swallowing parts of pitcher.
28:32Some of these underground workings were 100 feet from floor to ceiling.
28:36They mined too close to the surface in a lot of areas.
28:40In some areas, they mined all the way up to the tree roots.
28:46This area could cave in any time.
28:52Grass now springs over the pavement
28:54where miners and their families once looked for supplies.
29:00And where shopkeepers once welcomed patrons,
29:04saplings now stand guard.
29:06There was a Sears over here.
29:10There was a J.C. Penney's, you know, over there.
29:13Trading post, hardware store.
29:16This is where you came to get, you know, what you needed,
29:19even if it was a drink or if it was a shirt, you know, or a new pair of boots.
29:25You know, you had it pretty much all right here.
29:27You didn't have to go anywhere else.
29:29It's all still on display.
29:34A pair of shoes, magazines, and supplies.
29:40Antiquated cash registers still stand by,
29:43waiting for customers that will never show.
29:46It wasn't until 10 years after the last mines closed
29:55that the underground caverns opened up by mining
29:58delivered a third toxic shock to Pitcher.
30:03Poisoned groundwater.
30:04To reach the underground deposits,
30:11miners had to puncture a natural groundwater reservoir.
30:15During mining operations,
30:17they pumped about 55 million gallons a day
30:20of water out of the underground workings.
30:22Once mining ceased, they shut those pumps off
30:25and natural groundwater began to fill the mines.
30:27It's coming literally out of the mine shafts
30:35because the aquifer here is what they were mining in.
30:42By some estimates,
30:44there's enough polluted water below ground
30:46to fill over a million residential swimming pools.
30:52We'd be hard-pressed to find another human activity
30:54that causes quite as much damage as mining can.
30:58And we open up the earth,
30:59remove what we want,
31:00and leave it when we're finished.
31:03And that's what's happened here.
31:07Mines built the town.
31:11But toxic water,
31:15waste piles,
31:16and sinkholes destroyed it.
31:20The lead was used to bomb Germany and Japan
31:24and...
31:24You know, what can you say?
31:32You know,
31:32what we use to destroy those places
31:36destroyed this place.
31:39And it's destroyed today.
31:45The destruction continues
31:47in a life after people.
31:49as toxic revenge spreads around the planet.
31:54Soon,
31:54more than water will be falling over this natural wonder.
32:07Five decades into a life after people.
32:10train cars loaded with cargo are deteriorating.
32:18Some of them carry chlorine.
32:23It was used for disinfecting drinking water
32:26and swimming pools
32:27and manufacturing plastics.
32:30But chlorine can be deadly.
32:36And these aging rail cars
32:38aren't heavily armored.
32:40The outer steel shell
32:42is only one-tenth of an inch thick.
32:44The insulation
32:45is four inches of plastic.
32:49Half of them are already over 20 years old
32:52with a life expectancy
32:53of about 50 years.
32:55That assumes, of course,
32:56that they're constantly inspected,
32:58they're constantly maintained
32:59and cleaned.
33:03Weakened by corrosion,
33:05the undercarriage
33:06gives way.
33:13Most of that car
33:14empties
33:15in a matter of
33:16less than an hour.
33:17And that means
33:18that the cloud of chlorine
33:20would be very, very dense
33:22and therefore
33:23extremely deadly.
33:25Heavier than air,
33:27chlorine gas
33:28advances over ground
33:30like a killer fog.
33:32Immediately,
33:33instantaneously,
33:34you can't keep your eyes open
33:35and you can't
33:37breathe any longer.
33:38And of course,
33:39wildlife
33:39would have no clue.
33:43And if chlorine gas
33:45touches water
33:45on a tree,
33:47in a lake,
33:48or even on an animal,
33:50it immediately
33:52turns into acid.
33:55It would continue
33:56to acidify that water
33:57and not only kill the fish
33:59and turtles
34:00and other vegetation
34:01in the water,
34:02but probably result
34:03in a long-term death
34:05of that system
34:06and the aquatic life in it.
34:10In 2005,
34:12a rail accident
34:13in Graniteville,
34:14South Carolina,
34:15released 90 tons
34:17of chlorine gas
34:18into the environment,
34:19about half
34:20the carrying car's capacity.
34:22Nine people died
34:23and another 250
34:25had to be treated
34:26for chlorine exposure.
34:29Hazmat crews
34:30needed two weeks
34:31to decontaminate
34:33a one-mile radius
34:34around the site.
34:35The gas
34:37was only, again,
34:38partially released
34:39and it wasn't
34:40in a populated area.
34:42Even those
34:43that survived
34:43were horrified.
34:46Without people
34:47to maintain
34:48the rail cars,
34:49these deadly fogs
34:51will continue
34:52to be unleashed
34:53around the world.
34:5460 years
35:04after people.
35:08A freighter
35:09grounded in the
35:10Niagara River
35:10is leaking iron ore,
35:13releasing a red stain
35:14into the water.
35:21In the time of humans,
35:23no commodity
35:24was carried
35:24over the Great Lakes
35:25more than iron ore.
35:28These largest ships,
35:30known as lakers,
35:31can hold 75,000 tons,
35:34but they also draw
35:35more than 30 feet
35:36of water when afloat.
35:39That's too deep
35:41for sections
35:41of the Niagara River
35:42near the falls.
35:46But another laker
35:48is working its way
35:49toward the falls.
35:51This one
35:51is not getting caught
35:53along the shallows.
35:56The ones most likely
35:57to make it
35:58towards the lip
35:59of the Niagara Falls
36:00are ships
36:02riding high,
36:03like this one,
36:04out of ballast
36:05and carrying
36:07no cargo.
36:08That means they're
36:09hardly drawing any water,
36:11maybe 5 or 10 feet.
36:13It approaches
36:15Niagara Falls,
36:16once a gathering spot
36:18for newlyweds.
36:19For this ship,
36:21the honeymoon
36:21is over.
36:23They're not armored,
36:25they're not like
36:25a battleship.
36:26In fact,
36:27the shells
36:27are quite thin,
36:28like an eggshell,
36:30half inch,
36:31couple inches,
36:32depending on the size
36:33of the ship.
36:35As it reaches the edge,
36:37the front half
36:38shears off
36:39and tumbles.
36:42The back
36:42follows.
36:45Incredibly,
36:46the 200-foot ship
36:48is actually longer
36:49than the falls
36:50is high.
36:57350 miles
36:59to the south,
37:00the MetLife building
37:01is also falling
37:02to pieces.
37:02When it opened
37:06in 1963,
37:08the building's
37:0958 floors
37:10meant it stood
37:10as the 7th tallest
37:12in the United States.
37:16But it will soon
37:17give up its place
37:18on Park Avenue.
37:20Because it's built
37:22in a rather exposed area,
37:25it's going to get
37:26more wind,
37:26it's going to get
37:27more rain
37:27than a typical
37:28New York City
37:29skyscraper.
37:32Already weakened
37:35by the methane
37:36explosion at its base,
37:39six decades
37:40of neglect
37:40have also assaulted
37:41the building's
37:42steel and glass
37:43facade.
37:45Death will come
37:47a piece at a time
37:48as sections
37:50of the framework
37:50peel away.
37:52This means
37:53the neighboring
37:54Grand Central building
37:55is in the line
37:56of fire.
37:58Grand Central Terminal
37:59has a near-mortal
38:01enemy right next
38:02door.
38:03And I certainly
38:04expect to see
38:06sections of the
38:07facade of the
38:08MetLife building
38:08actually falling
38:10onto the roof.
38:13As glass
38:14and steel
38:15rain down,
38:17has Grand Central
38:18Terminal reached
38:19the end of the line?
38:21150 years
38:31after people.
38:33In New York City,
38:34the MetLife building,
38:35after enduring
38:36a gas fire
38:37and shedding steel
38:38from its top floors
38:40for decades,
38:41finally breaks.
38:43A giant section
38:44falls southward,
38:46tumbling onto the roof
38:48of Grand Central Terminal.
38:53Despite the attack
38:55from the MetLife building,
38:57Grand Central's
38:58four granite walls
38:59still stand.
39:00The outside walls
39:04are actually
39:05very thick granite.
39:07They hold themselves up.
39:10The granite itself
39:11is the structure
39:12of the building.
39:16Here you have a building,
39:17Grand Central Terminal,
39:19that was more than
39:2050 years old
39:21when the MetLife building,
39:24originally the Pan Am building,
39:25was built next to it.
39:27And yet,
39:29even with that
39:30head start on aging,
39:33Grand Central Terminal
39:35will still be
39:36recognizable
39:37as a building
39:38250 years,
39:41maybe even
39:41500 years
39:42after people.
39:50175 years
39:53after people.
39:53At nuclear power plants
39:58around the world,
39:59fires in the spent fuel pools
40:01burned out long ago.
40:04Still looming over these sites
40:05are the iconic cooling towers
40:08that symbolized mankind's mastery
40:10over the atom.
40:14Plant life clings
40:16to the rusting steel lattice frame
40:18that surrounds the concrete.
40:21Many nuclear plants
40:22are in agricultural areas.
40:24You're going to get
40:24a lot of blowing soil
40:26and seeds
40:27coming in there
40:27very quickly.
40:29A steel lattice ring
40:30at the base
40:31supports the width
40:32of the 500-foot-high
40:34concrete structure.
40:36But it doesn't have
40:38any strength left.
40:40As soon as
40:41a structure of this type
40:42begins to fail,
40:44it fails spectacularly.
40:47The ring would tilt
40:48and the tower
40:50would slide right off
40:51the ring
40:52and collapse
40:53in a heap.
40:55It would not
40:56come down vertically.
40:57It would slide
40:58and tip and fail.
41:01Man's once mighty
41:03power plants
41:04of the future
41:04are now reduced
41:06to rubble.
41:071,500 years
41:17after people,
41:19the American side
41:20of Niagara Falls
41:22is undergoing
41:22a dramatic transformation.
41:26For centuries,
41:28the Niagara River
41:29split at Goat Island,
41:31creating cascades
41:32over two brinks.
41:33the American Falls
41:36and the Horseshoe Falls
41:40on the Canadian side.
41:43Like all waterfalls,
41:45Niagara Falls
41:46is really not a thing.
41:48It's an event.
41:49It's water flowing
41:51over a series of brinks
41:52that are eventually
41:53moving backwards.
41:57As water cascades
41:59over a fall,
42:00it's eroding
42:01the rock beneath
42:02and moving its brink
42:03upstream.
42:06About 900 years ago,
42:08there was a single waterfall
42:09that went across
42:10like this.
42:13And because there is
42:15actually a double channel
42:16above,
42:17about 90%
42:18of the flow
42:19of the water
42:20came over this side,
42:22the Canadian Falls.
42:23In the time of humans,
42:28the Horseshoe Falls
42:29eroded backward
42:30about a foot a year.
42:32And because much more water
42:34gushed over the Horseshoe Falls,
42:36that side eroded
42:37much faster
42:38than the American side.
42:44After people,
42:45the Horseshoe Falls
42:46are moving backward
42:47even faster,
42:49nearly six feet
42:50every year,
42:50because there are
42:52no longer
42:52any power plants
42:53to divert water
42:54from the falls.
42:56Once the Horseshoe
42:57erodes upstream
42:59of Goat Island,
43:01you'll no longer
43:02have any water
43:03at all going over
43:04the American Falls.
43:06For the American Falls,
43:09life after people
43:10will be a life
43:11after water.
43:12Earth moves on
43:17in timescales
43:18too large
43:19for man to have
43:20ever truly comprehended.
43:22Mankind's toxic legacy
43:24lessens with
43:25every passing year.
43:28Buried in the silt,
43:30covered over
43:30by grass and trees,
43:32and carried away
43:33by the tide
43:34in a life
43:35after people.
43:36In the next episode
43:42of Life After People,
43:44a man tried
43:44to preserve
43:45his memory
43:46far into the future
43:47with time capsules
43:48and crypts
43:49of civilization.
43:51Now,
43:51the secrets
43:52of this bizarre skyscraper
43:53will rain down
43:54from the sky.
43:55And how long
43:56will these defenders
43:57of civilization
43:58continue to raise
43:59the flag?
44:00In the next episode