Suppose, for the sake of argument, that all – or most – of the population of the North American continent went away. (The method of removal is left as an exercise for the reader; however, this method is non-violent.) Also suppose that 800 years have passed since this event.
In which area of the North American continent would our civilization be least damaged by natural processes after 800 years? Please consider hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning strikes, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and any other naturally occuring process.
I’d also say the Southwest, such as New Mexico or Arizona. Deserts don’t seem to change much over the centuries. Ditto with the highest elevations of the Rockies.
But if you’re looking for a place for a new civilization to settle down, neither of those lend themselves very well. Or if you’re looking for a landscape whose major landmarks wouldn’t change much after 800 years, then both would fit the bill.
It would have to be in the southwest. The best-preserved artifacts are generally found in very dry areas. I’d guess Las Vegas based on that requirement, if you can call that civilization. It’s also fairly free from natural disasters as far as I know.
Frankly I think there’d be a lot of stuff left everywhere in 800 years, what with all the plastic and concrete we’re making these days.
Things with computers and electronics in them are going to stop working within a couple of decades. Its amazing how many things don’t have a computer of some sort in them these days. Even a coffee pot has a microcontroller these days.
Around here (southern Pennsylvania), 100 year old barns and houses, even if they’ve had some maintenance over the years, still look like they are ready to be bulldozed over. I imagine after 800 years, most buildings around here would have fallen over all by themselves. You wouldn’t even need a tornado or earthquake by then. A lot of the concrete around here probably wouldn’t last that long either. Seems like the freezing of water in the winters would slowly tear them apart, starting with small cracks and making them bigger until the structure was unsafe.
I’d have to second the vote for the southwest surviving the best. Either that or maybe places in Alaska where it’s always frozen (if you can call what little we have up there civilization).
A missile silo will probably be intact, but anything inside won’t be functional any more. The main portion of the silo will fill up with water pretty quickly. There was a TV show about people who have converted old missile silos into other things. One was a house (with the world’s biggest work shop). Another was a school. The third one the guy just let the groundwater fill it up and uses it for recreational diving.
I know this doesn’t answer the OP specifically, but whenever I travel in southern Europe, I’m amazed to find things done by the romans, still working. Roads, aqueducts, buildings. The main roads/freeways/expressways of Italy was laid down by Romans. Of course, the pavemant has (in most places) been replaced, but I’ve driven on roads dating back to CE.
One of the places that amazes me the most is Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Constructed in the early 6th century, originally a church and now a mosque, it’s been open to the public and in use for 1500 years. The amazing thing - to me - is that this is not a ruin, like the Colliseum, but something that’s being used, that just happens to be old.
Remember, when Caesar visited Egypt, some of the pyramids where allready 2000 years old. I have a strong feeling that a lot of things that have been built in the last century will be gone in 800 years. Hagia Sophia will still be there.
In North America, the artifacts that’ll last the longest, IMHO, will be the rock cuts for the freeways. Enough of the embakments between them will remain to add to the impression that something was once there, but I wouldn’t expect to see many tall isolated embankments left across stream valleys after 800 years.
Out west in the deserts, I’d expect that concrete roads would remain for a long time, if no longer level… I’m not so sure about asphalt.
Bridges… metal ones would rust fairly quickly. Post-tensioned concrete ones would eventually sag, but straight reinforced ones might last a long time in dry areas.
Any consumer artifacts other than ceramics, and most recent buildings, would be long gone by then.
Some museums have super-strong vaults which contain their most precious artifacts. The one in the museum in which I work is built like a bank vault. The door may rust shut, but I’d put serious money on the vault itself surviving for 800 years. The building it’s in may collapse, but the vault itself is amazingly strong. (Some of the more important papers and books are actually stored in a safe in the vault-- so they’re doubly protected.)
As for the items inside, I think some of them may make it. They’re stored in containers which maximize their protection, and, if the climate in the sealed vault remained relatively stable, even some of the paper items might survive. (We have paper items in our collection that are older than that.)
More modern paper might not survive, simply because of their acidic makeup. After time, without care, they’d crumble away. Older papers and vellum are sturdier. They’d stand a better chance.
(well this little essay is specific to London, but most places will be the same)
The streets would be the first thing to disappear-
weeds such as rosebay willowherb and michaelmas daisy would grow in the cracks between the paving stones, and on the unswept rubbish and dust in the corners.
Small trees and shrubs would be next; buddlea and silver birch, cracking the pavements and asphalt; this will open up the ground beneath for larger trees such as sycamore. After fifty years the streets will be a jungle, and buddlea and birch will start to colonise the frost cracked roofscapes.
Suburbia will become a forest, eventually progressing to the local climax oak woodland, as the roofs collapse, houses will become walled enclosures surrounding stands of perhaps birch or maple.
The iron framed skyscrapers in cities will last a surprisingly long time, except in London’s Docklands, where the natural sinking of the land will create flooding; anthropogenic global warming will take a few hundred years to disappear, but the natural weather cycles are not really much different, so the disappearance of humanity will not make much difference in that respect;
gradually the polymer surrounds of double glazing units will fail under the influence of ultraviolet from the sun; the wind will rip a few panes out of the glass walls and once an opening is made the water and wind and frost will pop most of the rest, forming a broken glass layer among the forests below.
Finally the steel frames of most of the buildings will become exposed to rainfall, rust, expand, crack the concrete, twist and fall. The others will rust from the ground upwards once the damp proofing fails in the basements.
The stone castles of the Normans and the churches of Wren will lose their roofs but, covered in stonecrop and houseleek, they will generally outlast their younger companions.
It’s also fairly free from natural disasters as far as I know.