Alcamtar
Explorer
Well, tunnels that are lined with wood will eventually burn out or rot, and likely collapse at some point. Concrete lined tunnels I'd expect to survive more or less intact, as well as unlined tunnels bored out of solid rock.
Bridges would probably all be gone.
Modern superhighways and buildings are largely made of reinforced concrete now. I'd expect them to be at least partially intact, though probably broken up pretty well. Future natives might well "quarry" reinforced concrete ruins to get at the high-quality steel rebar and girders inside.
Any cities or towns which have survived are likely to be buried beneath mounds, like ancient cities are. People live there and the accumulation of garbage, crushed bricks, and dust eventually buries the ruins. Of course multistory concrete buildings might still stick out, but you might have a 20 or 30 ft accumulation in places. This could make for an interesting "dungeon" environment as what was formerly street level is now a forgotten sub-basement, and of course sewers and subway tunnels would be even deeper.
Stuff on the coast or in a rainy climate is probably rusted and corroded to almost nothing. Cities are less likely to be buried by dust since it isn't blowing around... but you can have mudslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, and so forth to mess things up. In southwestern California (or other earthquake prone places), stuff is pretty much crumbled and buried. In regions prone to tornadoes, the land is eventually swept clean. The desert, however, probably has a wealth of artifacts, many of which would be preserved by the arid conditions. (Unless you change the climate!) In the desert, sand and dust could also bury entire towns virtually intact, for future discovery. Stuff at the bottom of Death Valley may be there for a very long time indeed.
Anything made of marble, stone, or brick is likely to survive for a very long time, unless "quarried" by locals.
Anything made of plastic will be around for tens of thousands of years. So there'll be plenty of fast food trays, barbie dolls, motorcycle helmets, souvenier elvises, ballpoint pens, automobile dashboards, laptop computer cases, plastic recycle bins, AOL CDs... Ditto for ceramics, like dinnerware, tile, Precious Moments figurines...
Some railroad cars are now made out of fiberglas, not to mention boats. I'll bet they'll last quite a while, along with vinyl siding, tile roofing.
Of course a lot of it will be in the dump, or buried, but I'd expect it to be common enough that people give them to kids as toys or make tools or decorations out of them. Also, any metal that is encased in plastic or ceramic would not corrode. There may be high quality mirrors to be found if you know where to look, not to mention optical components like lenses and prisms.
Speaking of garbage dumps, these are tailor-made for preserving a huge variety of plastic and ceramic stuff. All nicely buried and sealed, ready for future barbarians to discover and dig it all back up.
I'd imagine all the satellites would have crashed and burned by then, but you could maybe have just one that still orbits, appearing as a fast moving star.
I don't know. I think it's going to take a LONG time to erase the traces of our civilization, just because we produce so MUCH. And the tackiest, most annoying stuff is made of long-lasting plastic...
In terms of *useful* artifacts, how about composite hunting bows and crossbows made of plastic and aluminum? Ceramic knives and guns.
In the toy store the other day I saw a flashlight with a built-in generator (a van de graf generator I think), that was activated by squeezing the handle repeatedly. It never needs batteries and comes with spare bulbs. And sealed in its plastic packaging, it'll still be as good as new 10,000 years from now!
A solar-cell calculator, sealed in plastic packaging? Or how about an entire computer, sealed in plastic and protected from moisture by those little silicon packets? You need to find a solar cell to run it... or maybe a "just add water" storage battery or fuel cell.
A sealed plastic bottle with aspirin, antibiotics, or some other drug?
A package of twinkies?
Bridges would probably all be gone.
Modern superhighways and buildings are largely made of reinforced concrete now. I'd expect them to be at least partially intact, though probably broken up pretty well. Future natives might well "quarry" reinforced concrete ruins to get at the high-quality steel rebar and girders inside.
Any cities or towns which have survived are likely to be buried beneath mounds, like ancient cities are. People live there and the accumulation of garbage, crushed bricks, and dust eventually buries the ruins. Of course multistory concrete buildings might still stick out, but you might have a 20 or 30 ft accumulation in places. This could make for an interesting "dungeon" environment as what was formerly street level is now a forgotten sub-basement, and of course sewers and subway tunnels would be even deeper.
Stuff on the coast or in a rainy climate is probably rusted and corroded to almost nothing. Cities are less likely to be buried by dust since it isn't blowing around... but you can have mudslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, and so forth to mess things up. In southwestern California (or other earthquake prone places), stuff is pretty much crumbled and buried. In regions prone to tornadoes, the land is eventually swept clean. The desert, however, probably has a wealth of artifacts, many of which would be preserved by the arid conditions. (Unless you change the climate!) In the desert, sand and dust could also bury entire towns virtually intact, for future discovery. Stuff at the bottom of Death Valley may be there for a very long time indeed.
Anything made of marble, stone, or brick is likely to survive for a very long time, unless "quarried" by locals.
Anything made of plastic will be around for tens of thousands of years. So there'll be plenty of fast food trays, barbie dolls, motorcycle helmets, souvenier elvises, ballpoint pens, automobile dashboards, laptop computer cases, plastic recycle bins, AOL CDs... Ditto for ceramics, like dinnerware, tile, Precious Moments figurines...
Some railroad cars are now made out of fiberglas, not to mention boats. I'll bet they'll last quite a while, along with vinyl siding, tile roofing.
Of course a lot of it will be in the dump, or buried, but I'd expect it to be common enough that people give them to kids as toys or make tools or decorations out of them. Also, any metal that is encased in plastic or ceramic would not corrode. There may be high quality mirrors to be found if you know where to look, not to mention optical components like lenses and prisms.
Speaking of garbage dumps, these are tailor-made for preserving a huge variety of plastic and ceramic stuff. All nicely buried and sealed, ready for future barbarians to discover and dig it all back up.
I'd imagine all the satellites would have crashed and burned by then, but you could maybe have just one that still orbits, appearing as a fast moving star.
I don't know. I think it's going to take a LONG time to erase the traces of our civilization, just because we produce so MUCH. And the tackiest, most annoying stuff is made of long-lasting plastic...
In terms of *useful* artifacts, how about composite hunting bows and crossbows made of plastic and aluminum? Ceramic knives and guns.
In the toy store the other day I saw a flashlight with a built-in generator (a van de graf generator I think), that was activated by squeezing the handle repeatedly. It never needs batteries and comes with spare bulbs. And sealed in its plastic packaging, it'll still be as good as new 10,000 years from now!
A solar-cell calculator, sealed in plastic packaging? Or how about an entire computer, sealed in plastic and protected from moisture by those little silicon packets? You need to find a solar cell to run it... or maybe a "just add water" storage battery or fuel cell.
A sealed plastic bottle with aspirin, antibiotics, or some other drug?
A package of twinkies?
