You've named six 'attractions', spanning 4500 (or more) years. I don't see the pressure to build another half dozen in the next 50 years, just for posterity. Besides, as many of the responders mentioned, we build for functionality; engineers know what they're doing, and many of our modern marvels should last centuries.
sandorski
No Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
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Much of what has been mentioned would easily disappear within a Century. Road Systems would quickly be taken over and destroyed by plantlife, Overpasses/bridges would fare much better though. A large Open Pit Mine would definitely look like a Natural occurance within a few decades.
Hoover Dam, I suspect, is like most Hydro Dams with a Lifespan of some 100ish years. Some of it would remain, but it wouldn't function as designed(hold back water
).
I'm assuming No Maintenance, because if there was Maintenance everything that exists now could exist in 500 years, everything.
Hoover Dam, I suspect, is like most Hydro Dams with a Lifespan of some 100ish years. Some of it would remain, but it wouldn't function as designed(hold back water
).I'm assuming No Maintenance, because if there was Maintenance everything that exists now could exist in 500 years, everything.
Originally posted by: sandorski
Much of what has been mentioned would easily disappear within a Century. Road Systems would quickly be taken over and destroyed by plantlife, Overpasses/bridges would fare much better though. A large Open Pit Mine would definitely look like a Natural occurance within a few decades.
Hoover Dam, I suspect, is like most Hydro Dams with a Lifespan of some 100ish years. Some of it would remain, but it wouldn't function as designed(hold back water
I'm assuming No Maintenance, because if there was Maintenance everything that exists now could exist in 500 years, everything.
Here's a little not so secret thing you should know before adding your opinion. Concrete gets harder with age. Short of acid rain without traffic driving on them the interstates will likely exist forever and in fact the bridges made of steel would be gone in less than a hundered years time to weathering. So if you take everything you said and take the exact opposite of it you were right on the money. :beer:
It depends on the grade of stainless, and the conditions it's exposed to. The kind of stainless that car exhausts are made of (400 series) is cheap stuff that does easily get surface rust on it. The kind that kitchen utensils are made of (usually 304) shouldn't rust in normal conditions, even when put in a dishwasher.
The Arch is made of 304 stainless, and shouldn't ever rust from being outside. I've been to it and it hasn't rusted from being outside for 40 years.
I suspect the roads will be one of the most enduring features - Some Roman roads are still in use 2 thousand years later, and I suspect that our construction methods are probably much better (foundation, drainage, materials, etc.). It may not be something you'd care to drive at 75 MPH, but I suspect parts of the highway system will still be recognizable/usable in a thousand years or so. Add to that airport runways, which are much more massive.
I suspect that bridges & overpasses will not fare as well, being more exposed to the elements, corrosion, etc.
Hoover Dam, I suspect, is like most Hydro Dams with a Lifespan of some 100ish years. Some of it would remain, but it wouldn't function as designed(hold back water
Hoover Damn was completed 70 years ago - should we be getting worried? I think the often touted 100 year lifetime of hydro damns pertains more to the lake filling up with silt and becoming useless for power generation rather then the expected lifetime of the structure itself.
sandorski
No Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
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Originally posted by: rahvin
Originally posted by: sandorski
Much of what has been mentioned would easily disappear within a Century. Road Systems would quickly be taken over and destroyed by plantlife, Overpasses/bridges would fare much better though. A large Open Pit Mine would definitely look like a Natural occurance within a few decades.
Hoover Dam, I suspect, is like most Hydro Dams with a Lifespan of some 100ish years. Some of it would remain, but it wouldn't function as designed(hold back water
I'm assuming No Maintenance, because if there was Maintenance everything that exists now could exist in 500 years, everything.
Here's a little not so secret thing you should know before adding your opinion. Concrete gets harder with age. Short of acid rain without traffic driving on them the interstates will likely exist forever and in fact the bridges made of steel would be gone in less than a hundered years time to weathering. So if you take everything you said and take the exact opposite of it you were right on the money. :beer:
It does get harder with age, to a point, but not hard enough to withstand plant roots. Look at a sidewalk.
That said, upon re-reading Skoorb's title I'd re-assume that roads and such would still be in use. Maintenance would be ongoing and I suspect that much of what's here today would still be around in 500 years. Barring the ongoing destruction of the old to put up the new.
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: rahvin
Originally posted by: sandorski
Much of what has been mentioned would easily disappear within a Century. Road Systems would quickly be taken over and destroyed by plantlife, Overpasses/bridges would fare much better though. A large Open Pit Mine would definitely look like a Natural occurance within a few decades.
Hoover Dam, I suspect, is like most Hydro Dams with a Lifespan of some 100ish years. Some of it would remain, but it wouldn't function as designed(hold back water
I'm assuming No Maintenance, because if there was Maintenance everything that exists now could exist in 500 years, everything.
Here's a little not so secret thing you should know before adding your opinion. Concrete gets harder with age. Short of acid rain without traffic driving on them the interstates will likely exist forever and in fact the bridges made of steel would be gone in less than a hundered years time to weathering. So if you take everything you said and take the exact opposite of it you were right on the money. :beer:
It does get harder with age, to a point, but not hard enough to withstand plant roots. Look at a sidewalk.
Sidewalk - typically 3 to 6 feet wide, 3-4 inches thick of low grade concrete, with typically no reinforcement placed over whatever surface was handy with little attention to drainage, soil type, compaction, expansion etc.
Highway - Many lanes wide, many layers deep - close to 3 feet from base to surface. Careful attention to soil type, drainage, compaction, etc. Careful control of material quality. Heavily reinforced concrete, etc., etc.
Comparing a sidewalk to a modern highway is like comparing a cardboard box on skid row to to a bomb shelter.
Originally posted by: sandorski
It does get harder with age, to a point, but not hard enough to withstand plant roots. Look at a sidewalk.
That said, upon re-reading Skoorb's title I'd re-assume that roads and such would still be in use. Maintenance would be ongoing and I suspect that much of what's here today would still be around in 500 years. Barring the ongoing destruction of the old to put up the new.
A sidewalk and an interstate highway are completely different beasts. A sidewalk is 4inches of concrete on top of native soil, if you got lucky they put an inch of rock down underneath the sidewalk. An interstate highway is going to be 12-14inches of concrete a foot of crushed rock and 2ft of select granular material that a plant couldn't survive in. So unless your little plants trying to grow in a interstate crack have roots that are 3 feet long they aren't going to survive long enough to become established. And that doesn't even take into account that most concrete slabs are sealed with silicone sealant which without traffic would probably last a century or more.
I will concede that after a few hundered years enouch windblown silt would probably build up in the cracks to support small plants or bushes, but those plants aren't going to have the strength to break 12" thick slabs of concrete. In the northern climates freeze/thaw cycles would do more damage than plants ever could.
Asphalt roads would probably be gone in a hundered years on the other hand.
Damn you armitage.
Current construction methods are not even equivalent to the Romans in sheer durability. We cannot afford to place multi-foot thick blocks of solid stone down to make our roads like the romans did. Our roads can take higher loads but those roman roads are permanent features even if they end up burried. I should add the a number of old Roman roads are underneath current highways in europe, they provide a very good foundation.
Originally posted by: rahvin
Originally posted by: sandorski
It does get harder with age, to a point, but not hard enough to withstand plant roots. Look at a sidewalk.
That said, upon re-reading Skoorb's title I'd re-assume that roads and such would still be in use. Maintenance would be ongoing and I suspect that much of what's here today would still be around in 500 years. Barring the ongoing destruction of the old to put up the new.
A sidewalk and an interstate highway are completely different beasts. A sidewalk is 4inches of concrete on top of native soil, if you got lucky they put an inch of rock down underneath the sidewalk. An interstate highway is going to be 12-14inches of concrete a foot of crushed rock and 2ft of select granular material that a plant couldn't survive in. So unless your little plants trying to grow in a interstate crack have roots that are 3 feet long they aren't going to survive long enough to become established. And that doesn't even take into account that most concrete slabs are sealed with silicone sealant which without traffic would probably last a century or more.
I will concede that after a few hundered years enouch windblown silt would probably build up in the cracks to support small plants or bushes, but those plants aren't going to have the strength to break 12" thick slabs of concrete. In the northern climates freeze/thaw cycles would do more damage than plants ever could.
Asphalt roads would probably be gone in a hundered years on the other hand.
Damn you armitage.
Current construction methods are not even equivalent to the Romans in sheer durability. We cannot afford to place multi-foot thick blocks of solid stone down to make our roads like the romans did. Our roads can take higher loads but those roman roads are permanent features even if they end up burried. I should add the a number of old Roman roads are underneath current highways in europe, they provide a very good foundation.
You forget that concrete roads on interstates are also reinforced by steel bars!
Someone needs to make a giant penis statue as wide as the Gaza pyramid and as tall as that one tower in Taipei. That would be sweet. And if the Earth ever spins out of orbit and hits another planet, it would be like, planet rape or something. EXTREME.
mrSHEiK124
Lifer
- Mar 6, 2004
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feralkid
Lifer
- Jan 28, 2002
- 16,850
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Originally posted by: J0hnny
Originally posted by: rahvin
Originally posted by: sandorski
It does get harder with age, to a point, but not hard enough to withstand plant roots. Look at a sidewalk.
That said, upon re-reading Skoorb's title I'd re-assume that roads and such would still be in use. Maintenance would be ongoing and I suspect that much of what's here today would still be around in 500 years. Barring the ongoing destruction of the old to put up the new.
A sidewalk and an interstate highway are completely different beasts. A sidewalk is 4inches of concrete on top of native soil, if you got lucky they put an inch of rock down underneath the sidewalk. An interstate highway is going to be 12-14inches of concrete a foot of crushed rock and 2ft of select granular material that a plant couldn't survive in. So unless your little plants trying to grow in a interstate crack have roots that are 3 feet long they aren't going to survive long enough to become established. And that doesn't even take into account that most concrete slabs are sealed with silicone sealant which without traffic would probably last a century or more.
I will concede that after a few hundered years enouch windblown silt would probably build up in the cracks to support small plants or bushes, but those plants aren't going to have the strength to break 12" thick slabs of concrete. In the northern climates freeze/thaw cycles would do more damage than plants ever could.
Asphalt roads would probably be gone in a hundered years on the other hand.
Damn you armitage.
Current construction methods are not even equivalent to the Romans in sheer durability. We cannot afford to place multi-foot thick blocks of solid stone down to make our roads like the romans did. Our roads can take higher loads but those roman roads are permanent features even if they end up burried. I should add the a number of old Roman roads are underneath current highways in europe, they provide a very good foundation.
You forget that concrete roads on interstates are also reinforced by steel bars!
Except that all the rebar begins to rust due to water (add salt in the snow belt) penetration through the cracks in the concrete.
Sure, they'll be there for centuries, just not as something you'd want to drive on at 75 mph.
I didn't forget it because it's not true. Bridges and structures have reinforcing steel, only recently (past decade) have we begun doweling the individual panels of concrete together. This helps correct differnential settlement, frost heave and other problems that can emerge as a pavement ages but it doesn't provide any structural benefit other than linking the individual panels together to provide additional stability to the pavement as the roadway section ages. You may be misconstruing these dowel bars and the systems that hold them in place till the concrete sets to be reinforcing steel but they aren't.
The mormon temple in Salt Lake was built to be quite durable...I believe they built it with the idea of it standing for at least 1000 years. Even at the top, the walls are 6ft. thick of solid granite.
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