NARRATOR: One day after people.
[ominous music]
In the heart of Manhattan, the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York still guards the vast wealth of depositors who
will never return to claim it.
[suspenseful music]
It holds more than half a million gold bars,
worth roughly $200 billion--
the accumulated wealth of some 60 foreign governments
and central banks.
There is more gold in the basement of the Federal Reserve
Bank in Manhattan than has been gathered
any other place on Earth and any other time in history.
NARRATOR: The gold is stored 80 feet below street level.
The narrow opening to the vault is protected by a rotating
90-ton steel cylinder that forms an air-
and water-tight seal with the surrounding 140-ton steel
and concrete frame.
The gold lasts pretty much forever.
The whole point of having gold is that it doesn't
corrode and doesn't tarnish.
And there's nothing in nature that can dissolve gold.
NARRATOR: Gold is one of the most
non-reactive metals on Earth.
So when it's exposed to air or water,
its molecules resist disintegration.
But other medals in New York City won't fare so well.
[suspenseful music]
Uptown from the Federal Reserve Bank,
the steel canyon walls of Times Square
are still a glittering urban shrine.
But the streets have turned eerily quiet.
[ominous music]
In the time of humans, it was one of the loudest
places in a very loud city.
[sirens chirping]
Sustained exposure to sound over 75 decibels
was deemed dangerous to human ears.
[horns honking]
Yet the ambient noise here measured 80 decibels.
[horns honking]
Honking horns peaked at 90 decibels.
[horns honking]
And a passing ambulance siren screamed at 120.
[sirens wailing]
Now these sounds are silenced, leaving
just the 50 decibel hum of thousands
of air conditioning units.
[ominous music]
A world without people would be strangely silent.
In many places, the dominant sound would be birdsong.
[bird chirping]
NARRATOR: Two days after people, the New York
City power grid is failing.
[ominous music]
And so is the trademarked glow of hundreds
of illuminated signs.
These streets have seen blackouts before.
In 2003, a massive East Coast power
outage plunged Times Square into darkness
for more than 12 hours.
[dramatic music]
But this time, the blackout is permanent.
In the light of day, New York's urban jungle
is prowled by creatures unaccustomed
to fending for themselves.
The horses that once carried police officers
and pulled Central Park carriages
must adapt to a life with no humans to care for them.
In a world of concrete and steel,
can these horses survive?
It's six months after people.
New York City is dark, except for a strange glow
in Times Square.
Installed in 2009, this illuminated beacon
of the human past is a billboard that doesn't rely at all
on the municipal power grid.
90% of the science power is generated by 16 wind turbines.
[ominous music]
The rest comes from an array of 64 solar panels.
The signs' power plant generates enough electricity
to power six houses for a year.
The turbines blades were designed to resist freezing
in winter and to automatically slow in the face of hurricane
force winds to prevent damage.
The sign should keep glowing for years,
unless something unexpected happens.
One year after people, the Plaza at Rockefeller
Center in Midtown Manhattan is still a gathering place.
Only now, it's animals that congregate here.
[ominous music]
One of the changes that would take place in New York
if people were out of the way is that the native animals
would move back in.
There are already a tremendous population of deer
in the suburbs of New York.
You may see deer right in the heart of the city.
NARRATOR: In the time of humans, this concrete chasm
was a plaza that transformed into an artificial ice rink
every Christmas.
This winter, mother nature provides her own ice.
[ominous music]
What would happen is, water would
freeze during the winter on the rink area itself
and would pile up.
And during the spring, the little iceberg
would melt and continue to add to the water
underneath the buildings themselves.
And that would begin to deteriorate the foundation.
NARRATOR: In the springtime, the sunken plaza
becomes like a giant flowerpot.
STEVEN ROSS: The ice rink would definitely
become a garden early.
It would be wet more of the year.
And that's good for growth.
[ominous music]
NARRATOR: Lording over this urban garden
is the statue of Prometheus, a figure from Greek mythology
credited with creating mankind.
He now presides over the destruction
of what man has created.