While the record-breaking fireworks show on the National Mall stole the show this Independence Day, another quieter event 140 miles away in Philadelphia was just as historic.
In the 2016 law creating the America250 Commission, Congress required a time capsule to be buried at Independence National Historical Park in the City of Brotherly Love with an open date of 2276 – 250 years from now. That 900-pound metal cylinder was sealed shut in June and buried on July 4, filled with dozens of items.
The time capsule includes contributions from all 50 states and all three branches of the federal government. Each state contributed items unique to its identity and heritage.
Nevada, for instance, included a set of gambling chips and tokens. North Dakota contributed a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library coin. Ohio submitted fabric from one of the Wright Brothers’ first planes. Oklahoma included an Oklahoma City Thunder championship pin. Georgia included a medallion from The Masters golf tournament. Arkansas sent a diamond. Maine added a bone from the endangered North American right whale.
Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama spoke at the burial ceremony and explained why the time capsule is important to future Americans.
“I believe that this time capsule that we are dedicating today may be the most meaningful because it asks us to think beyond ourselves,” Aderholt said. “What kind of nation do we hope future generations will inherit? I hope they will see a generation that understood America was never meant to be perfect. The only perfect person who ever walked on this earth was Jesus Christ, but as our Constitution reminds us, every generation has that opportunity as we strive to become a more perfect union.”
America 250 explained that the time capsule was “constructed as a precision-milled stainless steel cylindrical vessel” with a tubular design that “reduces structural vulnerabilities by limiting potential failure points, addressing challenges that have compromised past time capsules buried in humid environments.” The number one enemy of time capsules is water, so the designers focused primarily on how to keep the contents dry.
Michael Berilla, who directs the fabrication technology office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, explained that the challenge is ensuring that the items inside remain moist enough to avoid disintegrating but dry enough that they won’t create moisture problems. To help keep the correct humidity level of about 35 percent, the capsule was buried 10 feet below ground.
“Philadelphia would have to be six feet underwater in order for this time capsule to even possibly take on water,” Berilla told the Associated Press. “And if Philly is six feet underwater, you’ve got way bigger problems in the world.”
The semiquincentennial time capsule isn’t the first such project in the country’s history. In 1976, President Gerald Ford opened the “Century Safe” that was sealed in 1876. That year also saw the creation of the Bicentennial time capsule, which is set to be open in 2076.
In addition to the contributions from the various states, when Americans open the time capsule 250 years from now, they’ll also read a note from Berilla and his team: “Greetings from the living, breathing hearts and hands of 2026. We will have long since returned to dust, but our devotion, pride, and unwavering hope for what our world could become are alive right here inside this steel. We built this for you.”
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
One thing they could have put in it is BIDEN’S BRAIN he’s not using it but I think they can’t find in the first place! I can see it 250 years from now they open the capsule examine it and say those people back then were F-upped. Also recording of Kamela and the women of the VIEW. They’ll say they were really F-upped, this must be an April fool joke!!