Note: This post originally appeared on latimes.com in 2009 and is available via Archive.org.

Feb. 1, 1959: Burbank installs a time capsule in the “new” Magnolia Boulevard Bridge. It was scheduled to be opened Feb. 5, 2009.

This is one of my favorite posts from going through 1959. So noble. So ambitious and, ultimately, so wrong.

I wrote much more about the Burbank time capsule (and yes, Burbank had forgotten about it).

And here’s the followup:

Kenneth E. Norwood of Burbank’s Planning Department envisioned a city where only 12% of the people lived in single-family homes, with 88% in multi-unit garden apartments made of plastic that were incorporated in commercial complexes.

“These complexes are supposed to be the ultimate in urban living, combining offices, hotels, apartments, shops, restaurants, etc., in one continuous complex of buildings, malls and arcades,” he wrote.

There would be no overhead wires or antennas, he said. Instead, Burbank would use underground atomic power with electricity distributed by waves.
“Rapid monorail routes connect metro centers, with pickup stations at the Lockheed Air Control Center, and at each of the main malls in Burbank,” Norwood wrote. “Unlike auto parking in 1959, there is no parking on streets or open lots but in fully automatic parking units located at each main destination point.”