Still Standing After 1.8 Million Tons Fell On It!, A Photo Essay About the Last WTC Steel Column Standing Options

[JimMac]

Hi folks, I did a little web page today on the subject of the last steel column standing in the pit of WTC2.

There are a few articles written on this item and in one the writer states that its a South Tower SE corner perimeter column. I did some homework, and determined it is more likely to be a core column due to its width (5' +) and size (60 tons) and the location.

Why is location important? My opinion is that its virtually impossible to have 1 million tons plus of debris fall, starting at 1360 ft above grade (add 70ft sub-grade elevation) and land on this steel column at the core, with the result we see in the photos.

What do you think?

Now we get to the real interesting question... why is only one column FOUND left in tact. I have a pretty good guess why, but i'll leave it alone for now.

Cheers!

Jim

This post has been edited by JimMac: May 28 2009, 02:11 AM

[lunk]

From what I've seen, the core went down first, and the demolition began in the top third, and went down from there. I think the demolition wave traveled faster than gravity and was followed by the building, down.

Has anyone found anything about the total amount of steel taken away from the site, in the cleanup?

[JimMac]

From what I've seen, the core went down first, and the demolition began in the top third, and went down from there. I think the demolition wave traveled faster than gravity and was followed by the building, down.

Has anyone found anything about the total amount of steel taken away from the site, in the cleanup?

'the core went down first' (agreed, but only core section above the plane strike area was a leading event)

' and the demolition began in the top third ' I get your point, but i would qualify that to say the CD began about 6 to 8 seconds in sub level 4 or 5 before the plane event; ( William Rodriquez - WTC Head Janitor) and the CD appears to have had multiple stages (multiple phases, multiple waves)

" I think the demolition wave traveled faster than gravity and was followed by the building, down. " (agreed) I would qualify that to say the floor areas (excluding stairwells) were followed down by the core section, below the plane strike area, where below the plane strike, we see a building corner edge remain intact above the leading floor explosion wave. The lower 2/3 of core dismantling appears to be a separate explosive wave, delayed by about 1.5 seconds behind the floor explosions. (the core needed to remain intact to preserve the building's lateral integrity while the floor explosives blew.

In simple terms, the building area was dismantled downward floor-by-floor (2 or more floors at a time), as was the 47 column core array, section by section, level-by-level, a separate wave.

The stairwells were the one 'piece' if you like, which were not exploded, and left to drop in the cloud. They served no structural purpose, and were incidental.

Edited to note 'floor explosives' means the explosives that blew the 'floor areas' (most probably as jim hoffman says, in the ceiling tiles, or similar innovation..whatever it was, where ever placed, it was uniform in span and in timing over an acre of floor area. )

This post has been edited by JimMac: May 29 2009, 12:22 AM