[QUOTE]Originally posted by Platinum
[B]Some photos... looks like a war zone.

 

I stand corrected. I saw some of the latest photos. The building certainly fell from above.

...

And, I don't feel any better.

Jeff

 

I'm in total disbelief. Very, very sad.

 

This makes me sick

 

This really sucks guys...it's really disturbing. Planes scheduled to land in the US are being re-routed to Canada -- the Vancouver airport has already and will continue to receive incoming flights.

I'm gonna go give blood later today specifically for this crisis. Let's hope the worst is over...

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Shamu
[B]This really sucks guys...it's really disturbing.

 

Logged on for a little diversion and saw this thread.

Absolutely surreal.

I had lived 4 blocks from the WTC up until a month ago when I moved to the burbs.

was in hoboken across the river taking a ferry to the WTC when the planes hit.

was speechless.

fortunately managed to get back to hoboken and on a train home.

our lives as americans are certainly NEVER again to be the same.

To see it live was abosolutely the most frightening experience ive ever had

 

The reason the buildings collapsed down upon itself has to do with their design. Most skyscrapers before the WTC had an internal support structure. This tended to consume a lot of space, plus the external walls were just extra weight, from a structural standpoint. The WTC supported its weight via the external walls. This left the entire inner portion of the building for usable space (minus the stairs, elevators, and plumbing). Plus the building could be made lighter since the external walls are now part of the support structure. Unfortunately, this external support is particularly vulnerable to a "slashing" type of attack, much like a water ballon. What has this got to do with the way it collapsed? Well, the "strong" part of the building is in the external walls. When the top floors started to fall, their weight was pressed down upon the internals of the building. Take a glass, cover it with glad wrap, and where is the weakest point? The middle of the glad wrap. Thus the structural supports (walls) "contained" the falling mass, causing both buildings to collapse in on themselves.

Would an internal structure helped? Possibly, as the fall of the top floors wouldn't have fallen onto the weakest part of the floor below. However, one thing that did not occur with the WTC is a topple-over collapse, which could have wrecked blocks and blocks of buildings far worse than what happened.

 

i used to work on one of those towers on the 74th floor. i guess leaving there wasn't such a bad idea.

i feel for those who have family/friends/loved ones who are caught in the middle of the tragedy.

 

That's what I thought too.......