Less than two hours after the first tower was hit, both towers had collapsed
into a pile of rubble.
Current analysis by architechs and engineers suggest that the design of the
towers helped protect the rest of the city from damage. The towers were built
with a large central steel and cement core with smaller steel and cement columns
at the corners. The towers were designed to withstand the impact of a jetliner,
which they did, but each plane was loaded with jet fuel when they crashed into
the towers.
When the planes impacted the towers, they ignited intense fires which may have
reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Such an intense fire burned away support materials
and probably warped the steel supports themselves, which lose half their strength
at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. It's also possible that the central core was damaged
by the force of impact. All these factors contributed to the weakening of the
tower infrastructure at the crash site and until a floor collapsed.
Each floor was constructed of reinforced concrete at least four inches thick
and weighing nearly 3,000 tons, so when one floor gave way, it began a pancake
effect. Each floor below then collapsed under the new weight. The central core
did control the collapse, so that neither of the towers toppled over at a corner
and fell across Manhattan, but only collapsed in on themselves.
The second tower hit collapse first because it had been hit on a lower floor
than the first tower. Thus a greater weight was placed on the weakened supports
and the second tower gave way first. The second tower succumb to the same damage
in addition to the seismic shock of the first tower collapsing nearby. The north
tower was reduced to seven stories of rubble, while the south tower was reduced
to two stories of rubble
The lowrise 7
World Trade Centercollapsed late in the day because of damage sustained
by falling debris from the collapse of the two towers and a fire.
