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PAINFUL DECEPTIONS -- ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY & SCREENCAP GALLERY |
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The exterior columns were further strengthened with steel plates. The plates were welded to the columns, and then bolted to one another. The plates form straps around the Tower.
Since the floors were spaced 12 feet apart, that means this grid of trusses was repeated every 12 feet. The steel straps that wrapped around the Tower were also repeated every 12 feet. As you can imagine, that put a lot of steel in this building. The empty space in the trusses was used for ceiling tiles, electric lights, air conditioning ducts, and other utilities.
It is important to realize that the framework of these Towers was 100% steel.
By comparison, the building at Oklahoma City that Tim McVeigh was accused of destroying had a concrete framework, with steel reinforcing rods in the concrete.
This is a highly simplified cross section of the Tower. It shows one floor of the Tower looking down onto the concrete floor. There were 47 rectangular columns in the center of the Tower, although only four are shown in this simple diagram. There were 236 exterior columns, although only 16 are shown. These exterior columns were literally on the outside of the building. Many people assume that these Towers disintegrated because they were weak, but there is no evidence for such an accusation. |
