WTC Ground Zero
You can see the scale in these photos.
These huge buildings were not brought down by jet fuel.
America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero | PBS
Part of Tower One's Antenna
For Before September 11, the team gathered remnants of everyday life at the World Trade Center — artwork, flagpoles, office equipment, furniture and paper documents. Parts of the building were included as well, like a piece of Tower One's antenna (above). "It was so big — the size of a bus — that at first nobody realized what it was," says Wagner.
The WTC 1 Antenna came down in Large Chunks... they must have forgotten to blow it to “bits” as they did the rest of the buildings.
America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero . Artifacts, p. 8 | PBS
Furniture
This office furniture is from World Trade Center 6. "People asked me if I saw a lot of furniture in the debris," said Wagner. "But just about everything from the Towers was pulverized. It was surprising to find anything recognizable."
America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero . Artifacts, p. 9 | PBS
Twisted Steel
For the second chapter — On September 11th — the team sought items to represent the hellish forces unleashed that day. "We saw a lot of pieces like this," said Wagner. "Typically, when steel bends, it buckles and tears. The smooth bend on this piece shows the steel became malleable — a pretty good indication of how hot it was."
RICH GARLOCK: Going below, it was smoky and really hot. We had rescue teams with meters for oxygen and carbon dioxide. They also had temperature monitors. Here WTC 6 is over my head. The debris past the columns was red-hot, molten, running. I did some quick numbers with Gary Panariello, an engineer from Thornton-Tomasetti, to try and determine what the load on WTC 6 was and how much of the lateral system of the building the contractor could take down. There were a lot of judgment calls; people had immediate needs and needed immediate responses.
America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero . Clearing the Debris, p. 6 | PBS
Assessing Buildings
DAVE PERAZA: On September 12th and 13th, as rescue workers were scouring Ground Zero for signs of life, seven teams of engineers, police and firefighters conducted emergency assessments of the surrounding buildings. Working from the street, and gaining entry where possible, we looked for structural as well as superficial damage that might be hazardous to the workers. Structural engineers systematically assessed about 400 buildings in late September, then repeated the job in October. About 30 buildings, having suffered structural damage or extensive damage to their facades, underwent more detailed inspections. Engineers went floor by floor, examining structural systems, fire alarms, sprinklers, and other life-safety systems. Remarkably, while all seven World Trade Center buildings and the St. Nicholas Church behind the South Tower were a total loss, no other buildings were beyond repair.
Click on the map above for what the engineers saw. To see their complete buildings assessment, visit the Structural Engineers of New York Web site.
America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero . Assessing Buildings | PBS
Video: The Surviving Structures
Engineers assess the buildings still standing
Select bandwidth: 56k
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9-11 Research:WTC Steel Removal
The Expeditious Destruction
of the Evidence at Ground Zero
Steel was the structural material of the buildings. As such it was the most important evidence to preserve in order to puzzle out how the structures held up to the impacts and fires, but then disintegrated into rubble. Since no steel frame buildings had ever collapsed due to fires, the steel should have been subjected to detailed analysis. So what did the authorities do with this key evidence of the vast crime and unprecedented engineering failure? They recycled it!
Some 185,101 tons of structural steel have been hauled away from Ground Zero. Most of the steel has been recycled as per the city's decision to swiftly send the wreckage to salvage yards in New Jersey. The city's hasty move has outraged many victims' families who believe the steel should have been examined more thoroughly. Last month, fire experts told Congress that about 80% of the steel was scrapped without being examined because investigators did not have the authority to preserve the wreckage. 1
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