The single tower

Ming777

Monthly Donor
Before I begin, I will apologize to anyone who feels offended by a thread about 9/11.

I just want to ask this: what would have happened had the two aircraft somehow struck the same tower (either one)? Would the other survive it's twin's eventual collapse?
 
No idea, but wouldn't it had to be demolished anyway, due structural damage making it too instable and prone to fall apart later on?
 
Given the amount of damage down to near by buildings after the collapse of the two towers it would be safe to believe that not only could the collapse of one trigger the other, but the survivor would eventually have to be demolished because of extensive structural damage.
 
IIRC the Deutche Bank building had to be demolished due to the fact a large chunk of masonary gouged a gash down the front of the building and destroyed the interior. It seems likely that the surviving tower would suffer in the same way-requires demolishing but survives the actual attack.

The effect on the attack itself is intesting. We can already posit that the unhit tower would be as succesfully evacuated as the other buildings were (although some structures may not be evacuated if they are far enough away, it seems likely that the entire complex would be evacuated, possibly unofficially when people leave the buildings en mass to try to escape the possible area of debris.) We can posit a death toll between 1,000 and 1,500 (with 1,000 to 1,500 further people surviving) possibly lower taking into acount a less urgent evacuation.

One thing which does make me wonder though is this: Would it be possible for some form of zipwire or rope and pulley system to be set up between the surviving tower and the upper floors of the burning tower. Possibly some system whereby several ropes are strung across with instructions to tie them securely to a pillar or something, followed by harnesses to allow some trapped people to be evacuated from the upper floors. Might not work/be too risky though.
 

Sir Chaos

Banned
IIRC the Deutche Bank building had to be demolished due to the fact a large chunk of masonary gouged a gash down the front of the building and destroyed the interior. It seems likely that the surviving tower would suffer in the same way-requires demolishing but survives the actual attack.

The effect on the attack itself is intesting. We can already posit that the unhit tower would be as succesfully evacuated as the other buildings were (although some structures may not be evacuated if they are far enough away, it seems likely that the entire complex would be evacuated, possibly unofficially when people leave the buildings en mass to try to escape the possible area of debris.) We can posit a death toll between 1,000 and 1,500 (with 1,000 to 1,500 further people surviving) possibly lower taking into acount a less urgent evacuation.

One thing which does make me wonder though is this: Would it be possible for some form of zipwire or rope and pulley system to be set up between the surviving tower and the upper floors of the burning tower. Possibly some system whereby several ropes are strung across with instructions to tie them securely to a pillar or something, followed by harnesses to allow some trapped people to be evacuated from the upper floors. Might not work/be too risky though.

I strongly doubt such a system is possible, at least in the timeframe we are talking about here. The towers lasted for, what, 90 and 120 minutes, respectively? I assume a single tower hit twice would last an even shorter period.
 
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