WI: Only one tower collapses on 9/11

Doesn't really affect the response at all, but they'll be rebuilding the North Tower exactly as it was and reinforcing the South Tower (and fixing whatever damage it sustains, obviously).
 
The Collapse of only the North Tower will undoubtedly create a debris field that will likewise impact and badly damage the South Tower .....

The Response should still be the same as in OTL .......

They might have to slowly tear down the possibly badly damaged South Tower as with the sudden collapse of the North Tower, there is no longer a structural unit to hold the support of the basement region underneath the North Tower other than the debris field....

The possibly badly damaged South Tower will probably have to be brought down slowly or shored up if possible in order for the Search and Rescue and then Recovery units to safely search for the dead and any survivors in the North Tower debris field...... maybe....

[EDIT] Does anybody know how much of the collapse debris field that was created by the North Tower actually hit the South Tower?? [/EDIT]
 
They might have to slowly tear down the possibly badly damaged South Tower as with the sudden collapse of the North Tower, there is no longer a structural unit to hold the support of the basement region underneath the North Tower other than the debris field....

As indeed other buildings in the immediate vicinity, though left standing, had to be demolished. The lesser number of casualties would certainly be welcome, but the overall result and the US response probably wouldn't be much different.
 
Nothing would really change. The North Tower and all the buildings around it and the collapsed South Tower are likely demolished due to the damage.
 
I started this same thread topic not long ago, actually. I don't recall all that was said there, but I recall what was mentioned was whether or not the tower would actually have collapsed. I don't know if it was said it would happen, but I remember someone said that if it didn't collapse, they may have had to tear it down due to structural integrity problems. I think personally that would have been a greater blow to the American spirit and psyche, to tear down our own building, than just the terrorists destroying it. It's like putting down your family dog because it got rabies when it could have been accidentally hit by a car.

Anyway, I think if only one tower did collapse, or even if neither collapsed but the attack still occurred on the one (again, not sure if it would have been need to be torn down), I think the effect would have been the same on America.
 
Less people die but north tower still collapses, mass hysteria and a pointless war in Iraq still follow.
 
Out of curiosity, how do you demolish such a high tower ? explosives ?

More than likely, it would've been dismantled in a mirror-image process to its construction. Roof-mounted cranes would lower removed structure down the side of the tower, then the cranes would lower themselves to a lower floor. Repeat until the stub of the tower is short enough to finish off with ground-based cranes.

Trying a controlled demolition drop on something that tall, that's already sustained major structural damage, is going to be very dangerous, and time-consuming to boot. In fact, given my understanding of how the towers were structured, by the time you stripped out the structure to prepare it for a controlled drop, you'd already have the vast majority of the demolition/dismantling done anyway.

Disclaimer - Not a structural engineer, nor do I play one on television. I didn't even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. :D
 
More than likely, it would've been dismantled in a mirror-image process to its construction. Roof-mounted cranes would lower removed structure down the side of the tower, then the cranes would lower themselves to a lower floor. Repeat until the stub of the tower is short enough to finish off with ground-based cranes.

Trying a controlled demolition drop on something that tall, that's already sustained major structural damage, is going to be very dangerous, and time-consuming to boot. In fact, given my understanding of how the towers were structured, by the time you stripped out the structure to prepare it for a controlled drop, you'd already have the vast majority of the demolition/dismantling done anyway.

Disclaimer - Not a structural engineer, nor do I play one on television. I didn't even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. :D

Or they could just hire Chinese to do it.....

s-APARTMENT-CHINA-large640.jpg
 
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