The mystery of why the 47-story World Trade Center (WTC) Building 7 collapsed at 5:21 pm on September 11, 2001, even though it had not been hit by an airplane, has been solved. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) investigated the collapse for three years, announcing its findings on August 21.
NIST says:
- Falling debris from the collapse of the north WTC tower at 10:28 am started fires on at least 10 floors of WTC 7.
- Fires burned out of control on six lower floors of WTC 7. Sprinklers there had no water because the collapse of the twin towers had damaged water mains.
- Heat from these fires caused a long floor girder on floor 13 to expand so much that its connection with an interior structural column failed.
- The displaced girder and other local fire damage caused floor 13 to collapse.
- This started a cascade of floor failures down to floor 5.
- The critical structural column now lacked any floor supports for nine stories of its length. It buckled, causing other structural columns to fail, setting off a progressive collapse that quickly engulfed the entire building.
NIST tested for a collapse caused by explosives, as conspiracy theorists have alleged, and ruled this out. It said the smallest blast capable of crippling the critical column would have produced a sound level of 130-140 decibels at a distance of at least 0.8 kilometers, if unobstructed by surrounding buildings. This is the comparable to the sound level produced by a gunshot blast or standing next to a jet engine, and more than 10 times louder than being in front of the speakers at a rock concert. But no blast sounds were heard on the audio tracks of video recordings of the collapse of WTC 7 or were reported by witnesses.
For details, see NIST’s August 21 press release, which includes links to supporting documents.
Todd Leventhal is the Department’s expert on conspiracy theories and misinformation—stories that are untrue, but widely believed. He enjoys reading obituaries, which tell the personal stories of people who have shaped the fabric of American life.
Todd became interested in international affairs after a four-month trip to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in 1972. He worked for Voice of America for seven years and bikes to work year-round.
Comments (17)
Marvin Caldwell-Barr
23 August 2008 at 12:10 EDT
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Thank goodness for a cohesive explanation of an extremely puzzling event.
I never for a moment believed the conspiracy theorists, but was at a loss to figure out an explanation for the phenomenon.
Dewan
24 August 2008 at 00:00 EDT
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Why not a single Jew was there in the building and among all lost life ?????
Dewan
24 August 2008 at 00:01 EDT
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Its not bin laden who did it.
It is Bush & Mosad who disd it.
Salisu Umar
26 August 2008 at 07:47 EDT
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I’m shocked to have to realise this late the length America would go to just so it would taint Islam…To what purposes ? To naught, because you could kill muslims in droves but you can’t stop this tide that’s growing !
Dave
27 August 2008 at 16:25 EDT
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Thanks for the clear and concise explanation, the NIST actually has a whole video that explains the collapse as well.
The video and full report can be accessed at the address below:
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/wtc_videos/wtc_videos.html
criticalunitydotorg
28 August 2008 at 03:46 EDT
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First of all, it is not a ‘theory’ that jet fuel is not hot enough to do that… Furthermore, Larry had decided to ‘pull’ the building, & as to the bull ’solved’ statement; YEAH RIGHT! - The building did not go down slowly; it was perfectly fine, & it went down…
So anyways, according to this site, where they say the elite ‘do nothing’ to hide their secret plan for a NWO??? What is this site for? - You can make us look like cooks all you want, but just checkout infowars.com , & see the real cooks are people who blindly follow the ‘officials’ … There is NO theory; Again: When NORAD stands down, when those planes could’ve been shot down, … Come on! - There are millions of civillians being murdered in the War, & if it was not for 9/11 , there would be no War… - I challenge you to post this comment…
Kriss
28 August 2008 at 08:58 EDT
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What a lie!!!!!
STEEL BUILDINGS can not collapse from fires!
And I didn`t see any huge fire in WYC7 vidoe before collapse!!!!
It took 7 years to come out with this incredible explenation!
smi2le
29 August 2008 at 09:51 EDT
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BWAHAHAHAHA
i love your media, i love you country!
great!
impressive!
rock on & greetings from good old europe!
btw..
http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=4142375757336204440&ei=Vwy4SNK3NZOi2AL92ODcDA&q=silverstein+building+7
Whoever
29 August 2008 at 14:06 EDT
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How did NIST investigate this when all evidence had been quickly removed days after the event? All they have is some TV footage and a bit of hearsay.
Tobi
29 August 2008 at 18:15 EDT
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Rather interesting fairy tale they put together there. What I *really* start to wonder is, why such a unbelievable story? Wasn’t there someone with enough fantasy involved there to let it sound at least a bit more like something that could at least happen?
What is sick, is that the provided reason that the towers collapsed cause of fire which can’t burn hot enough to destroy the sceleton was, that the fuel did burn hoter as usual. But there was no fuel at WTC7…
Are they assuming we are really that stupid? Seems so.
bushbrain
29 August 2008 at 23:04 EDT
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america.gov says all…..LOL
Roxanne Wilson
3 September 2008 at 03:56 EDT
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It absolutley terrifies me every time is see footage of the 9-11 attacks…beacuse the american government did that 2 there own people and then blamed the muslims! I really did used to think that bin laden and the hijackers were responsible…until i saw actual evidence that shows a missile hitting the 1st tower,a missile flying into the pentagon(how dare they tell us it was a boeing 747!!!)and then the demolition of the twin towers and building no.7. We cannot ignore obvious evidence…however much we want 2…
George
26 September 2008 at 16:08 EDT
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What a puzzling event to me a proud Canadian.
katana0182
10 January 2009 at 02:40 EST
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You wanna bet steel buildings can’t collapse through fires?
Interesting fact: Steel melts at approx 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. (1370 degrees Celsius).
Interesting fact 2: Steel (or any metal) becomes FLEXIBLE and loses strength prior to it melting. (see, for example, the blacksmithing trade - the metal the smith uses is only red hot - but it can be twisted and hammered into shape.) So, at perhaps 700-900 degrees Celsius, steel only has a fraction of the tensile strength that it would at room temperature.
Interesting fact 3: Hydrocarbon fires (such as those induced by jet fuel fed by high winds such as those 500 degrees above the ground have temperatures up to and beyond 2500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Interesting fact 4: Prior to the collapse of the towers, a corner sagged indicating the failure of a single load-bearing beam on one side of the tower (which caused a cascading failure of all load-bearing beams, due to the increased load upon the beam’s neighbors - within a second or two).
Interesting fact 5: If there was a “controlled demolition”, the beams would have all been severed at once. To do otherwise would be stupid - as severing one beam would not topple the tower under any normal circumstances, as the other beams could certainly bear the load. Severing a section of beams would cause the danger of collapsing the tower onto a large part of the city - only severing all beams at once would do.
Interesting fact 6: There is a reason that steel is not commonly used in low-rise buildings except encased in concrete. Fire insurance inspectors dislike steel, as it will warp and bend, causing the building to collapse if it’s in a fire. Unfortunately, for skyscrapers, steel has to be used - in its unmodified form, as it is far more convenient than concrete, and normally strong enough to withstand anything that’s thrown at it - short of a fully fueled plane.
Bottom line: It was a fire caused by jet fuel. If you doubt me, ask a structural engineer what caused the WTC to collapse.
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The unfortunate root of all the 9/11 conspiracy theories is the cognitive dissonance that 9/11 induces in those afflicted with anti-Americanism. If Osama bin Laden ordered the 9/11 attacks, then that might mean that the Americans and the US government is not absolutely evil, perhaps they are the victims. This, to the conspiracy theorists, does not compute - the United States is, of course, categorically evil. (It is clearly a Natural Law decreed by God and/or the Workers and the Peasants)
Since the United States is categorically evil and since Osama bin Laden doing 9/11 does not jive with that first assumption, something has to change to reconcile experienced reality with the the ideology of the conspiracy theorist. Since America is evil and this is unchangeable - Osama bin Laden must not have done 9/11, ergo 9/11 was an inside job, as those eternally evil Americans clearly did it themselves.
And to make this assumption, the conspiracy theorists ignore every fact - including science and reason - that stands in their way, since ideology clearly is more important then science or reason.
You see, to admit that America was the victim on 9/11 would require the questioning of the assumption that America and the American government is evil. And this the conspiracy theorists are unwilling to do - it is beyond their capabilities.
Dr.
20 January 2009 at 14:11 EST
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This hilarious explanation actually highlights the difference between us and the real perps. We have creativity and passion. They have neither. I could have come up with a better fictional story as to why #7 fell, over the course of a weekend, but yet NIST requires 7 plus years for this garbage. Do they not think some of us are taking names? Do they not think there are long lists of traitors (hello Todd)?
Because of the perp’s lack of creativety and true passion for evil, many mistakes were made on 9/11 and ever since. They have left a trail, which points in very specific directions. The truth will be known and it won’t be pretty for the sheeple or the perps.
catherine
14 February 2009 at 04:10 EST
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You know whats even more funny how everybody is so ready to believe that america did it to themselves, anybody who is trully questioning the sanity of their government regardless of the personality or speech of their president really needs to know what its like to have a government who are actually capable of such terrible things ie nazi germany and castros cuba…. and add to that saddam hussein. george bush maybe a little hard to understand when he talks and there may be gaps in their story , perhaps the truth isnt really that sinister after all, maybe they are ashamed of how they reacted afterwards or during, we will never know. whats done is done and even though it really was completely devastating to most we cannot dwell on what mistakes were done in the past because thats just it the past leave it there.
Поло
24 August 2009 at 02:46 EDT
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главное не париться, и тогда все получится хорошо! Успехов Вам!