Where Have All the Core Columns Gone?

Ground Zero Smoking Cannon: Where Are All the Core Columns and Beams???
http://wtcdemolition.blogspot.com/2006/12/ground-zero-smoking-cannon-where-are.html

The destruction of the WTC left basically four major types of large structural debris visible in photos like this:


(this image was cropped from a larger picture taken September 23rd, 2001)


There was lots of aluminum cladding (the silvery stuff that spread the farthest and was seen on the rooftops of surrounding buildings), there were sections of the outer wall (these have the characteristic "wheat-chex" appearance, which were groups of columns linked by spandrel plates), there were many small beams of unclear origin (the right size for broken-off outer columns but could also be floor beams -- many floors of the WTC were supported by beams and not trusses-- or small core cross-beams), and last, there were the huge core columns and core cross-beams (the largest single separate columns that are strewn about like matchsticks in the photo above).

The core of the WTC was in fact MASSIVE-- in contrast to some conceptions of the core after 9/11, the core structure took up a huge amount of the space inside the tower-- it was roughly 90 feet by 140 feet in cross-section, in the 207 by 207 foot cross-section of the tower, and it left about 60 feet of floor on two sides and about 30 feet of floor on the other two sides.

The core was composed of 46-47 vertical sets of long columns that went the length of the building, and the core was abundantly cross-braced by steel beams. Additional information on the core structures can be seen here and here.

In the picture above, you can see that some of the very large core columns were about 100 feet long. If we assume that the core was made up of these 100 foot long core columns, it turns out there should have been over 600 core columns (at MIMIMUM-- the exact number depending on whether there were 46 or 47 the whole length and if the core had 100 foot columns the whole way).

The numbers of steel beams in the cross-bracings was much, much greater. At a minimum of 14 large cross-beams per floor, we're talking over 1500 more HUGE steel beams. All told, we're talking about, at MINIMUM, 2100 HUGE steel columns and beams in the core.

Note, if anything, I am underestimating the numbers of core columns and core cross-beams.

So this begs the question: how many core columns and core cross-beams are seen in the remnants of a WTC tower, such as in the remains of WTC1 in the photo here:


I have marked with a black line anything that could be considered a core column or beam.

Erring on the side of calling everything remotely close to a large steel beam or column, I only count about 125 core columns/beams.***

That leaves almost 2000 HUGE STEEL columns and beams unaccounted for!

These pictures were taken 9/13/01, and shows that the large columns in the picture above were basically left lying in place since 9/11:



Now sure, some core columns and beams are going to be buried under the rubble and not visible. But almost 2000 of these monster pieces of steel are buried in a rubble pile that wasn't more than 20 feet deep in most places?

I don't think so.

Not to mention that the videos showed that much of the core clearly came down last (or at least large sections of it came down at the end), and therefore the core columns and beams should have been at the top of the pile.

And certainly, the core being the heaviest part of the building, core columns and beams were not going to fall very far from the foot-print of the tower.

So what happened to all the core columns?

I don't think that jet fuel, or even thermite, caused over one thousand massive steel columns and beams to melt into a puddle. Even if there WAS a large pool of molten steel under the rubble at ground zero.

What happened to all the core columns and beams then?

My guess is the missing columns and beams were vaporized by small nuclear bombs-- mini-nukes emplaced in the center of the core structure. I am open to other suggestions besides nukes, but nukes seems to be the best explanation currently.
http://covertoperations.blogspot.com/2008/07/wtc-destruction-theories-dew-versus.html

Now you may say this vaporization idea is just silly, that these huge pieces of steel are there and we just can't see them. But in truth, the rubble/debris pile for each tower was NOT tremendously deep given the size of these towers.

I defy anyone to take 2100 long thin objects (say pencils or toothpicks) and dump them into a pile and get a pile as relatively small as seen with the remains of WTC1-- and also only be able to see less than 10% of the objects at the end. Add in some junk to your pile if you wish.

Of course there is the whole issue of how the core structure was dismantled in the first place-- it's impossible for me to imagine that any gravity driven collapse would completely tear apart the core down to its lowest level.


***It's possible that I missed counting a few columns/beams in the picture, but I can't see missing more than 20. It's probably true I missed a few columns/beams that fell further and were off the bottom edge of the picture-- though looking at other shots of ground zero, I can't have missed more than 20 large columns/beams. Even so, we're still talking about hundreds and hundreds of missing columns and beams.

One formal possibility is that I only counted the largest steel pieces that were the core columns and that all the cross-beams were smaller. There are in fact scads of small individual steel pieces scattered in the footprint of WTC1. I really doubt these are the major core cross-beams, as they seem too small. These small beams probably were individual outer wall columns that broke off, or steel beams that made up some of the floors (several floors had heavy steel beams instead of trusses supporting the floor) or the smaller core cross-beams (there should have been thousands of these). But even if we assume all these small pieces were the cross-beams, and the large steel pieces are only the core columns, we are still missing around HUGE 500 core columns!

Seriously, where are they?

Because if these columns and beams can't be accounted for, it is yet another strong piece of evidence for nukes-- or some even more horrible means of destruction.

...just so we know what we are looking for....

an exterior column instead of a core column. I may be wrong though. The core columns were 54 inches by 22 inches at the bases IMSMC. :hi:

would tear down the rest of the buildings and leave the core columns in both towers standing for 10-15 seconds?

certainly for WTC1, only a fraction of the core remained

for WTC2, it was only the lower core-- 50-60 floors-- that remained

the scenario is multiple mini-nukes with a say 50 blast radius taking out sections of the tower, and the complete core was taken out later

so I think it is very feasible

... as shown here for column 501:



But at the top of the tower it has transitioned to this:




Which one do you think is more likely to be found on top of the debris?


Those pictures were taken from the following site:

http://wtcmodel.wikidot.com/nist-core-column-data

Their data is from the NIST SAP2000 modeling.

-Make7

the core column layout was a bit complicated as indicated here:
http://wtcmodel.wikidot.com/structural-data-wtc-1-2
i.e. there were box columns and I-columns mixed on a single high upper floor
note also that the data on these columns does not seem to be complete and NIST seems to be making some assumptions
also, if you scroll down here:
http://wtcmodel.wikidot.com/cc501
most columns were of the large box type

scrolling through the architectural plans,
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/plans/frames.html
I may be off somewhat on the number of large core columns in the upper floors, but the overall point remains that there are far fewer core columns than there should be-- maybe not 90%, but a good 40-50%-- which actually makes more sense in terms of a destruction mechanism-- it wouldn't take out 90% and leave the outer columns more or less intact, but nukes could take out multiple core columns and leave the rest behind.

Yes the columns became smaller as they progressed up. They tapered. I know that already. But thanks.

The interior columns were only probably 30-40 feet long, if that. Remember that all of the building materials were trucked into downtown Manhattan, which limits the length of the transporting trucks, just because of the difficulty of making turns. If they built the core like the exterior spandrels, and I'm pretty sure they did, there were field joints every three or so floors. The joints would fail in the maelstrom of the collapse, resulting in shorter segments that could indeed get crushed in the depths of the floors underneath the plaza level.

edit to add:


does show an interior column. There's no such thing as a column on the exterior wall, they were all premanufactured panels of columns and spandrels.

though some of them are definitely longer in the debris pile-- they must have been welded together and not fallen apart during the destruction.

I've updated the piece here:
http://wtcdemolition.blogspot.com/2006/12/ground-zero-smoking-cannon-where-are.html

There are still a LOT of missing columns.

No "maelstrom" changes the fact that any engineered joint is built STRONGER than the material it joins...and by large factors. Look at any photo of a building collapse and the most easily observable fact is that breaks almost never occur at joints.

When you say stuff like this;



Is there any hint of feeling foolish, or uncomfortable? You state the above as if you expect everyone to be nodding their heads.

but we are ruled by very evil people and the data are the data.

I note you don't explain where the columns went.

Not to mention a thousand smaller ones?

I just don't think it is possible. Honestly.

There actually were many more core columns than I originally thought, as I have learned their lengths were mostly 36 feet long:

http://wtcdemolition.blogspot.com/2006/12/ground-zero-smoking-cannon-where-are.html

There are still a LOT of missing columns-- 800 of the big ones. I find it very hard to believe they are all buried in the rubble.

I imagine the ratio of peremeter column sections to core columns by volume of the pile is VERY high.