What would have happened if the World Trade Center hadn't collapsed from the plane crashes?

I don’t know but I lived down there, was home when it happened, and remember being highly disturbed (albeit briefly) that there would be only one tower. It was not computing in my brain. When I was finally out on a police boat and evacuated to New Jersey, I remember watching the plumes from across the river and thinking the entire area was going to go up in flames, including my building.

It would still have crashed if the fires had been more quickly addressed. Just not so soon. The building was unique in New York with its structural support on the outside. With whole sides of support severed it was only a matter of time..

Moot point since the 757 when it crashed spilled out about 10,000 gallons of jet fuel. There was no possibility of extinguishing that fire spreading down so many stories.

But steel buildings rarely if ever collapse. And this one was built like a fortress, esp. the core.

There is a good documentary on how the towers were built. They used engineering method that were outdated soon after they were built. Something about how the floors were connected or some such techie stuff I do not remember or really understand. Something about the building allowed it to escape certain building regs.

My partner at the time was a retired AF pilot who also had a masters in engineering and told me at the time that there is no way with that fuel that the building would have stayed standing. Whatever the thingies were that held it together would be melted obviously causing it to collapse.

[quote] But steel buildings rarely if ever collapse. And this one was built like a fortress, esp. the core.

Have there been a lot of steel buildings hit with a fully fuel-laden jumbo jet that didn’t collapse? I’d like to see those.

I don't think anyone would have been able to put the fire out on those top floors. They would probably have tried to clear the smoke enough to land on the roof and get into the building to try to find survivors, but I'm not sure they could have managed it.

It would probably have been like Grenfell Tower, where we could see people flickering the lights and waving out the window until finally the smoke and fire overcame them and they died, because no one could rescue them.

I was watching some 9/11 documentary that said calls from the top floors of the North Tower stopped a good amount of time before the building collapsed, most likely because everyone up there died from smoke inhalation.

[quote] But steel buildings rarely if ever collapse. And this one was built like a fortress, esp. the core.

Again, no. WTC was not a traditional "steel building". The structural support was the EXOSKELETON. Not the inner spine like with the older buildings.