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mbpark · 09-17-2001, 04:13 PM

Several things about that building:

1. It got hot, but not as hot at 24,000+ gallons of jet fuel igniting. That's hot enough to melt structural steel.

2. One Meridian Plaza got hot enough to melt some steel, but it didn't have the "igniter" of all that Jet Fuel. Plenty of gasoline, however.

3. The main reason the building collapsed was all that jet fuel melting and making very soft a large amount of structural steel, causing our friend from physics, g, to take over at 9.8 meters per second downward. Using a few basic physics equations, we can determine that no structure man has built would be able to withstand 100,000 tons of steel and concrete moving downward that fast, even if the period of acceleration was only a few meters. ANY building would go bye-bye really fast.

4. The real reasons One Meridian Plaza took so long to demolish was environmental violations. That fire, combined with the large amounts of toxic chemicals in the building, caused it to be so unsafe that they had to send in specialized cleanup teams to isolate and scrub down the building's interior while wearing moonsuits. It was a Superfund cleanup, due to the toxicity.

They were actually considering reopening floors 1-12. They were structurally okay. However, due to the stigma, they decided to rip the entire building down. I remember this much from reading over what happened. They actually did have an okay from one of the oversight agencies to reopen floors 1-12.

Also, the entire tunnel system underneath would have made a complete demolition horrific, due to potential damage to the Septa tunnels and other basements.

I work 2 blocks away from it. If it was so damaged, why is there an underground parking lot still in use from One Meridian Plaza?

5. Using basic physics again, we can see one other thing from this horrible disaster. The entire foundation that many buildings besides the World Trade complex were built on, due to the force of several million tons hitting it at a very high rate of speed, are probably cracked beyond repair.

6. Using more knowledge, the infrastructure of NYC, especially that part, extends over 100 feet underground, and encompasses, electrical lines, gas lines, subway lines, as well as fiber-optic lines. Many parts of that infrastructure around World Trade for a certain radius are damaged, since the shock wave registered outward for a significant amount. These just were not built to take that level of shock. There will be foundation cracks up to several blocks away, since this was not an expected event, not to mention the need to possibly demolish a large amount of buildings, namely World Financial Center possibly, after a civil engineering firm comes in and does foundation studies.

What's even crazier is that many of these buildings were built on reclaimed land, especially WFC, from the construction of World Trade.

In other words, it's not clean, and a total mess to clean up.

09-17-2001, 04:13 PM	#26
mbpark Lecturer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 761	One Meridian Plaza Several things about that building: 1. It got hot, but not as hot at 24,000+ gallons of jet fuel igniting. That's hot enough to melt structural steel. 2. One Meridian Plaza got hot enough to melt some steel, but it didn't have the "igniter" of all that Jet Fuel. Plenty of gasoline, however. 3. The main reason the building collapsed was all that jet fuel melting and making very soft a large amount of structural steel, causing our friend from physics, g, to take over at 9.8 meters per second downward. Using a few basic physics equations, we can determine that no structure man has built would be able to withstand 100,000 tons of steel and concrete moving downward that fast, even if the period of acceleration was only a few meters. ANY building would go bye-bye really fast. 4. The real reasons One Meridian Plaza took so long to demolish was environmental violations. That fire, combined with the large amounts of toxic chemicals in the building, caused it to be so unsafe that they had to send in specialized cleanup teams to isolate and scrub down the building's interior while wearing moonsuits. It was a Superfund cleanup, due to the toxicity. They were actually considering reopening floors 1-12. They were structurally okay. However, due to the stigma, they decided to rip the entire building down. I remember this much from reading over what happened. They actually did have an okay from one of the oversight agencies to reopen floors 1-12. Also, the entire tunnel system underneath would have made a complete demolition horrific, due to potential damage to the Septa tunnels and other basements. I work 2 blocks away from it. If it was so damaged, why is there an underground parking lot still in use from One Meridian Plaza? 5. Using basic physics again, we can see one other thing from this horrible disaster. The entire foundation that many buildings besides the World Trade complex were built on, due to the force of several million tons hitting it at a very high rate of speed, are probably cracked beyond repair. 6. Using more knowledge, the infrastructure of NYC, especially that part, extends over 100 feet underground, and encompasses, electrical lines, gas lines, subway lines, as well as fiber-optic lines. Many parts of that infrastructure around World Trade for a certain radius are damaged, since the shock wave registered outward for a significant amount. These just were not built to take that level of shock. There will be foundation cracks up to several blocks away, since this was not an expected event, not to mention the need to possibly demolish a large amount of buildings, namely World Financial Center possibly, after a civil engineering firm comes in and does foundation studies. What's even crazier is that many of these buildings were built on reclaimed land, especially WFC, from the construction of World Trade. In other words, it's not clean, and a total mess to clean up.