WEBVTT - How the World Trade Center Memorial Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.360 from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.480 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.400 Charles W. Chuckers Bryant, and that makes this a very 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.520 um congested episode of Stuff you Should Know, right, Yeah, 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.720 we were just reminiscing about the uh, what was it 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.760 eight or nine? I don't remember, probably oh nine when 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.640 Josh was sick for a like I said, he was 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.080 sick for a season, and that's really not too far off. Yeah, 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.319 but you mean recently pointed out that I wasn't sick 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.520 at all last year, and I don't think I've ever 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.000 not been sick for a year. So it has to 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.479 do probably with taking better care of myself, not smoking. 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.720 Probably I get the stomach thing. I don't usually get 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:57.319 regular sick. Yeah, you do get stomachs ye. Man. It's 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.480 not even like a bug. It's like a staff of 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.720 actual or a bowl of the stomach or something horrible 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.600 like that. It just gross. So I are you willing 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:09.000 to muddle through this one with me sounding like this? 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.160 I think people can forgive that we needed to get 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.200 this one out in time for the September eleventh anniversary. Yeah, 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.560 the tenth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks, UM on 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.440 the World Trade Center. Uh, the attack Uh, well the 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.920 plane that went down Flight ninety three in Pennsylvania. Have 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:31.480 you seen that movie? Um? And then uh, the attack 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.280 on the Pentagon. UM. The tenth Anniversity is going to 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:38.280 be a big sad, soul in occasion. You know, it 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.200 seems like the last couple of years it's been you 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.280 know it September eleventh and this this is a time 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.600 to stop and reflect for a moment. But I think 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.440 it's all gonna come barreling back on the tenth anniversary. Yeah, 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.520 I think people have been anticipating that. And the opening 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:56.800 of the of the memorial, which we're gonna talk about, 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:58.480 has a lot to do with that, obviously it does. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.520 It's gonna officially dedicated and opened on September eleventh, two 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.440 thousand eleven. Yeah, and then um, the museum, which we'll 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.640 also talk about, will be open the following year, I 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.400 think on September eleven, two twelve. And that thing sounds 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.320 pretty amazing. Yeah, I'm very excited about going to these. Um, 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.120 maybe excited it's not the right word. No, I'm excited 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.440 if I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, there's nothing. It 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.720 doesn't mean you're flippant about it. No, I'm excited to 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:28.760 see them as well. That's okay, Okay, thanks. I get 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.880 excited every time I go to those things. It's a 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.960 good place for remembrance, Josh, Yes, that's Memorials make an 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.119 excellent spot for remembrance. Let's talk about the spot where 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.240 the memorial, the World Trade Center Memorial, which what which 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.840 is what we're talking about, is going to be situated 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:49.519 the original spot where the World Trade Center complex was situated. 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.720 Beginning work started in the sixties and was completed in 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:57.519 I think ninety three on the towers. I think work 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:02.000 for the whole World Trade Center complex wasn't completed until yeah, 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.840 fourteen years, fourteen years after the towers that were completed, 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:11.720 So it was like nineteen yeah something. Yeah, right, Um, 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.200 But tell me about the tell me about the spot, 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.919 the World Trade Center spot. It's a very um ambitious project. 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.760 It was Josh, seven buildings total um spanning sixteen acres. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.160 It's a lot of room and each tower itself, I 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.880 think had a footprint of an acre. Yeah right, yeah. Uh. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.440 They had office space to the tune of about uh 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.320 fifty thousand total workers in about thirty five thousand, and 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.680 those were split among four hundred and thirty companies in 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.720 the buildings. It was ten million square feet of office space. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.000 It's incredible, it was. It was originally UM. Speaking of ambition, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:49.960 I read an article called The Height of Ambition. It 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.040 was a two thousand to New York Times article and 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.840 it's required reading for anybody. It's really good. It's all 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:01.440 about the construction, it's about the attacks. It's a really comprehensive, 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.480 great article. But they were saying like that there was 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.800 no way they were going to go UM any less 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.200 than ten million square feet when they decided to there, 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.920 like that's it, We're doing ten million, and that's so 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.039 that's such an enormous amount of office space that other 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.080 real estate developers in the city were like, that's going 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:25.240 to like imbalance the market. That's so much, it's gonna 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.480 flood this place all at once. Yeah. I remember at 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.000 the time, uh, you know, in September eleven, thinking that 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:36.320 the death Hole was gonna be like ten people because 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.520 I knew how many people work there, and it would 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.400 have been had it had the buildings not stayed up 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.400 for um an hour or so, or had it been 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.200 an hour or so later, right once people were all 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.880 in there. Yeah, because you said there's about fifty thousand 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.760 people that worked at the World Trade Centers UM, and 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.400 then there's another maybe UM seventy thousand, forty thousand to 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.200 seventy thousand people who could muted through because there was 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.800 a subway station underneath in the path train station and 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.360 the mall, and people coming to have lunch with like 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:12.360 their husband or wife or whatever. So seventy thousand additional 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:17.120 people passed through that that complex every day. Indeed, Josh, 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.440 if we're talking size, we've got a couple of stats. 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.200 The North tower UM, the original World Trade Center one, 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.799 although there's a new one which we're gonna talk about, uh, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.240 hundred sixty eight feet uh and then seventeen thirty feet 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.680 with its large antenna. And then the South tower was 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.240 about six ft shorter than the North tower, which I 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.480 thought found interesting. I wonder if that was a I 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.320 wonder why they did that. Maybe the bedrock was six 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.760 ft six ft lower, has to be something like that. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:49.960 I don't think it was I'm sure they got to 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.640 the final measurement and we're like, you have to be 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.640 kindding right, because they were both a hundred ten stories. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.800 It's not like w C t C two was short 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:03.920 changed the floor or a half floor. Two hundred eight 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:08.560 thousand one metric tons. Yeah, and one of them. It's 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.000 tough to find comparisons for this, but um, it's an 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:17.200 Afford Explorer. These each one weighed about equivalent to a 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:22.599 hundred and seventy two thousand Ford Explorers. That's heavy. That's yeah, 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:24.920 that's a heavy building. And that's a lot of weight. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.320 And we'll we'll get to that weight. And what happened 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.360 to a lot of that weight coming up shortly to right? 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.440 Uh So. One of the cool things that you found 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:37.600 was originally when they planned the towers, they didn't know 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.280 what kind of sway that a person could take. Let's say, 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.520 if you're working on story like this towers swaying back 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:48.400 and forth in the wind, what kind of that would 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.800 do to people? Yeah, no one had ever These were 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.159 when they were built, the tallest structures in the world. 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.400 You can't just have office space up there that people 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.880 are getting sick on because they're dizzy, right, because no 0:06:57.920 --> 0:06:59.800 one would rent it out. But they didn't know that 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.560 it um. They didn't know, well, maybe somebody could take 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.200 six ft of sway on either side. They had no idea, 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.200 maybe people can take like almost no sway. So they 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.240 had a guy in Eugene, Oregon who was a psychologist, 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.320 basically purchased an office building, put parts of it up 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.520 on Jack's and like test people. He had him come 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.560 in for I exams, but was really testing them to 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:23.440 see how much sway they could put up with him 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.800 found not much, like a couple of inches either way. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.200 After a couple of minutes of that, the people start 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.880 freaking out, get dizzy, get nauseated. So they were like, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.040 you have to do something because your building is going 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.120 to sway a lot more than this, that's right, and 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.520 you can't have your tenants getting sick. So they built 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.640 in shock absorbers that prevented this way. So I think 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.720 most people know by now just from breakdown of the 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.480 what happened with the collapse, that it was an exoskeleton 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.600 design and it was connected with a core steel core 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.280 connected it with a hat trust at the top. Yeah, 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.480 so you had columns going out on the outside where 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.840 they normally would have been put inside, so that opened 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:04.600 up much more office space. So the columns are on 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.480 the outside, and there's a steel court in the center 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.360 like you said, and it was connected by a hat trust. 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.720 They just fit over the top and connected everything to 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.800 the center. So it just stabilized the whole thing and 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.960 it made it light but very strong. Right. I think 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:25.520 it was about open air inside the building itself, which 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.120 has a lot to do with why it collapsed. Um, 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.679 there was a police station port authority in New Jersey. Uh, 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.679 New York and New Jersey had a police desk, they 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:37.920 had its own uh, they had their own zip code 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.120 and eight dedicated mail carriers. Yeah, I couldn't. I'm sure 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:43.959 it's still there. It has to be. The zip it 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.560 still has its own zip code, right, one O four eight. Yeah, 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.960 I looked that up. Actually, I think they held onto 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:54.560 that zip code and to assign you know, the New 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.040 World traits in our complex that same zip code. If 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:58.760 I'm not mistaken, I would hope. So this is a 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.960 couple of weeks ago. Yeah, but yeah, eight postal carriers 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:06.200 just for the WTC complex like they worked within. You know, 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.920 I guess it's sixteen acres, but it's probably not as 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:10.640 big as your usual beat in New York. I would 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.680 I wouldn't think so. No, I think they call it beats. 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:19.839 That's just cops. I wouldn't it no copy, um chuck. 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:25.040 Also these um, just to give another idea of scale, Um, 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.840 there were each of the towers themselves. Just the towers 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:32.920 had elevators, each each one had um almost uh well, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.760 almost twenty two thousand windows. And apparently you could have 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.360 built a sidewalk standard sidewalk I take it from New 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.520 York to Washington, d C. With just the concrete used 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:49.559 in just the towers. So these were massive, colossal structures, 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.720 just the towers. The whole complex itself was colossal, but 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.520 the tower, it's just the towers are enough to like 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.880 get the point across, you know. Well, and all you 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.800 ever really hear about still is usually the WTC one 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.720 and two. But all of the buildings were eventually raised 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.040 the whole complex, right, and um, we should also say that, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.200 you know, everybody kind of came on board. But in 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.880 the beginning there were very big detractors to the World 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.760 Trade Center projects, including those real estate developers who were like, 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:20.560 this is going to be a drain on the market. 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.120 And one of the guys whose named Lawrence Ween, who 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.920 was an Empire State building co owner. Right, And he 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.200 took out a full page and the New York Times 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.120 that had a picture of one of the World Trade 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.120 Center towers with a plane flying into it to basically 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.199 suggest that this was a hazard to air traffic, right, 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.679 And it actually almost came true in one when an 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.680 Air Alina's flight just narrowly missed the North tower but 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:54.200 made off. Okay, it was safe, that's right. Yeah. Uh, however, 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.800 that was the first attack on the World Trade Center. Uh. 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:03.000 And Islamic Islamistic streamist group detonated about a thousand pounds 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.839 of explosives and a rented truck underneath the World Trade 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:11.239 Center and killed six people, injured thousands and they are included, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.439 which I thought was a classy move in the World 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.960 Trades and a memorial years later. I never really considered that, 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:19.280 but I thought it was pretty nice thing to do 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:24.240 that That truck left half a football sized football field 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.760 sized crater and it apparently rocked the whole building. Like 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:29.760 you think, Well, six people died, It couldn't have been 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.240 that big. It was a huge blast. It was just 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.040 in the wrong place. But they were trying to take 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.960 the building down, you know, yeah, from below, so that UM. 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.959 Within a few days or weeks after UM, the February attach, 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.480 things were back to business as usual. Governor Andrew Cuomo 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.440 was the first to move back into the office building right, 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.360 and things were just like I said, business as usual 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.480 until the morning of September eleven, two thousand one came 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.360 on day a can having four blocks north of the 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.040 World Spathe Center. The second building that was hill by 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:09.120 the plane has just completely collapsed. The entire building has 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.480 just collapsed, as if the tunolition team set off. When 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.400 you see the old nilition to the Gold buildings down 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.360 on itself and it is not there anymore, it should be. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:27.160 It collapsed, collapse. The whole building has collapsed. So that 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.040 pretty much speaks for itself. I think, where were you 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.560 that morning? I had just gotten back from New York. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:37.040 Actually I was there for vacation and a Radiohead concert 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:42.200 and in New Jersey or actually it was Liberty State 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:47.680 Park and flew home on September like the seventh or something, 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:49.640 so I was in it. Actually I was living in 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.000 l A. But I flew back to Atlanta and then 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:57.720 got stuck in Atlanta because everything was grounded. So I 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.920 was in my friend Big John's where house and Big 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:07.880 country Boy, and he woke me up up here. Yeah. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:10.640 Remember it was like one of the towers has been hit, 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.240 and you just when I started watching CNN and figuring 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.160 out what was going on, like this is not an accident. Yeah, 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:18.600 I think both of us kind of came to the 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.079 conclusion pretty quick too. So I hung out in his 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.480 warehouse all day, only watched it on TV basically, and 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:27.520 you know, yeah, and I have to say, like it 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.680 didn't sink in as hard um then as it did 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.160 when we were researching this for this podcast. Man, I 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.920 was watching just find finding that clip we just played. 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:43.360 I watched about like an hour of it does it Happened? 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.640 Coverage and it was just it really drew me in 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.280 and just depressed me like crazy. But like it got 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.440 through to me finally after ten years, like it's really 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.440 hit me how how huge this is. Yeah. I'd plowed 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.240 through a bunch of videos this week too and last week, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.720 and it was you know, because I hadn't researched it 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:07.120 for a long time, after probably since like two thousand three, 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.839 than many years of not even really considering it much 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:12.520 and then all of a sudden it's all back on 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.840 and coming up this September, and I think this being 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.480 older too, especially for me being an older you know, 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.280 ten years older, and it's gotten through to me a 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.320 lot more like, yeah, God, how are you you were 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.760 in your early twenties, mid twenties. I was like, God, 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:33.440 that's crazy, Yeah something just a little kid, so chuck. 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.760 We mentioned, um, how there could have been tens of 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.320 thousands more people who could have died had the buildings 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.240 not stayed up. And there were a couple of big 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:49.800 questions after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers um. 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.240 Number one, why did they fall They didn't have to 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.800 fall um? And number two, why didn't they just fall 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.640 over immediately? And the answer to the second question is 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:04.160 that does nine that exoskeleton connected to a central steel 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.080 core by a hat trust could have kept that thing 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:12.080 up indefinitely. Well, the reason they fell was a fatal flaw. Right. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:17.040 Those steel columns that make up the exoskeleton tapered um 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.880 at the top because they had to support less weight, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.800 making the whole structure lighter, requiring less steel. Right, So 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.200 the planes when they flew into the higher floors. They 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.320 were flying into steel columns that were only as thin 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:36.080 as like a quarter inch across, so they just severed them. Yeah, 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.400 the problem is with the true fatal flow is the 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.000 heat from the fire though. Yeah, I read a big 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:48.240 article yesterday on this about this physicist Um basically explained 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.840 how they came down to sort of rebut the idiots 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.240 who say that it was a controlled demolition by the 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:58.400 US government and like steel can't get that hot and melting, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.680 blah blah blah, And he explained the difference between heat 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.160 and temperature. And I wish I was smart enough to 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:09.200 relay that now, but I would just advise, just google, 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.640 like why did they collapse? And there's a really good 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:14.840 article on that. So it's one of the first hits. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.160 For our purposes, we're gonna take it on face value 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.720 that the heat from the raging fires Um created uh 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:27.160 enough high enough temperature that the steel within a steel 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.720 melted and the weight distribution throughout the exoskeleton was even 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:37.360 further compromised until these things started going from what the 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.160 connection to the hat trust was snapped, and then that 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.760 was that there was no support any longer. So these 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.400 floors obviously could support the weight of the floors on 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:47.840 top of them. Because they had been up since nineteen 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.840 seventy three, they can support the static weight. When the 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:55.240 floors start collapsing on one another, it becomes moving heavier 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.960 weight and it's created a domino effect essentially. Right, it 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.960 just plowed right into the floors beneath and picked up 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.320 more and more steam as it went. Apparently the material 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.359 from the highest floors. By the time they reached the ground, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.919 we're traveling about a hundred and twenty miles, and that 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.439 could have been even faster, according to that physicist, and 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:16.960 he said the fact that they fell straight down was 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.920 uh sensible and fortunate because they could have swayed and 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:27.160 toppled over, which you know stories falling to the left 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:28.840 or to the right is going to take out do 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:30.760 a lot more damage. Obviously. Well, the South tower did 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.000 do some damage. The North Tower came down almost completely 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.199 in its footprint, and it just compacted itself into this 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:43.840 dense acre size square of debris that went from street 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.600 level seventy underground to the bedrock and just filled its 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:52.840 own footprint almost completely. Um the the other towers UM 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:59.399 three and seven were completely trashed. UM Tower six was 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.439 still intact, but it had a huge chunk of the 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.560 North tower against it. UM, and that the one they 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.359 had to take out for those reasons, Like otherwise it 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.639 might have been okay. That one they actually did demolish. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.600 So the Yeah, the whole site kind of just became 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:21.719 a loss. UM there I guess an estimated three hundred 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.879 thousand tons of scrap metal were generated, most of it 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:30.320 sold the Indian China. UM, and there was a big hubbub. 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.440 I didn't know this, did you? Did you hear about 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.000 this when it happened. Um, the mafia diverted like two 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.960 fifty five tons of scrap metal to its own junkyards 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.520 for profit UM and got caught pretty quickly because the 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:48.080 FBI was on that case. But UM they after that, 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:52.040 there were I think a hundred thousand truckloads of debris 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.840 trucked out to UM uh the landfill in New Jersey. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:01.959 I believe it's called Fresh Kill Landfill UM and UH 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.640 those all got police escorts after the FBI found out 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.200 the mafia was diverting scrap metal, right obviously, Yeah, that's 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:13.480 a good move. Uh. The cleanup was very quick. I 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.359 remember at the time thinking that it happened way quicker 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.639 than I thought it would. Well, yeah, they were. They 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:20.400 were like, this is gonna take a year, maybe two, 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.800 maybe three exactly. It took eight year or nine months. Yes, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.600 it also came in under budget. Uh. They thought it 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.359 was gonna cost a couple of billion dollars and that 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.520 was clearly overinflated because it only costs six and fifty 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.520 million UH to clean up, which is a lot of money, 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:43.840 but nothing compared to to bill a lot less. UM. 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.240 They did get a little criticism because they thought they 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.160 kind of hurried the clean up a little too much. 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:55.639 Considering the potential toxic materials found at the site. A 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:57.520 lot of people thought, you know, maybe we should take 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.800 our time here, study this a little more, or see 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:02.880 what's what we have to deal with before we start 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.320 sending people down there. Well, one group called it the 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:09.119 most the worst toxic site in our history. Did he 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:13.359 mean Nation's history? I don't know. It's a good question. 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:16.399 It could be Nation, New York World, I don't know. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.200 There was a lot of toxic stuff um. For example, 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:24.040 two hundred thousand pounds of lead plus cadmium from the 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:29.520 fifty thousand pecs in the World Trade Center offices right, UM, 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.960 mercury from the fluorescent lights. There apparently about half a 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.960 million fluorescent tube lights that all had mercury in them 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:43.080 to work. UM. Have you heard of polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons? 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:48.399 They're apparently, um they caused laryngeal cancer, UM and a 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.439 couple of other cancers. And they come from partially burned 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:58.800 UM fossil fuels. What else chuck asbestos, lots of asbestos, 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.680 benzene um die ox in from oil and fuel. So 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.600 not the kind of stuff you want to be breathing in. 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.080 And people found you know, years afterward, we're getting sick, 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.160 a lot of the first responders getting sick and dying. 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.680 Even Yeah, the bass player from um TV on the 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.320 radio was the first responder, and he came down with 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.280 cancer and like in his late thirties or something and died, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.239 that's right. And within the last year. I didn't did 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.200 I know that he was a first responder as as 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.240 what what was his uh what kind of responder was? 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.560 You do know? I don't remember, but he was. He 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:37.159 was the first responder to the ground zero. So they've 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.800 there was a uh combined payout of six d and 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.600 twenty five million dollars to some of the first responders 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.040 and cleanup workers after a lawsuit was filed, and that 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.280 was just that was. They came to that settlement within 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.080 the last year or two. Right, Yeah, they've been hammering 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.960 that out forever. Yeah. And then there was the Zadroga Bill, 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:02.200 which is massive. Seven point were billion dollars in compensation 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:06.480 for everything from like economic impact to health. But there's 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.920 a big well there's a big outcry because they didn't 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:15.800 include cancer. Yeah, they couldn't find a definite link. Um. 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:17.280 I mean this is one of those where I say, 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:22.440 throw it in there, like cover everything. Apparently that's not 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.760 the case. Well no, but it's left open so that 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.160 it can be amended to include cancer later, like if 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:32.640 somebody's like, here's your definitive right study on it that 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.000 shows the link. But apparently the link is enough for 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.640 people who are engaged in like personal litigation. Uh, they've 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.199 been generally successful and just doing New York. Okay, just 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:45.399 not a class action kind of thing. Well just not 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.960 there's a Droga bill, got you, yeah, Okay, Well, uh, 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.760 No one died during the cleanup of the Ground zero, 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:55.480 which is pretty amazing considering what a dangerous place. It was. 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.919 You know, there were like huge voids that were covered up, 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.400 you know by things that uh you know, big gaps 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:06.119 and holes that you could easily fall into. Yeah, like 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:08.760 you know those tiger traps. Yeah, where it's just kind 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:10.600 of covered with a little bit of twigs or leaves. 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:14.080 There were like seventy ft drops that looked like they 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:17.080 were stable, solid rubble or whatever. But yeah, there's a 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.520 picture of a huge earth mover like sliding down with 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:23.680 a guy and it's like, oh my god. Yeah, I'm 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:25.680 really surprised no one died during that clean up. Yeah, 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:32.240