PictureTours.html

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A picture tour through ground zero

This is my gut reaction to these pictures. If I knew nothing else and had only been given these pictures, and the memory of the building that once stood on this site, I would conclude that WTC1 and WTC2 were blown up.

Source of photos: http://www.parrhesia.com/wtc/wtc-photos.htm

I have a great deal of appreciation, respect, and admiration for "AP," the person who took these pictures.
It was a wonderful treasure you have provided to us.
These pictures provide the viewer with terrific evidence about what happened.

Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

There are three ways to get to the pictures, if you don't click directly on the links I've given below each description.

http://www.parrhesia.com/wtc/wtc-photos.htm
http://www.parrhesia.com/wtc/
http://www.parrhesia.com/wtc/tn/wtc030.jpg.html

I've listed them in descending order, beginning with #30.

Click on images, below, to enlarge.

#30
Here's one that begs the question: If the building "collapsed," why are these outer columns standing and the core columns are not? I'm impressed how white that guy's shirt is (bottom, next to sawhorse). Why isn't he dirty? That red crane (far right) is really clean, too!)

#29
Now there's a road clean enough to eat off of! How'd that happen?

#24
PLENTY of flags in this photo! (at least 5 on the right side) On the crane string? That looks like flag abuse to me!

#23 And, why is the aluminum cladding blown off some of the outer columns in this picture? Note, the columns obviously weren't buckled. They appear as if the floors, which were connected to them, "just fell off." So, what blew the cladding off? (I'm referring to the peeled-open can look on the exterior columns.)

#21
and here: Also, notice the flat-bed trucks, ready to load up beams. They have big wooden blocks across the truck bed in preparation. Hey, you wouldn't want any beams just laying around where anyone might get access to them, right? ;-)

#20 Hehehe... it looks like they haven't started hauling beams, yet. Check out the pile of brand new lumber. (lower left)

#17 Why is the military guy there? (right side) What's he there to protect?

#16 Check out the car scraps they're scooping up.

#14 Clean streets!

#12 Weird baracades filled with dirt.

#10 A chair for the guard post?

#09 The first 10 pictures in this series show armed guards keeping folks away from the site. In the above picture, it looks like the guy in shorts is getting in trouble for taking pictures! (He's the guy with his right arm up, appearing to take a picture while signalling, "I'll take just one minute then I'll go. please don't arrest me.")

#07 Is this what our army does? Or, are these marines?

#05 Another creepy picture. Are they writing tickets?

Hey, this isn't a war zone, is it?

I've listed them in ascending order, beginning with #30.

#30, #32, #36, #41, #43, #44, #49, #58, #60, #64
Note the steam rising. The pic album is dated October 3, 2001, so I assume the pictures were taken before that.

#30, #31 Hey! Is that part of a plane? Who knows. I'm talking about the thing that the backhoe looks like its driving up to, at the base of the hill, on the right side of those two beams. (right above the sawhorse with a hat on one end and rope on the other.)

#34 My goodness! What a clean demolition site! That ground almost looks clean enough to eat off of. That's amazing, considering they're just cleaning up the trash to cart away. (But, they need to be sure to get every bit of it!)

#35 Wow! A picture from the inside of the WTC area. Just a few core columns survived in place. Wow, notice the fine hill of stuff. i.e. "Dust mound" from inside the borders of this WTC tower. I think it's WTC1.

Hey, check out those guys in the yellow cage, hanging from a string supported by the crane. (Follow the black string coming down from the top edge of the photo and you will see them.) These guys are dangling over the site. Why? Maybe that's the only way they can look down into that region because of the heat? Maybe these are the folks who came in the white van (shown in the next picture).

#37 Check out the white van on the far right. It's nice and white (clean) and has tinted windows so you can't see in. This doesn't look like a construction-worker's van. It even looks a bit in the way for that yellow scoop right behind it.

#39
Check out those core columns in the lower left part of the picture, next to the transit. The top one has weird holes in the end.
These guys look really clean! Perhaps it's early in the morning. Sun is shining from the southeast.

Ooooo... it looks like they have some core columns already loaded up, but maybe they are just stacked and waiting.
(left edge of photo, in front of the red truck that is parked in front of the red crane)

#40, #41 Obviously, no buckling occurred in those outer columns.

#41
Check out those core columns stacked up at the bottom of the picture. It looks like a bear chewed off the ends, except they're really flat on the ends! Was this a special chain saw? (as with diamond-impregnated teeth?) It's amazing what straight cuts those are! Man, they must have worked hard cutting those things up! This one sure didn't come apart at the joint. Those bolts and the weld jobs are still in place. Obviously, they thought it was easier to saw through the beams than to attack the bolts. How interesting.

I kind of wonder if that orange color on both beams, particularly the lower beam's top-right surface, is from excessive heat. It looks like rust, but how could so much rust have developed in such a short time? Also, there are shiny, metallic flakes, on and near the cut ends, along with burnt-looking particles. What could have caused this? Perhaps high-energy explosives?

The top beam has a weird hole in the end (lower-left corner). There's also a hole in the other side, but it's hidden behind the transit in this picture. I wonder what the transit is for.

OK, here's a case for controlled demolition! If the beams failed from being over stressed (like pancaking would cause), then why didn't they break at their weakest place??? At the joints, the beams are bolted and welded together. Welding (which induces a thermal gradient and locks in residual stresses) leaves the material in that region a little weaker. In addition, just the sudden change in geometry will cause stress concentrations. [More is not always better! For a constant loading, a beam of width "a" that abruptly widens and then abruptly narrows back to width "a" will have higher stress near those joints where the geometry changes than if it were a constant width "a" the entire length.]

So, if these beams were over stressed (from "pancake" loading), I would expect them to fail in the neighborhood of the joints. None of the beams in these pictures appear to have failed at a joint! Note: it appears that many of the exterior columns did fail at the welded joints. So, why didn't the core columns fail that way, too?

#42 Notice the license plates on the back of the silver station wagon. I can't quite tell, but it looks like a US-gov plate. It's sure not a NY, CN, NJ, or PA regular plate. Maybe it belongs to the suits (far right). Interesting: the guy in the full suit looks like he's giving instructions, rather than listening to a guided tour. Hmmm... I wonder why those windows on the front (right) face are missing. Perhaps they were blown out? I can't imagine a beam would sail through all of those windows without scraping any part of the window frame. Also, the entire window is missing, unlike the left side of that building, which is in the shadow. Those on the left side have holes broken out of the glass, but the edges remain. I think that's what happens when junk hits it (vs. a blast of air).

#44 I think we have a few core columns still in place! Wow, they're collecting them as fast as they can. Check out the stack of them in the lower right corner. Hey, why do some of them have burnt marks? Also, isn't it weird that they don't have any exterior columns stacked up? Are they saving the easy ones for last? And why are they in such a hurry to remove the core columns before the exterior columns?

#45
Clearly the core columns were the first to be hauled away. They seemed to be of prime interest, like they're in a race to get them. Doesn't it make more sense to bring down those outer columns, first, before they fall on someone? Also, they don't look as hot as those core columns. Why not get the outer stuff, first, then work your way in to those core columns? That would also give the core columns more cooling time. That would be so much easier and SAFER!

Wow! Check out that tall pipe that's just inside the tallest outer columns, just to the left of the corner. It must be 10-stories tall! If this building collapsed in on itself, why is this thing so straight? It appears to be free standing. I wonder what it is. I thought the bathrooms were in the core area. Could this be a mail tube? :-) Hmmm... maybe it was a water pipe or sewer line from a floor higher up and just stabbed into the ground, there, like a javelin?

Some of these guys don't look like construction workers, like the guy in the red hat, in front of the flag on the red crane. I wonder what's in his back pocket -- or belted around him. Who wears a white shirt to a site like that and keeps it clean? He may have a clipboard. The guy in the green hat looks like a construction worker... and he has a cell phone as well as something in his back pocket. That the expected appearance of someone who belongs there as well as the guy he's talking to.

Now, look at the remains of the in-place core columns. Aren't those columns amazingly straight to have failed by an overload? Why don't they look crushed? Why doesn't this space look overstuffed? Near the highest point in that cluster of remaining core columns, there are long, narrow, tubes that look like they could be wiring conduit. They are too straight to have had a building collapse on top of them. One lone pipe is poking straight up, by itself, unsupported. Gee... wouldn't you expect it to be wadded up like an accordion?

Why are they cut off straight, all at the same altitude. Isn't this a statistical anomaly to have had all of them fail in the same way, at the same height?
I assume this is the elevator shaft area. So, why isn't all the debris just packed in there hard? So, if these columns are still standing, wouldn't you expect the bottom of these "hollow shafts" to have a huge amount of stuff pounded in them as if a huge hydraulic press mashed stuff in and then pounded on it?

That building on the left (WTC5 or WTC6) looks the way I'd expect a "collapsed" building to look. It's got bent columns, the structure looks distorted (vertical columns are no longer vertical), and the "stuff" falling from it has a variety of sizes. The building didn't reduce to steel beams and micron-size powder. I'll bet you could find a book case or file cabinet under that building. And, ironically, that building did have a raging fire! ;-)

#46 I wonder who the suits are? (lower right)

#49
Wow, what A HOT spot in WTC2! (I'm referring to that area around the white fog, just to the left of the white crane's cab.) This looks like where the north wall of WTC2 should be, relative to the standing "wheat chex" of the outer columns on the western face. I don't think they can get near it. Also, look at those core columns being stacked up (lower right) -- but not for long, I'm sure! Wait! After looking at picture [wtc050.jpg], which shows a north-face "wheat chex" leaning against the building, I wonder if that hot spot is the core-column area of WTC2?

#50 They're preparing to load up more core columns (as soon as the next ones are ready to load). Note the wooden 4x4 posts on the flat bed trucks.

#51 Now, this street is clean enough to eat off of! Note the police officer on the lower-right side of the picture.

#52 Amazing layers of dust on that ledge of the building, especially on that diagonal corner section.

#54
Here is an interesting pattern of missing windows vs. damage.
Notice those missing windows on the far right (lower windows), while there appears to be no damage to the building. Hmmm... as if this was caused by a strong blast of air. Those beams sticking out of that corner look interesting. They look like a stake that was driven through a big monster. ;-) It's amazing that the windows adjacent to it weren't busted out.

#55
Check out those core columns on the left side, nicely stacked, ready to be carted away. That guy with the yellow hat looks like he's guarding the scene. Why?
Up high, on the building that was facing the south side of WTC2, notice how the windows near the top look blasted out. I think the white we see is vertical hanging blinds. So, why don't we see them on the lower floors? The lower floors look like "stuff" was thrown at the building, like throwing an egg and having it go splat. This damage has a dark-green appearance. Those upper floors have a distinctively different appearance. (I think one of those callers to the CBS show I recorded was on the 32nd floor of this building, and described the plane strike on WTC2. He was the really scared one who wanted to go home. He said he'd been in his office since 7am and had seen "everything unfold." That was before WTC2 "fell." I hope he got out.)
Also, remember the arial photo I have of this building, showing "beams" on the roof (which are probably the aluminum cladding). If these beams "fell" off the building when it collapsed, why doesn't it look like no beams hit the top 10 floors? I think the damage in the upper floors (with visible white blinds) is the result of a big air blast.
Also, notice the edge of the building on the far right. Windows are only busted out on those lower floors. The upper floors look ok. Those flood lights on the red crane look reasonable.

#62
Whoever hung those miniblinds on the top floor did a good job of securing them! :-) Gee, with a raging fires just below the top floor, those miniblinds look really good! They must be fireproof. :-]

#63
Now, this is what fire damage to a building looks like! (I think this is WTC5, maybe WTC6.) Check out those flood lights on the building. Hey, you wouldn't want anyone looting the place. Ummm... why do you need to light a building you're going to take down with explosives? Are they planting explosives at night?

#64
Core columns still in place. Wow! Check out that heat! Isn't it amazing that the building on the left, with all of its fire damage, isn't smoldering like the WTC pile is??? And, unlike the WTC beams, that building on the left has bent beams! It appears that chunks of WTC1 landed on it, which overloaded the structure, causing the beams to bend. But, they took a licking and kept on ticking.

#65 Why did those core columns "break?" They look so straight. If they failed from overload, they should be bent.

#66
Here's a beautiful picture of some core columns. They are impressively straight. I can't be sure when the burn marks occurred, but the top one looks like it was cooked in a few places. (like a cutting torch got near it) Why are those ends so straight? Why are they so smooth? It doesn't look like a joint goes there.

#67 WOW!!! I've seen these burn marks on the "stacked up" core columns, but I think this one (below the truck tires and orange crane) surely supports explosives were used to cut it.

#68, #69 This looks like a generator or maybe an elevator motor? If it's an elevator motor, why doesn't it look damaged? Wouldn't that "jet fuel" blasting down the elevator shaft have blown it up? ;-)

#70
Here they are, making their way toward the goal... to get those core columns before someone gets them for evidence. Note the cooler and more dangerously balanced outer columns still standing. Why don't they get those first? Why the urgent drove for the core columns? Also, You'll notice that those core columns never stack up much. They are probably removed within an hour of having them laid out. Is that a policeman? (Left side of photo, appearing like the jaws of the machine are about to get him, but he's further back. He doesn't look like a workman!) What do you suppose those guys are doing in the yellow cage, dangling above the pile? Why are they in the cage and not on the ground? Perhaps the ground is too hot? So why not work on a cooler area, first. There's plenty of work to be done in the cooler areas, still. So, dudes, why the rush?

#72
That segment of the core that's still standing looks to show evidence against a "simple collapse." If the building pancaked down, why isn't this elevator shaft packed with stuff? It should have been "impacted" with stuff. This was even more obvious in the earlier pics.
Hey, the javelin is still there, standing tall by the corner of the "wheat chex." I still have yet to see a bent core column!

#73 Wow. The remains are so pulverized. It even looks like the metal on the right side of this pile looks shredded! I think this is WTC2 -- and that it's too hot to deal with, yet.

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