The Landmark Tower: A Study in Controlled Demolition

[Taxloss]

The Landmark Tower is a 30-storey tower in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. This time tomorrow, it won't be there, because it is being demolished.

It is, in fact, one of the tallest buildings ever to be destroyed in this manner - by explosives, rather than by deconstruction. Demo teams have been working since November to prepare it for the end - around the clock in the past few days.

Here's a photo of what the interior looks like now:



The explosives aren't just in the basement. As this simulation shows, in the first seven seconds explosions have to be set off all the way up and down the tower. That's why it took the demo teams so long to strip down and prep the building. It's a vast and complicated operation - but that's what it takes to get a structure this big to fall "just right".

In planning and execution, this is a virtuoso piece of engineering.

All of which raises the question - still believe the Twin Towers, two buildings more than three times as tall as the Landmark, could be prepped for destruction by controlled demolition without anyone noticing? That in dozens of miles of film, the rippling of explosions and their blast-waves could not be seen - other than a couple of grainy stills? Not one window blew out?

The WTC was NOT destroyed by controlled demolition.