Slide #20 - "Straight Down Symmetrical Collapse" Orientation

Gage's Claim

This slide is headlined: "Straight Down Symmetrical Collapse with all Columns Cut at Once."

What a foolish claim for Gage's first point. All I have to do is show that all columns were not cut at once, and the point is denied.

But I can do better than that, and you would expect me to. The collapse didn't happen symmetrically, not at all.

It didn't quite go straight down, either. Yes, there are many videos that make it appear to have done so. It is one of the more remarkable features of this collapse that during the last stage of its progressive collapse, it dropped down in some ways similar to a controlled demolition.

But there is an explanation for this. Because of the immense size of 7 World Trade, it could have done very little else. Without a sufficient amount of resistance below, the mass of 7 World Trade could go nowhere else but as straight down as possible.

And no such resistance would have been found in the lower structure of the building. Even without the damage done by the falling debris of the North Tower and the failure of a crucial core column, the building's structure could not have resisted the momentum of the building falling.

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