Slide #22 - NBC Footage From North

Another View of the Collapse

This slide shows another view of the collapse from the north. This one isn't as dark as the CBS clip, but here a lot of detail is obscured by the buildings. It's also quite a distance away from the building, so no sounds of the collapse can be heard here.

Again, the building seems to just sink down to the ground. But if you pay close attention to this video, you can see it moving to the south before the plummet begins in earnest.

To catch it, you need to see the collapse from a slightly different angle.

The Asymmetrical Move To The South

This video was shot from the northeast of the building, and it captures just how far the building had slumped south before the crush up could be denied no longer.

YouTube Video of 7 World Trade's Collapse from Northeast

Obviously, that movement south is happening in every video available of 7 World Trade collapsing. Look at the NBC footage again. As the collapse begins, you can just see the building recede as it starts to fall.

So the building doesn't move straight down into its footprint. It falls first to the south toward all that damage from the debris of the North Tower.

The Asymmetrical "Kink"

In the NBC footage, you can also see the asymmetrical kink in the north facade.

I've added a highlight to this picture so you can see just how assymetrical that kink is. Would it surprise you to find out that the east mechanical penthouse was pretty much on one side of that kink and the rest of the building was on the other?

What seems to be happening in the collapse is that the east penthouse drops and clears out about a third of the floor area underneath it all the way down. As the rest of the building then falls, it kinks asymmetrically at the place where floors still remain and where floors have been cleared out.

Where's the Symmetry?

Symmetry means:

correspondence in size, shape, and relative position of parts on opposite sides of a dividing line or median plane or about a center or axis

There are three possible planes in which 7 World Trade could demonstrate symmetry in its collapse.

• A plane that divides the building into an upper half and a lower half
• A plane that divides the building into an eastern half and a western half
• A plane that divides the building into a northern half and a southern half

The first choice is something no one claims. Obviously the building falls from the upper half to the lower half. Symmetry can't be found there, and I stress, no one claims this.

How about the second? Does the building collapse demonstrate symmetry in its eastern and western halves?

Not at all. The kink shows this is false. The building fell on the eastern side of the kink first, and then on the western side. The kink is not in the middle of the building, so this eastern-western symmetry didn't happen.

That leaves the third choice. Does the building collapse demonstrate symmetry in northern and southern halves?

Again, not at all. The building falls to the south. This is shown in the video above and also in one of the most striking features of the 7 World Trade debris pile:

As you can see, the northern facade drapes over the entire debris pile like a shroud. If the building had fallen symmetrically, pieces of the northern facade would only be on the north side of the debris pile.

Since the collapse shows symmetry in none of this divisions, the building could not and did not fall symmetrically. Gage's point here is again denied.

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