What if the WTC towers had fallen over, rather than imploded?

[Darth Wagtaros]

I doubt they'd fall over like a tree; rather, after having tipped over enough, the building structure itself would break apart. Skyscapers aren't designed to hold up very well when tilted.

Haven't you seen the previews for 2012?  Building can flip over and roll along the ground, smashing thousands.

Cool.

[Berkut]

Yeah, that is a good point - you look at the buildings, and imagine them as giant stiff beams that would fall over like a log, but they probably don't really have any lateral structural strength? Just disintegrate downwards as the fell...

[HisMajestyBOB]

I doubt they'd fall over like a tree; rather, after having tipped over enough, the building structure itself would break apart. Skyscapers aren't designed to hold up very well when tilted.

Haven't you seen the previews for 2012?  Building can flip over and roll along the ground, smashing thousands.

It's a Disaster!

[Darth Wagtaros]

I doubt they'd fall over like a tree; rather, after having tipped over enough, the building structure itself would break apart. Skyscapers aren't designed to hold up very well when tilted.

Haven't you seen the previews for 2012?  Building can flip over and roll along the ground, smashing thousands.

It's a Disaster!

Skywalker we're after!

[DGuller]

I don't think the buildings the size and shape of WTC can actually fall over.  They'd break up the moment they get any significant lean.

[dps]

IIRC that's what the original WTC bombing was supposed to do.

Yeah, but as others have posted, it probably wouldn't have worked, even if the blast had been big enough.

[Eddie Teach]

It's a Disaster!

Skywalker we're after!

What if he could be turned to the Dark Side? 

[HisMajestyBOB]

Then he'd make a powerful ally. 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

more maps would need to be redrawn

[Alatriste]

Actually buildings are quite less solid than most persons believe, both laterally and vertically. If structural supports fail suddenly (for example, in controlled demolitions) not only their own weight makes them collapse instantly... but each floor crumbles into a million small pieces as it falls.

In other words, you can't topple skyscrapers, because floors and walls aren't rigid enough to transmit the strength of a impact. Rather, they disintegrate as if they were made of paper.   

[Zanza]

The WTC was about 400 meters high. Even if it fell without breaking apart, it would at best have destroyed about three more blocks. That's not the scale of a small nuke. The total destruction radius of the Hiroshima bomb was about a mile with serious destruction reaching much further. 

[Sophie Scholl]

Or... what if they crashed into Times Square on New Year's Eve?  Hmm...  ouch.

[The Larch]

The WTC was about 400 meters high. Even if it fell without breaking apart, it would at best have destroyed about three more blocks. That's not the scale of a small nuke. The total destruction radius of the Hiroshima bomb was about a mile with serious destruction reaching much further.

My memory is a bit iffy on this, but if they could hit a few blocks away, they could have taken Wall Street with them.

[grumbler]

I doubt they'd fall over like a tree; rather, after having tipped over enough, the building structure itself would break apart. Skyscapers aren't designed to hold up very well when tilted.

It'd still cause more damage to the immediate surrounding area, though.

This.  There would be little sideways movement vectors for the building's debris, because there would be no structure strong enough to convert much of the vertical vector to a horizontal one (unlike a tree).

[grumbler]

My memory is a bit iffy on this, but if they could hit a few blocks away, they could have taken Wall Street with them.

That would have saved more money than it cost.