The center of the structure has been removed, every load-bearing vertex severed in sequence, no upright member allowed to remain intact. Between seemingly solid strata that, when joined together, once composed a unified, standing edifice, nothing now remains but empty space and the gravitational constant, earth.
Inexplicably the penthouse dives beneath the roof's parapet, in grainy Youtube footage, again and again, from every conceivable angle, the frames slowed and frozen, repeated, put to music. The whole building buckles and the windows all blow out. The roofline accelerates toward earth as if the weight of the building demands it. A dust cloud blossoms from the city floor.
Commentary may suggest that the perception of the viewer, be it you or I -- that his or her intuitive sense of physics-- of reality itself -- is either to be trusted or abolished. A disembodied voice drones solemn from some other electronic device about exciting new violence being done the human psyche at present, about what can be done to intensify the effects of the war on terror.
The center of the structure is being removed. Streams of molten steel are seen to pour from windows and intensify in the moments prior to collapse. Police and fire, anonymous men in hard hats, tell all bystanders to stay clear. The building is about to come down.
"We've had such terrible loss of life," says leaseholder Larry Silverstein, calmly to the cameraman for all eternity, "maybe the smartest thing to do is to 'pull it.' And they made that decision 'to pull' and we watched the building collapse."
The center of the structure has been removed,
every load-bearing vertex severed in sequence,
no upright member allowed to remain intact.
Between seemingly solid strata that,
when joined together, once composed
a unified, standing edifice, nothing
now remains but empty space and
the gravitational constant, earth.
Inexplicably the penthouse dives beneath
the roof's parapet, in grainy Youtube footage,
again and again, from every conceivable angle,
the frames slowed and frozen, repeated,
put to music. The whole building buckles
and the windows all blow out.
The roofline accelerates toward earth
as if the weight of the building demands it.
A dust cloud blossoms from the city floor.
Commentary may suggest that the perception
of the viewer, be it you or I --
that his or her intuitive sense of physics--
of reality itself -- is either to be trusted
or abolished. A disembodied voice drones
solemn from some other electronic device
about exciting new violence being done
the human psyche at present,
about what can be done to intensify
the effects of the war on terror.
The center of the structure is being removed.
Streams of molten steel are seen
to pour from windows and intensify
in the moments prior to collapse.
Police and fire, anonymous men in hard hats,
tell all bystanders to stay clear.
The building is about to come down.
"We've had such terrible loss of life,"
says leaseholder Larry Silverstein,
calmly to the cameraman for all eternity,
"maybe the smartest thing to do is to 'pull it.'
And they made that decision 'to pull'
and we watched the building collapse."