The Fall of the World Trade Center [Widescreen]

Episode of Series “Horizon”.
September 11, 2001 will be remembered for many years to come and will be written into the history books as one of the world’s major life-changing events, horrific and unbelievable, and one which had an immediate impact on peoples of all religions and races across the globe. Terrorism has been around for centuries but the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York took terrorism on to another level - 2,800 people died out of an estimated 14,000 people who were in the towers when two jet planes, hijacked by terrorists, hit. The irony of the collapse of the towers is that they were the first skyscrapers explicitly designed to withstand being hit by a jet plane. Built in 1966, the World Trade Center was hailed as innovative, both in concept and design, and on completion the Twin Towers became the world’s tallest buildings. This program presents an indepth look at the history of the Twin Towers, from their inception through to Ground Zero in an attempt to explain the reasons why they did collapse and why so many people died. Features testimonies from eye witnesses, experts and official investigators including Leslie Robertson, designer and head structural engineer of the World Trade Center Project in 1966. Also includes graphic footage of the “attack” and the “collapse” of both towers, computer animated images of the structural design and actual archival footage of the towers being constructed. This is a fascinating and well documented program. However, the implications resulting from the conclusions reached are disturbing as many modern skyscrapers built since the Twin Towers are based on the same structural concepts and design. The question is asked: “Can anything be done to make modern lightweight skyscrapers more robust in the aftermath of September 11?”. Narrated by Jack Fortune. For more information see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/worldtradecenter.shtml