Implosion!

In Houston, the original Foley’s department store was built in 1947 and operated continually until Macy’s purchased the chain and realized the block of prime downtown real estate is far more valuable as land than for selling ties. Sunday, they blew it up.

More to the point, they imploded it. From my office a block away, we watched demolition workers preparing for a week before we set up a timed camera to capture this video. A trench was cut to isolate the structure from the surrounding sidewalk. Plywood was erected to protect neighboring offices. The glass roof was removed from the train stop. Holes we cut all over the building and threaded with steel cables to help control the implosion.

When you watch the video, note that you can hear–but cannot see–a number of explosions. That’s because the explosives are cutting through the infrastructure–not the exterior surfaces. Once the building has been undermined, it crumples inward. This is how imposion is done.

It continues to amaze me that people can watch the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and think they are watching a controlled implosion. No. When the towers fell, the outer walls buckled irregularly. The outer walls fell ahead of the core. The first ten stories or so of the core remained more or less intact afterward (and a company of firemen emerged from the top of the rubble pile). This is all the exact opposite of implosion. This is what can lead to a building toppling over into its neighbors (which is just what the terrorists hoped for). The number of charges involved simply could not have been installed without a major and conspicuous effort. It didn’t happen. Its preposterous.

Enjoy the video. It’s science for the win, and if that’s not entertaining enough for you, then please, stay away from the conspiracy sites and wait for my novels. Even they are more plausible than some of this stuff.