What if the Empire State Building got hit instead of the Twin Towers?

I love how this channel is just all over the place. Goes from college football picks to high school stories to 9/11 alternate history

On that day, we were all thinking it was next. We didn't even hear about the other planes, but we were thinking more were coming, especially the ESB being the next target.

I wish I visited the twin towers, they are so magical!

I'm a structural engineering student. I agree with you that the Empire State Building would have been less likely to collapse, but I think you're missing something. The World Trade Center was a steel structure while the ESB is reinforced concrete, the impact of the plane wasn't the direct cause of collapse...it was the fires that ensued because of all the jet fuel. If it was because of the columns taken out, it would have collapsed immediately, but it took an hour. In fact, without the fires it probably would have lasted a lot longer. The fires caused thermal expansion of the floors which then caused the floors to push outwards on the columns and also softened the steel. Eventually the steel buckled and caused the progressive collapse. The ESB on the other is concrete which is virtually fire resistant so it probably would have prevented structural damage due to fire.

Thanks for all the great video's Mr. Ginger.

The design and materials used in the Empire State Building lead me to believe it would have withstood taking a 767 to the chest fairly well and possibly would have survived - possibly. The WTC was light and airy. Their design maximized floor space. And as soon as their central core was destroyed, they were doomed. People forget that each plane that hit them not only caused fatal structural damage but also ignited the largest office fires ever seen in a skyscraper. Those infernos spanned multiple floors and engulfed the whole breadth of each building. Couple that with the lightweight design of each tower and the fact they had now been crippled beyond repair, they were doomed. It's a miracle they stood as long as they did. The Empire State Building being built with multiple setbacks and with a traditional steel skeleton with granite, limestone, and cement in its construction was/is much sturdier.

Good work. Love your vids. Keep em coming

ESB has steel columns, not concrete. Neither ESB nor WTC had a concrete core, but the floors were standard hybrid.

@Depressed Ginger: Thank you so much for listening to me & making this video after I posted this suggestion in a previous video! I cannot find any other creator on YouTube who discussed the hypothetical scenario of the ESB getting impacted by a plane. You have reassured my feeling of safety after watching this video. Before, I had always felt anxious and always wondered if I should continue working in the ESB. Every single day, there are STILL numerous commercial jet planes flying at a low altitude near the ESB which gave me chills. I still will take precautions and familiarize myself with the fire safety staircases in the ESB in the event something tragic occurs in the future.

I personally do not think there is a single tower in the world that would not collapse if the exact same type of impact happened, with the same type of plane and the same amount of jet fuel. Keep in mind the towers didn't collapse because of their base not being wide enougg. Once one floor buckled it lead to a chain reaction similar to what you see in earthquakes or when they do controlled demolitions.

I watch you all the time

Look at you with all the good ideas.

my understanding on why they chose the world trade center and no other large buildings like the empire state or sears tower is because the twin towers represented America's economic dominance over the rest of the world at the time. If the twin towers were owned by a corporation or were for another purpose other than "world trade" they probably wouldn't have been targeted.

They also wanted to destroy Sears Tower in Chicago.

Could you do a video on the Indiana Michigan Power Center in Fort Wayne. That'd be cool.

I wonder how the stairwells and connecting stairwells worked. I see stories of survivors getting out of one stairwell and getting into a connecting stairwell on the upper floors. That seems confusing since most stairwells are designed in one straight column to the ground floor.

I’ve always thought about this, but one thing that brought to my attention that never did previously. Apparently the attendance of workers at TWC was low compared to a typical Tuesday workday, would the Empire State Building have a similar scenario that the building wasn’t at its full potential of being filled with people?

At this point you gotta do a video on what if the Sears Tower was hit on 9/11.

Sometimes I've thought of this. As you mention, the esb has sturdier exterior walls than the wtc. I've wondered if ila plane hitting the esb would have been somewhat like going through a cheese shredder, parts of the plane would slam through the windows, but parts of the plane that hit walls might have broken off and fallen to the street as debris. But I don't know about the relative strength of materials and factoring speed of impact.

Any impact with that much force into any building would cause cracks to run throughout the superstructure. The cracking would keep getting worse until the superstructure would totally fail and the building would collapse.,