dennis@home wrote:


"Halmyre" wrote in message
...

AIUI, most of the vertical load-bearing in the towers was through the
central core, so punching a big hole in the side or in one corner
isn't going to matter much.

That is clearly untrue.

The weight is supported on the ends of the floor trusses.
Therefore the load is on the inner core and the walls.
As there is more floor area alongside the walls a greater load will be
near the outside.
The walls must, therefore, support more weight than the core.



whilst you are reasonably correct that the outside structure was pretty
load bearing, your reasoning is totally false.

It would be completely possible to build a tower with floors
cantilevered out from a central column, and having no walls at all.

I.e. the walls do not HAVE to be load bearing, it just happens in this
case they were, or at least the steel columns were. The walls were not,
being mainly glazing IIRC.