Apartment building splits in two, falls sidewise

An impressive achievement of industrial civilization is the wonderfully skillful demolition of a high rise building in which the exploded building drops straight down as though along a plummet line and all the falling rubble is contained within the perimeter of the former structure, causing no damage or disruption to the surrounding area. Here, for the first time that I’ve seen, is a demolition that went wrong. It happened in the city of Liuzhou, China. Instead of collapsing straight down, the 22 story apartment building splits into two halves, with one half falling to the ground sidewise (fortunately not causing a disaster or taking any lives) and the other half remaining standing on an angle that makes it look like the Leaning Apartment Tower of China.

The Daily Mail has photos and a video of the awe-inspiring sight—which, by the way, reminds us of the inconceivable calamity that would have occurred if the February 1993 Islamic terrorist explosion at the World Trade Center had succeeded in its intended purpose of making one Tower fall sidewise into the other.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 02, 2010 10:16 AM | Send