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Photo archive debris layout in the area west of WTC 2 here.
ORDER OF FAILURES
1) Wall fails along black line just above the 78th floor stiff MER (green) belt.
2) Upper pieces (pink and yellow) fall out and over the lower portion.
3) Corner MER pieces (red and blue) shoot out of the building forcefully.
4) The middle section drops down by fragmenting to the upper rim of the 40-44 fl stiff MER belt.
5) The lower wall falls out as a single piece, breaking and pivoting at about fl 10.
Large pieces from above and below the failure line are visible in this image. More than 50% of all MER west panels are visible in detail.
The red and blue lines are along breaks above and below 75-77 fl MER sections. The yellow and purple lines mark rips along the lower edges of perimeter sheets. These are from directly above the failure line.
Dropping of the Upper and Middle Wall
In addition to the 2 falling MER corner sheets, one other large collection of MER panels was discovered standing erect in the middle of West Street.
3 large MER west face sections
RED: North quarter of MER perimeter: 5 panels, 15 columns wide. Lower break along bolted/welded connections. Upper portion ripped violently just above the 78th floor spandrel:
BLUE: South quarter of the MER perimeter: 6 panels, 18 columns wide, upper and lower edges ripped violently along spandrel plates:
Close up view of the rip along the yellow line:
CLoase up view of the rip along the pink line:
The same piece shown in 2 frames from the video:
The failure line can be seen from the south using this video:
The failure line can be seen fron the north using this video:
Dropping of the Lower Wall
The movement of large MER panels from fls 75-77 and fls 41-43 show the dropping of the middle and lower walls to be a 2 stage process as shown:
After the middle section fragments and falls down to the upper edge of the 41-43 stiff MER belt, the lower section falls outward as a single sheet, breaking and pivoting aroung fl 10. This motion drops middle section of the 41-43 MER panels onto the street standing as shown.
The final location of the middle MER perimeter section:
the paths all 3 MER west face sheets are drawn as arrows.
The MER sections are groups of 4, 2 and 2 panels, 24 columns wide. Upper edges broken along the lowest stepped bolted connections above the MER 41-43 panels:
The 2 stage process can be seen in this video. After the building falls, there is a top of a standing wall still visible. By comparing the top of the object with the MER level on WTC1, it can be verified that the top of the wall is about 45 stories high.