Jeff Alter

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@Lukewearechange They did the same thing for Building 7: https://t.co/wQQ9YGrDFg

[Alex Boge @alexboge]

My prior post featured simulations by Kostack Studio of the Twin Towers collapses. What made those especially fascinating to me was that they removed the smoke, debris, and surrounding visual clutter, making it easier to see the broader structural behavior that the real footage often obscures.

By far the most common response in the comments was:

“Now do Building 7.”

Fair enough.

So here is Building 7.

Before getting into the simulation itself, a quick reminder of the basic context: WTC 7 was not struck by an airplane, but it was heavily damaged when debris from the collapse of the North Tower tore a large gash into its south face. That debris ignited fires on multiple floors. The building’s water supply and fire suppression capability were severely compromised, firefighters were eventually pulled back for safety reasons, and the fires were left to burn uncontrolled for nearly seven hours before the building finally collapsed at 5:20 p.m.

What I find so impressive here is not just the final animation, but what went into producing it.

According to the creator, this WTC 7 simulation was built using more than 28,000 structural elements and roughly 703,000 constraints, incorporating actual steel dimensions, steel thickness, plastic deformation, and connection-breaking behavior derived from physical parameters. In other words, this is not some cartoon sketch of a collapse. It is a serious attempt to model large-scale structural behavior as faithfully as possible with the information available.

And I also appreciate the creator’s candor.

He does not pretend this simulation is a perfect recreation of exactly what happened, down to every beam, every floor panel, and every fragment. Nobody can do that. A real collapse of this complexity becomes chaotic very quickly, and even with extensive modeling there are limits to what can be known with absolute precision.

That honesty is part of what makes the project more compelling to me, not less.

This is not being presented as an official NIST model, and it is not being offered as final proof of every detail. It is a visualization - an informed structural simulation built from the available evidence, the known geometry of the building, video observations, and the broader body of engineering work that has been done over the years by NIST and others.

And that is exactly why I find it worth sharing.

One of the biggest problems in discussing WTC 7 is that most people only know the exterior video. They see the outer shell descend and then leap immediately to conclusions. What they usually do not see is the internal failure sequence that, according to NIST and many subsequent analyses, was already underway before the visible exterior drop.

This simulation helps make that concept easier to understand.

It does not settle every argument.

It does not reproduce every last detail with magical perfection.

But it does provide a serious, visually clear attempt to show how the building could fail internally before the exterior facade gave way, and why the final visible descent can look simpler from the outside than the underlying structural reality actually was.

So no, none of us should pretend this is “exactly” what happened in every microscopic detail.

But as a close large-scale reproduction built from the best information available, I think it is genuinely fascinating.

And given how many people demanded “Now do Building 7,” I hope this helps answer at least some of those questions.

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@Real_Ed_McCray Also, this version without the text overlay:

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@Real_Ed_McCray I don’t know the original source, but I’ve seen it here: https://t.co/tF87GkqFi8

[Kristen Nicastro Carney @KristenCarney]

Her scream at the realization ‘they did it on purpose’ is such a painfully guttural sound. It’s what true horror sounds like when the human soul recognizes evil before the mind can comprehend it. The sound of her innocence being ripped away in an instant. It was taken from all of us that morning and we've never gotten it back. #neverforget but #weforgot

[Kostas Moros @MorosKostas]

Becerra was terrible on the Biden Admin and only kept his job because Biden never fired anyone. His time as CA AG was also unremarkable.

So of course, he'll fail upwards.

[Mark W. Smith/#2A Scholar @fourboxesdiner]

@ErinFriday75490 True. Parents are the primary protectors of children and teachers are mere agents of the parents. Parents raise children. Teachers are vendors to a family...like plumbers and dentists. They provide a basic service for the parents and children, and nothing more.

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

I wish I was in DC today to attend and support the March for Life.

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

I have values and principles, and I stand for something.

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@babyconnect Is there a way to move records from one child to another when they were accidentally recorded under the wrong child?

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@shakedog Very nice! Congrats!

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@dueapp Feature Request please: can we save Due backup files without using email? I’d love more options, including using the Share Sheet. Thanks!

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@neat_hot Well done!

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

I miss iOS [ANYTHING that is NOT version 13].

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@gourmetdyy These are amazing! Any chance you posted higher resolutions of them somewhere? Thanks!

[Regina Carpaccio @ReginaCarpaccio]

people named jeff how are you not constantly saying TGIJeff i need to know

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@coheteboy @Disneyland Good catch! 👀

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@llahsram You’re correct! I was mixing thoughts between titles that have not been released in HD Streaming & HD Blu-ray. There are 4 titles not yet released on (HD) streaming. Interestingly, there’s ALSO 4 titles not yet released on BD. Make Mine Music & Melody Time qualify for both lists.

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

Disney+ 631 tweets… appreciate them releasing announcements with years (& in chronological order!) A few notable items missing:
Disney: Make Mine Music (1946), Tarzan (1999), Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Pixar: Up (2009), Coco (2017), Incredibles 2 (2018), Toy Story 4 (2019)

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@neat_hot @llahsram Yup! And congrats! Neat-Hot!

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

@llahsram Yeah, it disappoints me greatly;many consider it the best of the Disney package films. At least we’re getting our first (presumingly) HD releases of Fantasia (1940), Melody Time (1948), and Fantasia 2000 (2000). My top film request is for UNEDITED films, but that’ll never happen.

[Jeff Alter @jeffalter]

Hopefully an HD release finally.

[Disney+ @DisneyPlus]

A Goofy Movie (1995)