This is a brief look at a few misleading illustrations, including figures 2-1 & 2-2 from FEMA's World Trade Center Building Performance Study, and NOVA's illustration of the WTC core.

Each of the images below depicts a cross-section of one of the Twin Towers, using a 512x512 pixel image as a scale basis for the creation of the 47 core columns at the center of each tower.

These models were created in Second Life.

First, FEMA 403 fig. 2-2, (Representative structural framing plan, upper floors), in which the core columns are depicted by red dots.

These dots are identical in size and placement to the depiction of core columns in fig. 2-1 (a structural framing plan representative of an upper floor in the towers).