# WTC Glass

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2002, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932 "2002-03-12T22:44:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![friggae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/45deac/32.png) [@friggae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friggae)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932/1 "2002-03-12T22:44:44Z")

</div>

What happened to all the glass used in the World Trade Center buildings? In shots of Ground Zero, all you see are twisted pieces of metal, concrete and pieces of paper. Was it pulverized back into sand?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stupendous\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932/2 "2002-03-12T23:26:52Z")

</div>

My opinion would be that they are either:  
[ul]  
[li]Ground into dust[/li][li]Not visible due to being covered in dirt and white powder.[/li][li]Underneath other larger rubble.[/li][/ul]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932/3 "2002-03-12T23:39:41Z")

</div>

Presumably it wasn’t standard glass?

If it was toughened glass, it shatters into gritty little pieces.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RaginAzn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@RaginAzn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaginAzn)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932/4 "2002-03-13T01:10:55Z")

</div>

Yeah, if you look cloesly, when plane #2 hit, they had a shot that included the other trade center behind it, and all of the windows on that side just completely blew in from the shockwave.

Also, only the windows in the building were made of glass, which isn’t much compared to the tons of paper, concrete, steel, and other stuff.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2002, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-glass/97932/5 "2002-03-13T06:19:25Z")

</div>

You have to consider, too, that among all the rubble, such as the concrete and steel beams, the glass would only account for a very small portion of the total volume of rubble, and of course it is going to break up into much smaller pieces. Chances are all the glass was mixed in with the dust and other particles.