No one has ever seen the world's tallest tower collapse... until now
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- The 646 m (2120 ft) tall Warsaw Radio Mast was the world's tallest structure for 17 years. The Polish tower has only been surpassed in height by the Burj Khalifa and the Merdeka 118. However, it collapsed during repairs on 8 August 1991, and no footage has ever surfaced of the collapse. In this video, you will witness a world first simulation of the collapse courtesty of the Bullet Constraints Builder add-on for the Blender animation software. The structure has been meticulously modelled and the result is a realistic simulation that gives a glimpse into how the real collapse unfolded.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro Montage
00:18 Background about tower
02:14 Steel lattice structures
04:07 Features of tower
04:55 How did the tower collapse?
06:16 Collapse simulation
Credits:
Background music: GTA V Main Menu Theme
Intro music: "Epic Hollywood Trailer" by Daddy_s_Music
Spaghetti snapping footage: • Snapping Spaghetti
KVLY-TV Tower Footage: • The tallest structure ... - Věda a technologie
The Burj Khalifa and the Warsaw Tower share something. No restrooms.
You are half correct, apparently the Burj Khalifa isn't connected to Dubai's sewerage network, so wastewater is removed by truck.
@@Contraflex There are emergency facilities but people employed there are expected not to use them while in the building. Ewww
@@Contraflexit was just recently finally connected to the sewerage system. Keep up the good work, it’d be cool to see a video about the upcoming Southbank by Beulah which will be Australia’s tallest building and have the tallest vertical garden in the world.
@@doofer80 Thanks for the idea, I haven't heard of this building so I will definitely do some research on it
So that is why rich Saudis bring white women there to be their personal porta potties...
Love the GTA5 pause music
I came to the comments to mention exactly that lol.
@@a.c.2219me too 😂
same
goes hard
Thank you. I knew I had heard this music somewhere before, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Thanks to the Warsaw Antenna, the 629-meter KTHI-TV tower in Blanchard, North Dakota has the distinction of twice being the tallest structure on Earth: from its 1963 erection until the Warsaw Antenna's completion in 1974, and then from the Warsaw Antenna's 1991 collapse until Burj Khalifa "topped off" in 2008. The Blanchard tower, now KVLY-DTV, still stands sixty years later.
The Blanchard tower has an amazing legacy.
@@Contraflex Theres a wonderful TV episode on Big Machines, with a HD cameraman going to the top during an antenna replacement. Got a twinge of vertigo just watching it on 720P.
I see theres a nine minute piece on TowerandTurbine channel on UTube.
@@joefish6091 Thanks for sharing the antenna replacement video. What an incredible logistics operation. Those workers definitely earn their pay!
It was made/ constructed correctly- a model of Polish construction- isn’t that an oxymoron?
Wake up. The antenna was not part of the Soviet Union's radio communications. He was in Poland. It was a Polish radio station, not a Soviet one. The antenna was not located in Warsaw, but in Konstantynów.
I apologise for mistakenly labelling it as a Soviet radio mast, for some reason I thought Poland was part of the Soviet Union... geography is not my strong suit. I will do more research next time.
@@Contraflex No, no, we were a seperate country in the Eastern Block (economic/military ties with Russia back then) Thanks for the video. Cool that you're interested in old radio towers 😂😂 Ever thought of becoming a tower technician ? ;) (I think it's a cool thing to do for a living, climb these towers) Anyhow, best wishes to you 😊
@@marcelsmith5176 I am far too scared of heights to ever climb one of these towers... I will stick to simulating them 🤣
Well Poland was still a Soviet satellite state??
@@paul_ko Not in the union of Soviet republics
646m, the most extreme spot for skydiving. Too bad it’s now gone. :(
The great pyramid held the title of tallest building far longer than the Empire building.
That's very true, perhaps I should have have clarified that I was talking about the modern era.
I think it's better to use "structure" as the great pyramid wasn't necessarily a building
@Plab1402 the pyramid has an interior, so the blocks at the top is technically considered the roof putting the pyramid in the "building" category
There are different stories about the collapse. I personally read of successfully replacing the main rope with two temporary ones, but then hours after workers left the area one of the temporary ropes slipped off of it's clamp, causing the disaster. This is why there were no killed or injuried, as everybody had left the site prior to the collapse. Also I heard that the signal wasn't getting it's way to the Antarctica, but it could have been received in the north and central Africa. The mast was never rebuilt, after years of waiting they finally replaced it with another one (actually an array of two "half-wave" masts) near the city of Solec Kujawski (/solets kooyavski/). You can still receive it at 225 kHz, AM band of course. It's not as powerful as the old one, but I believe it still covers most of Europe and maybe even larger area. Greetings from Poland.
Thank you for the information. I researched this video primarily from the English Wikipedia article, I imagine I would have missed a lot of Polish sources that have more information. Your account of the collapse definitely seems possible and would explain why no one was injured despite the scale of the collapse. I am glad to hear the replacement masts still have such impressive transmission capabilities.
225 kHz? Long waves? I will try to catch up with it on my old radio. One more reason to restore it
@@igorzherebiatev5751 Yes friend that's it. And by now, after the government changed in Poland, there soon will be no more right-wing propaganda in the public radio :)
@@5Dale65wow congratulations with government change
Underrated content. Nearly forgot Poland had the world's tallest structure before it collapsed. What physics SIM did you use for this?
Thanks for the feedback, this was made using Blender and the "Bullet Constraints Builder" add-on. There is a great tutorial on how to use it by CZcamsr "EarthquakeSim".
@@Contraflex At first I thought it was Kerbal Space Program the way it fell in 1st 10secs.
@@Contraflex for a more advanced simulation you could try using LS-DYNA
@@Contraflexholy crap :0 I was joking in my head saying "pushing the limit of blender by recreating the collapse of this tower" didnt suspect for it to be actually simulated in blender!
Finally someone did it... greetings From Poland!
This video is unbelievably underrated
I used to pass by the WECT Tower a lot as a child before it was demolished. It was 663 meters tall. I was always amazed by the thought of someone having to climb to the top to service the beacons.
Thank you for sharing, what a shame that it was demolished.
In Poland, we generally liked to broadcast the radio. We had several transmitters capable of transmitting signals far beyond the horizon. And every time some man had to ruin it. (babice transatlantic, several radio broadcasting centers disrupting propaganda radios from the west during the USSR)
I bet that must have looked really creepy when it fall like some enormous snake falling to the earth.
This is a way better production than I was expecting from a small channel. Nice work and narration :)
Narration is ai generated
Thank you for the feedback!
*You have just 63 subscribers?? You have great quality content, I am sure with content like this you channel will see some good growth in the time to come* 👍
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Not if his facts are incorrect
Hi
@@AisersOUT
Bot account
Is it possible to validate the result of this simulation against images of the collapsed tower? As someone who has worked with computer simulations, many people assume that a simulation is correct simply because it was done on computer with a visually impressive model, when in reality boundary conditions and assumptions can make enormous differences in how the simulation plays out.
I definitely agree with you. If you put garbage into your simulation/model, you will get garbage out of it. Additionally, if I had chosen a different cable to detach at the start, I'm sure the collapse would have looked entirely different. However, the goal of this simulation was less scientific and moreso for entertainment/educational value. Still, you will see in photos of the real collapse that the mast remained in large undamaged segments as seen in this video.
At least it (probably) fell within it's own footprint + guy wires.
Yes, the collapse appeared to be localised in a small radius near the base of the tower. If anyone was in the vicinity during the collapse, I'm sure they would have had sufficient time to run away from the base and avoid being struck.
Amazing video, thanks for making it!
Excellent presentation! I love these kind of computer simulated disaster recreations. Very well done. I feel lucky to be subscriber #310. You're channel will be in the 10's of thousands (and beyond) in no time if you keep this kind of production quality!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I look forward to making more videos when I have the time.
I like to remind myself that no matter how bad life may get, at least I don't have to climb that ladder.
Wow, I was always curious about how this mast collapse looked like. Thanks for creating this simulation!
When I first heard about the collapse, I was surprised no one had simulated it before
Great video! You deserve a lot more subscribers!
"You built your tower strong & tall, don't you know it had to fall someday." (Townes Van Zandt--Tower Song)
Wow, your sub count will skyrocket if you keep producing content like this. Nice work.
Thanks so much for the feedback!
The guys that changed the lights on that tower had it easy with that elevator. I've met some guys who change light bulbs on towers next to where I live, and they have to climb the side of the towers by hand. After talking with them I was like, "Nope, I'm not in good enough shape to do that." The towers near me are like maybe a third, or a fifth, or an even smaller fraction of the height of that tower, but that's more than I wanna mess with. I wouldn't mind going that high, but not under my own power thanks. :P
The elevator was certainly a handy addition; even so, I wouldn't want to be stuck in that tiny thing for 90 minutes.
@@Contraflex It better have an open end and offer an emergency parachute. No way am I stuck in there for 90 minutes
I'm friends with the engineer that worked at our local TV station. He said their tower has an elevator however I believe he said it only takes you halfway up. You have to climb the rest of the way.
If you climb even a 100 foot ladder you feel it for days, or at least I do. @@johnkern7075
GTA V pause music nostalgia hits hard but in a good way lol
Combined with tall towers collapsing is fascinating AF.
I'm glad so many people appreciated the background music
Subbed just to thank you for the great work
if nobody dies i don't think it was a problem...
“Cost to rebuild” am I a joke to you? 💀
Nicely presented and impressive simulations.
came for the radio tower collapse, stayed for the gta v pause music
So many viewers have commented on the music; I'm glad I chose it.
"We'll detach the Cable that needs repairing, and then, attach the temporary support Cable's...."
Even just the idea of it, is enough to tell you that it ain't a good idea, to not have attached the supporting Cable's before, they disconnected the main support Cable
Yes, if that's what really happened then the repair methodology was seriously flawed.
@@Contraflex
The illustration pretty much demonstrated that particular scenario......there was no reference made to any support Cables being attached to the Tower before the damaged Main Cable was released for repair...."if that's what really happened", then..."the repair methodology Was seriously flawed..."
Ciekawe i dobre przedstawienie symulacji upadku masztu.
Looks quite realistic. How does the final wreckage position compare to images of the wreckage of the collapsed tower?
I'm not aware of any images showing the entire footprint of the collapse, but some close up photos show large sections of the tower remained intact, similar to what is seen in this video.
Outstanding work
Thank you so much 😀
Good explanations and animations! Good luck!
Thank you for the kind feedback 👍
Great video
Neat simulation. 👍🏼
Really like the delve into turbulence and vortex shedding and how this creates resonant oscillations in the tower. My masters dissertation was on vortex generation and shedding but in a quantum fluid of superfluid He4 where the difference between turbulent and laminar regimes is very discrete compared to classical fluids.
Great and interesting video, hope to see more from your channel in future.
Thank you for sharing, that sounds really interesting. Are there any machines or systems where He4 vortex shedding is an important consideration, or was your research more theoretical?
That's an insane height for a radio mast. Most of them are nothing even close to that altitude.
It truly is, and maybe we'll never see a taller one built, given the decline of radio.
@@Contraflex Maybe the decline of broadcast AM/FM, but of radio? In the current era of wireless Internet and phone connectivity, I'd say there's more radio than ever.
@@technicalfool Well phones use microwaves if we wanna get more accurate
@@Tacticaviator7 They use all kinds of bands going from microwave right down to UHF. Part of the old analog TV spectrum here (800mhz) is now used for 4G comms.
In any case, theres still a ton of radio spectrum in heavy use, just different use than it was maybe 20-30 years ago.
@@technicalfool well generally "radio" as a term is used for AM/FM transmissions, so it's close enough. Yeah, cell phones still use towers, but I don't think "masts" are being built as commonly as before. We have satellites now, and there's no wider range than a transmission in space.
Amazing video
Very nicely done.
Thank you very much!
That tower would be scary seeing it. Collapsing 😬
Amazing animation ! Mesmerizing
Thanks for watching!
Usually metal collapsing on itself snaps and breaks, for some reason the simulation had the "No breaks" effect on and it magically stayed in 1 whole piece. Amazing? This really did remind me of Kerbal Space program.
In this simulation, each steel member can separate from other steel members if the stress at the connection interface between the two members is sufficiently high. You can see steel members separating from each other at multiple points in the video; these locations would have experienced stresses high enough to break the connection. I do agree with you, for the most part, the structure primarily stayed in one whole piece. However, if you look at real photos of the tower post-collapse, you will see the tower is mostly intact and you can regonise the original truss structure.
With regards to individual steel members snapping or breaking, this is a valid point and would definitely be possible in the simulation software, but would require each steel member to be subdivided and would thus increase simulation time; and it wouldn't necessarily give the most realistic simulation.
Thanks for the feedback 👍
@@Contraflex Hey, thanks for the reply and greater understanding too. Simulation runs can lead to seeing some pretty incredible things.
I removed other post about ___ . Don't want anyone else to see it and get negative ideas as you never know with some things. Peace out and great luck in life.
I believe that more then the wind, removing a set of guy wires on one side would cause a tremendous 'offset' to the others still attached to the tower. Their collective WEIGHT alone would pull the structure over for sure!
That's a very good point, I'm sure the unbalanced lateral forces resulting from the weight of the guy wires would have contributed to the collapse.
WHAT? It wasn't a part of soviet communication network. It was just radio mast for Poles living abroad. There were 10 mln Poles living abroad and Polish goverment wanted them to have abiblity to listen Polish radio. That's all - no soviets were involved in the project.
You are definitely correct. Apologies for the mistake. I foolishly assumed it was Soviet related due to it's proximity to the USSR.
I love how there were people who said that this mast caused health problems to them, eh... the stupidity. Also there is a 36 minute material about that mast in Polish, but it has English subtitles too iirc - its worth to watch it.
Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out
Great stuff, just keep at it mate!
You'll be one of the biggest infotainment channels on YT if you keep it up for a year or two!
I remember watching first Real Engineering videos and seeing a spark of potential in the creator. I see the exact same thing here!
Note for my future self: I'm the 227th subscriber here )
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, it means a lot! I look forward to making more videos when I have the time.
This is fascinating and a great video. I don't understand from an engineering perspective why there wasn't redundancy in the design. It seems like losing one guy wire should not cause an almost immediate catastrophic failure of the structure (I know there were other factors involved, but still). You would think the structure itself should be able to resist some deformation, and that the numerous guy wires are simply there for added stability. But then, I'm not an engineer so what do I know XD
I think under normal loading conditions, the failure of a single guy wire would not cause the entire tower to collapse. However, once the tower was struck by the extreme wind gust while the guy wire was missing, it resulted in the tower being displaced enough to cause progressive collapse. It likely would have been too expensive to design the tower to survive this extremely unlikely scenario; a potentially one in one thousand year wind gust happening at the same time as a guy wire being replaced (which would presumably only take a few hours to replace). Technically the structure could be designed to withstand a one in one thousand year wind gust without any guy wires, but it would require extremely large steel members and would be very expensive; at that point you are no longer designing a guyed mast, you are designing a skyscraper.
there was three levels of redundancy, but apparently that wasn't enough
Many thanks for this video and regards from The Netherlands.
Thanks for watching!
GTA5 background music....nice
I dreamed I was in a skyscraper that collapsed once.... somehow my brain was able to recreate it so accurately I could even feel gravity.
Incredible. Certainly a dream you would never forget.
@@Contraflex I can still recall the sway of the building. As far as a memory goes it feels absolutely like it really happened.
This man is underated ¡~¡
why is youtube so unfair
The KVLY mast lost about 75 feet of height in 2019 with the replacement of an antenna. Its neighbor in Galesburg, North Dakota, the KRDK mast, now holds the title of the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, if you don't count the underwater Petronius Platform. KRDK was only 3 feet shorter than KVLY's original height. I should really drive over and see it sometime, since it's in my state.
Thank you for sharing! I would definitely visit it if I was that close
Good thing no one was working on the tower at the moment of collapse
Very lucky indeed!
That have must been crazy
650 meters?!?
Taking an Elevator into basicly nothing but air. Crazy
People that just skipped to the end to just see the cool simulation.👇(it was a good video though good job)
I don't blame you for skipping ahead, it's the highlight of the video :)
@@Contraflex Yep
Remember me when your famous
In southwestern missouri we have the KOLR TV mast which is 2000’ tall (609.6M)
Must have been an amazing antenna to BASE jump from
Amazing
Structural integrity does not make up for its capability as a radio tower.
Omg I know that GTA 5 story mode map screen music from 1000 miles away🤣🤣 !!! Many many many many all nighters spent.
I'm glad it brought back some memories for you
If i could prevent one thing in history from happening, i would have prevented the mast from collapsing
From the title I assumed that literally nobody had seen the collapse happen, which would be quite feasible if it had happened in the middle of the night and/or during storm which caused low visibility. Obviously that wasn't the case as it collapsed in the daytime with many eyewitnesses, during active repairs no less, so I find the title to be quite misleading.
You are right, the title is somewhat clickbait. However, the fact that only a handful of people witnessed the collapse of the world's tallest structure at the time, and no one has ever seen a recording of it, is still true.
that title is so threatening
That was unintentional, but you're right :)
This is an incredible display of the inevitability of death. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From dust we were made, to dust we will return.
Very true, the lifetime of our structures is nothing in comparison to the age of the ground on which they stand.
Under rated
Is that the GTA V menu theme as background music?
Indeed!
The tension in the stays them self will buckle the tower if one is cur disconnect while the others are in tension, no need for wind loading.
When a stay is supposed to be switched out the others has to be losend a some ,so they dont pull the tower away .
Most important temporary stays has to be installed while the original is replaced.
In sweden we had a tv broadcast tower falling down because somone had unscrewed a turn buckle on one wire.
Thank you for sharing. The cable stays are so important for a structure like this.
It's called RCN Konstantynów, not Warsaw radio tower...
Thank you for clarifying. For international viewers I think Warsaw Radio Mast is clearer.
Well that's too bad. I've heard of Tower collapses before and it usually involves somebody trying to do something to the guy wires.
My body tensed up so hard when 4:02 came along
Nobody noticed the gta pause menu music?
I did..
perfect work man keep going im supporting you 👍
its remind me of BATTLEFIELD 3 caspian border map when the antenna tower fall .... can you make a video about it please ? and thanks
❤
I definitely thought of that BF3 map as well when I made this video. Thanks for the feedback!
I would absolutely love if you could release the files for this so that somebody could figure out exactly how that would have sounded. God damn it must have been amazing and terrifying
I would be happy to release the Blender file for the simulation if someone is interested... the sound would have been tremendous
@@Contraflex I just wish I had the skills for it
Wow. Awesome. I would’ve liked some more spring like coil type action on the cables and we sure we get a bounce?
The behaviour of the cables could definitely be improved; they shouldn't have broken apart. With regards to the bounce, it's probably due to the fact that the ground plane in this model doesn't deform. In reality, the ground would have deformed and absorbed the energy from the falling mast, preventing any bounce.
@@Contraflex either way it’s awesome.
The cables are so delicate that several people have been killed...the one tower was in nebraska it allegedly 6 miles tall...but i misread it
The GTA pause menu music is on top. Love it. ❤
subbed
now lets do the experiment in real life
There's plenty of footage out there of smaller radio masts collapsing.
Even if Warsaw Radio Tower did not collapsed back then, in about 15 years later or so it would whether caused by structure failure nor low flying planes
I agree, the natural aging of a steel structure like this would be very problematic as the structure approaches an age of 50 years.
Ty
There are VR experiences of like Nukes and stuff, this could be cool too.
That's a great idea, I should have had a camera view from the perspective of someone inside the mast when it collapsed.
Still haven't seen it.
One Polish man would have to climb up the tower to change the bulb. The answer to the old question solved.
So me and heights don’t mix. I’m just now realizing how badly. The animations of the elevator was enough to make my legs feel weird.
Sorry about that! Hope you enjoyed the non-vertigo inducing parts of the video
"No one has ever seen the world's tallest tower collapse"
9/11: .....
Technically the towers were not the tallest when they collapsed, you make a good point however.
Am i able to add the music to my songs playlist or is it something that you made please tell me
The song is from the GTA V Pause Menu, feel free to use it.
@@Contraflex thanks
There are recordings, even on CZcams (or there was, because I've watched them).
I understand mistakes, but sometimes I don't like them. I also recommend National Geographic episode about it.
If you find any recording, I would love if you could share it. I couldn't find any myself.
Actually it does not have the thinness ratio stated. The metal wires are part of the structure just as much as the tippy top antenna. The support wires extend out 100 meters 200, 500 meters in each direction?
You're right, technically the slenderness ratio should account for the large radius of the guy wires.
i wonder how much pain someone would have suffered if they climed that thing
The hardest part would be climbing back down again...
Towers that collapsed count: 3
My skinny ahh when I trip over
Bonus points since I'm also really tall
It would be nice if you redid the video so that it didn’t spoil how the ending of the fall would be , just a suggestion
The animation of falling short sections of guy wire cannot be correct. When a cable fails, tension is released and the remaining part remains intact and just rides down with the structure. You also do not take one guy wire out THEN put in temporaries. I read in one comment that the temporary guy wire may have failed, much more likely. In my time in the communications service business I had to deal with the collapse of two "little" (300 ft.) towers. One due to poor design and maintenance and one due to a dump truck driver failing to lower the truck bed and caught a guy wire. Both were really ugly.
Wow, I would hate to be that dump truck driver. Thank you for sharing. I definitely agree with you, the way the cables broke apart in this simulation was inaccurate. This is because they were modelled as individual 1m lengths connected end to end. I tried to give the connections between cable segments infinite strength, however, they always broke apart. I probably wasn't using the correct setting in the complex simulation add-on for Blender (Bullet Constraints Builder).
I've always suspected that the collapse of this tower was deliberate sabotage. I thought that when I first saw it on the news back in the day. The Cold War I'd grown up in was ending; glasnost and perestroika were the watchwords of the day, the Berlin Wall had fallen, Poland had become a free state under Lech Walesa and the Solidarity party, and the Soviet Union was clearly in fatal freefall. The Cold War that had lasted my entire life and longer was finally over.
Now consider this: The tower collapsed in August 1991, the same year the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Warsaw Pact ended. For 23 years, this tower was not only the pride of the USSR, but was the means by which the USSR broadcast its propaganda to the world.
The timing of its collapse is nothing if not politically symbolic of the collapse of the Soviet Union it represented. I consider it highly likely that the workers involved were probably anti-Soviet separatists; Poland was the first country to break away from the Pact and the first to assert its independence in 1989. It was the catalyst for further separatist movements in Eastern Europe and the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union that followed it.
So the possibility that the workers were separatists who deliberately sabotaged the tower as a symbolic protest against the USSR is not at all remote. The timing and the ramifications are too uncanny to ignore.
That is a fascinating theory and definitely plausible. I think the truth behind the collapse has been lost to history.
So just one cable was detached?
5 cables on the windward side and just one cable caused it to go critical?
It must have been a very strong gust of wind, combined with reduced strength in the remaining guy wires which degraded after decades of exposure.
@@Contraflex
Bad planning. Must’ve not Checked with weather services.
I thought this was about something real different 💀
Did they replace it or call quits
It was planned to be rebuilt, but the people living there protested against it and it was instead replaced by two smaller masts somewhere else in Poland