So what happens if the cable snaps? I assume this would happen at the height of a geostationary orbit where tension is the highest. And this is an ungodly tension so I assume it would be pretty violent. On top of that the cable will not fall straight down because the top of the cable is traveling much faster than the bottom (you could view this as the coriolis effect). It seems you would have 22,236 miles of cable wrapping itself around the earth.