What about this?
List items = new List()
{
new string[] { "a", "b", "c" },
new string[] { "1", "2", "3" },
new string[] { "x", "y" },
new string[] { "y", "z", "w" }
};
var x = from i in Enumerable.Range(0, items.Max(a => a.Length))
select from z in items
where z.Length > i
select z[i];