The World Trade Center was located in New York City. It was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan. It was initiated in 1960 by a lower Manhattan Association created and chaired by David Rockefeller, who had the original idea of building the Center. The World Trade Center was located around the globe. The complex was located in the heart of New York City’s downtown financial district. It contained 13.4 million square feet of office space. That’s almost four percent of Manhattan’s entire office inventory at that time. During the post-World War II period, the United States was very strong economically, with increasing international trade. At the time, economic growth in New York City was mostly in Midtown Manhattan, with Lower Manhattan left out. To help boost urban renewal, David Rockefeller suggested that the Port Authority build a "world trade center" in Lower Manhattan. The initial plans were made public in 1961and identified a place along the East River for the World Trade Center. Objections to the plan came from the New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner, who was upset that New York would be getting this $335 million project and New Jersey would be left out.
The construction of the World Trade Center began on August 5, 1966. Thirteen square blocks of low risk razed to clear the site for construction. In 1970 the construction was complete on just one World Trade Center. Its first tenants moved into the building in December of 1970. Tenants move into the second World Trade Center in January of 1972. The ribbon cutting ceremony was on April 4, 1973. Eventually the complex came to a total of seven buildings, but its most popular was the main twin towers. On a typical weekday 50,000 people worked in the towers with another 200,000 passing through as visitors. The building was so large that it had its own zip code. The towers had amazing views from the observation decks. A French high wire acrobatic performer, Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a tightrope in 1974.On February 13, 1975, the North tower caught fire which spread over almost half of the 11th floor. The fire spread to other floors. The fires on the other floors were put out right away, and the main fire was put out within a few hours. There was no structural damage to the tower, but this event led to installing a sprinkler system to both towers.On February 26, 1993 at 12:17 PM a truck filled with 1,500 pounds of explosives was detonated in the underground garage of the North tower, leaving a 100ft. hole through 5 sublevels of concrete leaving six people dead. Many people in the north tower were forced to walk down a darkened stairwell which contained no emergency lighting which made it very difficult to walk down. Prior to the bombing the port authority installed emergency lighting in the stairwells. It is possible that this lighting saved many lives during the event of 9-11-2001. As a memorial to the victims of the bombing, a reflecting pool was put in with the names of the people who had been killed in the blast.
On September 11, 2001 at 8:46 AM, Al Qaeda suicide hijackers crashed Flight 175 into the North Tower. Just seventeen minutes later, at 9:03AM a second hijacked plain crashed into the South Tower. 2,750 death certificates were filled out relating to the 9/11 attack. On May 23, 2007 1,614 certificates were identified from recovered physical remain. 340 emergency personnel and 60 police officers were killed in the towers. About 2,500 employees in the south tower and 1,000 in the north towers were dead. The massive pile of debris smoked and smoldered for 99 days. The world trade center site cleanup worked 24 hours a day for 8 ½ months.The Twin Towers became very popular worldwide. They appeared in movies such as: Escape from New York, The 1976 King Kong, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Die Hard: With A Vengeance, Sleepless in Seattle, Armageddon, Independence Day, Crocodile Dundee, and Crocodile Dundee 2. TV show like: Friends, NYPD Blue, the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, and Family Guy. The Towers have also been featured in music videos by popular musicians such as The Spice Girls, Madonna, Blondie, Linkin Park, and Ryan Adams. They became icons and were compared to the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.The events surrounding September 11 are portrayed in several documentaries and movies, including two major motion pictures made in 2006, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center and Paul Greengrass' United 93. As of 2007 most reruns of popular television shows have chosen to leave the Twin Towers in airings of the show such as cut scenes in Friends and episodes of The Simpsons.The lower Manhattan development corporation selected the master plan for the Freedom Tower. It will stand with a hight of 1,776ft. The hight was chosen from the year our country became free. 1776. On June 29, 2005, a redesigned Freedom Tower was revealed, which more closely resembled the character of the fallen towers. The new design also had much more safety precautions. As of late 2007, work at the trade center site continued. Foundation work had started on the Freedom Tower and the memorials.Even though the towers are no longer with us, I believe that they were amazing buildings while they were here. I wish that I would have had a chance to see them before the tragedy. I think the twin towers are a remarkable piece of history.
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