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Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Photograph © Larry Harris
Robin Weiner/WirePix
Robin Weiner/WirePix
Robin Weiner/WirePix
Robin Weiner/WirePix
Robin Weiner/WirePix
Relatives, friends and colleagues of people who died during the World Trade Center attacks assemble around the "Circle of Honor" at Ground Zero, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002. (Robin Weiner/Medialink)
Relatives of people who died walk down to the "Circle of Honor", Sept. 11, 2002. One by one, the 2,801 names on the city list of the dead were read during the morning ceremony. (Robin Weiner/Medialink)
Representatives from various organizations surround the "Circle of Honor" at Ground Zero during a ceremony marking the one year anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. (Robin Weiner/Medialink)
Bagpipe-and-drum units march down West Street towards Ground Zero for the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan. (Robin Weiner/Medialink)
Relatives, friends and colleagues of people who died during the World Trade Center attacks assemble around the "Circle of Honor" at Ground Zero, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002. (Robin Weiner/Medialink)
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Built:
1969- 1974
Cost: $800,000,000
Designed by: Minoru Yamasaki, Yamasaki and Associates, with Emery Roth and Sons
Type: Skyscraper
Stories: 110
Maximum width: 208
Maximum length: 208
Location: World Trade Center
City: New York
State: New York
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T
he World Trade Center is a collection of buildings in lower Manhattan. Towers number one and two (the "Twin Towers") were considered the tallest in the world by some people. It depends on how you define "tallest." Including the antenna, tower number one was 521 meters tall. However, including the antenna may also bring building-less antennae and towers into the running, which really mucks things up. The center was constructed on the site of the old Hudson and Manhattan rail terminal. The original plan called for a single 150-story tower, but this design was abandoned as impractical.
The twin towers were unusual in that the outer cladding of the building actually carried a large part of the load for the structure. Each floor was suspended from the external walls, rather than the other way around, which is common in most skyscrapers where internal pillars provide the strength, and the walls merely keep the wind out. While intended to provide strength while maximizing rentable office space, this actually proved to be a lifesaving innovation. When each tower was hit by hijacked jumbo jets in 2001 the planes punched holes in the side and did extensive damage inside. But the buildings stayed standing for some time. It was actually the heat from the fire that caused the buildings to collapse. The jets were fully loaded with fuel for transcontinental flight, providing a massive amount of fuel to feed the fire. When the heat inside exceeded 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit the steel holding the floors to the walls weakened, causing each floor to collapse onto the one below. The result was the buildings imploded upon themselves, rather than fell over knocking over countless other buildings in a literal domino-effect.
The following buildings were partially or completely destroyed in the attack:
- One World Trade Center (north tower)
- Two World Trade Center (south tower)
- Four World Trade Center
- Five World Trade Center
- Six World Trade Center
- Seven World Trade Center
- The Marriott Hotel
- One Liberty Plaza
- Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
The following buildings suffered major damage:
- The Millennium Hilton Hotel
- One World Financial Center
- Two World Financial Center
- Three World Financial Center
- The Federal Building
- Banker's Trust Building
**Engineers: Worthington, Skilling, Helle and Jackson
**There was a cafeteria on the 44th floor called The Sky Dive.
**Each tower had postal workers stationed every eight floors to handle incoming and outgoing mail.
**It is estimated that the jets hit the buildings going between 470 and 590 miles per hour.
**It takes 99 days to put out the fire.
**18 people are pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center still alive.
**The city of New York loses 13,000,000 square feet of office space -- more than all the office space in Miami, and more than the entire space of downtown Houston.
**83,000 people lose their jobs in the ensuing economic turmoil.
**105 children never see their fathers because they were conceived before, and born after the terrorist attacks.
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 **The builders of the World Trade Center claimed the twin towers were the first buildings with a robotic window cleaning system.
 "12/29/01
May we never forget those lost here and may they always rest in peace.
Bernard B. Kerlik NYPD"
Graffiti scrawled on a wooden railing of the observation platform at Ground Zero by New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerlik
" We will never build where the towers stood "
-New York Governor George Pataki, 1 July, 2002
"...I sometimes don't want to believe it really happened. The only thing is I can't forget was the sound of the steel just before the first tower fell. I knew what was happening at just that moment, even though my view was obstructed my the building directly across from me. I was on the 22nd floor roof, I had just returned from the front of the WTC where a firemen told me he didn't need my help but to just get out of the street and get away from the building. I went back to 2 Chase where the men were still up on the roof and was telling them to get off the roof when I heard the sound of steel riping. I knew the building was coming down and said, "Oh My God." When I looked over the roof wall I could believe the cloud of dust and debris that was already coming up the building toward me. We all ran and just made it inside the roof door! We'll it got crazy from then on in! What really surprised me was that people didn't panic the way I thought they would. Even later that day walking almost 200 blocks home on the FDR Drive people were in shock and disbelief, but it wasn't panic.Hundreds of thousands of people on the FDR Drive walking in a way I can't explain. We were at war and under attack and people helping each other just trying to get home and let friends and loved ones know they were alright. We are a powerful nation and that day showed me something about this nation, we can survive anything!"
-Louis Briendel, The Bronx
"About 15 floors down from the top, it looks like it's glowing red... It's inevitable."
-Aviation 14 (New York City police helicopter)
"I don't think this has too much longer to go. I would evacuate all people within the area of that second building."
-Another police pilot.
Both quotes as transcribed from police tapes by the New York Times, 7 July, 2002.
 **Freedom Tower - Twin Towers replacement, New York
**World Trade Center Transportation Hub, New York
**Reflecting Absence - World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial
**Two World Trade Center, New York
**Three World Trade Center, New York
**Four World Trade Center, New York
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