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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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