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1,368 Ft high
110 Stories
Built 1966-1973
Surpassing the Empire State Building, the WTC was the tallest building in the world from 1972 - 1973 -- until it
was surpassed by the Sears Tower in Chicago, IL
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World Trade Center History:
The World Trade Center in New York City was a complex of seven buildings, mostly designed by Japanese American
architect Minoru Yamasaki and developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was initiated by a
Lower Manhattan Association created and chaired by David Rockefeller, along with strong backing from the then New
York governor, his brother, Nelson Rockefeller. Larry Silverstein held the most recent lease to the complex, the
Port Authority having leased it to him in July of 2001. The complex, located in the heart of New York City's downtown
financial district, contained 13.4 million square feet of office space, almost four percent of Manhattan's entire
office inventory.
In 1966, construction of the World Trade Center began with a groundbreaking that razed 13 square blocks of low
rise buildings, some of which predated the US Civil War. In 1970, construction was completed on One World Trade
Center, with its first tenants moving into the building in December 1970. Tenants first moved into Two World Trade
Center in January 1972. Initially conceived as a complex dedicated to companies and organizations directly involved
in "world trade," they at first failed to attract the anticipated clientele; during the WTC's early years
various governmental organizations became key tenants. It was not until the 1980s, as New York's economy improved,
that an increasing number of private companies — mostly financial firms tied to Wall Street — became tenants.
On any given day, some 50,000 people worked in the towers with another 200,000 passing through as visitors. The
complex was so large that it had its own ZIP Code: 10048
French high wire artist Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a tightrope in 1974, and Brooklyn toymaker
George Willig scaled the south tower in 1977.
On February 13, 1975, the WTC North Tower was beset by a fire, which "burned at temperatures in excess of
700°C (1,292°F) for over three hours and spread over some 65 percent of the 11th floor, including the core,
caused no serious structural damage to the steel structure" (New
York Times, Saturday 15th February 1975)
On February 26, 1993 at 12:17 PM, a Ryder truck filled with 1,500 pounds (682 kg) of explosives was planted by
Ramzi Yousef and detonated in the underground garage of the North Tower, opening a 100 foot (30 m) hole through
4 sublevels of concrete. Six people were killed and over a thousand injured.
Many people inside the North Tower were forced to walk down darkened stairwells which contained no emergency lighting,
some taking two hours or more to reach safety. As the Port Authority was a bi-state agency, the towers were exempt
from New York City building codes. Subsequent to the bombing The Port Authority installed emergency lighting in
the stairwells. It is believed that this lighting saved many lives during the events of September 11, 2001. As
a memorial to the victims of the bombing of the tower, a reflecting pool was installed with the names of those
who had been killed in the blast. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, relief workers found a single fractured
piece of this fountain; to date it is the only remaining part of the 1993 memorial that survived the collapse of
the towers
One of the world's largest gold depositories was stored underneath the World Trade Center, owned by a group of
commercial banks. The 1993 bomb detonated close to the vault, but it withstood the explosion, as did the towers.
Best known for its iconic 110-story Twin Towers, all of the original buildings in the complex were destroyed in
the September 11, 2001 attacks: 1 WTC, 2 WTC (North and South Towers) and 7 WTC collapsed; 3 WTC (Marriott Hotel)
was crushed by the collapses of 1 WTC and 2 WTC; and 4 WTC, 5 WTC, and 6 WTC were damaged beyond repair and later
demolished.
Ultimately, 2,749 death certificates were filed relating to the WTC attacks, as of February 2005. 13 people died
after the disaster, from injuries received on September 11; three of these people died in Massachusetts, Missouri,
and New Jersey, and the rest died in New York.
(Wikipedia.org)
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According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,400 to
18,800 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks.
Only 18 people escaped from within the impact zone (floors 78 to 84) of the South Tower after it was hit. They
escaped down Stairway "A," the only stairwell that had been left intact (though somewhat obstructed with
broken drywall, and filled with smoke in one area). No one was able to escape from above the point of impact in
the North Tower after it was hit.
Of the estimated 200 to 300 people trapped in the towers' stalled elevators, 22 managed to escape: 16 people from
four elevators in the North Tower and six people from two elevators in the South Tower. Perhaps the most amazing
escape was that of six people trapped in an express elevator on the 50th floor of the North Tower. There was no
elevator bank on that particular floor. After prying open the inner doors, they cut through three layers of drywall
with a squeegee handle, then broke through a wall of tiles into a 50th-floor bathroom. All six escaped the tower
five minutes before it collapsed.
Only 20 people were pulled alive from the debris after the towers' collapse:
Fourteen people, including a dozen firefighters, one police officer (a Port Authority policeman), and civilian
secretary Josephine Harris, 59, were in Stairway "B" on the 1st through 6th floors of the North Tower
when it collapsed. The firemen had stopped to help escort Josephine from the building at the time of the collapse.
They crawled out and were then escorted alive from an air pocket in the debris. The fourteen survivors from stairway
B in the North tower include (spellings uncertain):
Firefighter Mickey Kross (Engine Company 16)
Battalion Chief Rich Picciotto (11th Battalion)
Firefighter Billy Butler (Ladder 6)
Firefighter Tommy Falco (Ladder 6)
Firefighter Jim McGlynn (Engine 39)
Captain Jay Jonas (Ladder 6)
Firefighter Rob Bacon (Engine 39)
Firefighter Jeff Coniglio (Engine 39)
Firefighter Jim Efthimiaddes (Engine 39)
Officer Dave Lim (Port Authority Police K-9 Unit)
Firefighter Michael Meldrum (Ladder 6)
Firefighter Sal D'Agastino (Ladder 6)
Firefighter Matt Komorowski (Ladder 6)
Josephine Harris (civilian)
First Union Bank employee Tom Canavan, 42, and an unidentified young man were in the underground shopping mall
beneath the South Tower when it collapsed. They were able to climb to the surface.
Police officers Sgt. John McLoughlin, 48, and Will Jimeno, 33, were in the underground shopping mall beneath the
North Tower when it collapsed. They were pulled out by rescue workers.
Pasquale Buzzelli, 32, a structural engineer at the Port Authority, was in Stairway "B" on the 13th floor
of the North Tower when it collapsed. After losing consciousness, he awoke on the surface, on top of a pile of
rubble, and was carried away with minor injuries.
Genelle Guzman McMillan, 30, a secretary at the Port Authority, was in Stairway "B" on the 13th floor
of the North Tower when it collapsed. She survived in an air pocket for 27 hours before she was rescued. She is
famous for being the last person pulled alive from the rubble.
Five people, some of whom were firefighters, were reported to have been rescued on September 13, 2001, 50 hours
after being trapped under debris in an SUV. However, they had in fact been trapped that day
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©2006 Kim Torp
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