In 1946, the New York Legislature agreed to the development of a “world trade mart” in downtown Manhattan. The idea came from real estate developer, David Sholtz. Not until 1958 were plans announced by David Rockefeller to build a complex on the east side of Lower Manhattan. Originally the proposal was for only one 70 story building. The project was agreed to be overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The purpose of a World Trade Center is to bring together businesses involved in international trade from around the world while ensuring the best utilization of the world resources. It provides facilities for carrying out and operating multi and bilateral agreements of world trade.
Because residents and businesses objected to the demolition necessary to make room for the building, construction was held up for 4 years. Finally, in 1964 plans were approved and presented by Architecture, Minoru Yamasaki. The plans consisted of 15 million square feet between seven buildings and included two towers that would be taller than the Empire State Building by 100 feet. This eventually ended up becoming the world’s tallest building. In addition to the 110 story Twin Towers, the Trade Center included four other buildings. The World Trade Center was so large that it had its own zip code.
In 1966, 13 square blocks were demolished and the construction began. The North Tower was completed in 1970 and the South Tower was completed in 1971. Construction on the towers was done by using a drywall system reinforced by steel cores. This resulted in the towers being the first skyscrapers ever built without using masonry. The primary construction cost 400 million dollars This amount would be much higher if the same building were built now.
The Trade Center was opened in 1973 and at one time consisted of 500 businesses and employed 50,000 people. Over 200,000 people passed through daily as visitors.
In 1976, the world famous restaurant, Windows of the World, opened on the top floors of the South Tower. Also, a public observation deck called Top of the World was added.
On February 26, 1993 at 12:18 P.M., a group of Islamic terrorists detonated a 1,200 pound bomb from a rental van. The terrorist parked their van in the underground parking garage, where the bomb went off. The bombing occurred while the World Trade Center were relatively full because it was during the winter months and most employees stayed and ate lunch there. The bomb made a 200 feet by 100 feet hole. The bomb killed six, including a pregnant lady and injured more than 1,000. The explosion was so powerful it knocked out electrical power to the hotel and a majority of the North and South Tower. Emergency generators were also damaged in the blast, so there was no emergency communication, ventilation systems or lighting. Within minutes of the bombing the towers were filled with smoke and people began evacuating down the stairwells full thick black smoke.
2000 was the last full year of operation for the Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, the United States was changed forever. At 7:59 A.M. Flight 11 takes off just like any other flight from Boston would. Just a few shorts minutes after take off there had been a stabbing of a passenger in first class by another passenger who was in economy. At 8:19 A.M. Betty Ong a flight attendant on Flight 11 reports to ground personal that the plane had been hijacked and the cockpit is unreachable. Within two minutes of Ong’s phone call the hijackers had already turned off the transponder which allows ground personal to track the planes flight path. While Ong was on the phone she was able to identify the hijackers by their seat numbers. 8:15 A.M. Flight 175 takes off from Boston with 76,000 pounds of fuel to make it to Los Angeles. 8:20 A.M. Flight 77 takes off from Chantilly, Virginia. 8:42 A.M. Flight 93 takes off from Newark.
At 8:46 A.M. Flight 11 crashes into the 93 through 99 floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Dianne DeFontes states “When got into my office, I took one last look out the window and then went to my desk. Then all of a sudden, this bang happened. The bang, and being thrown out of my chair, and having the door partially opened- it all happened at the same time. And not only that, but the conference room that was on my left- the ceiling fell down and hit the table and cracked the conference table. So all this noise happened at once. I’m getting up. I started gathering my things. And then, while I’m getting my things together, the people from MetLife came across, and some of them had blackened faces. They said. ‘A plane hit the building. We watched it. We saw it hit the building and our office exploded.’ I said, ‘Oh my God.’”
President George W. Bush is visiting a school in Sarasota, Florida. At 8:50 A.M. Bush is notified that there had been a plane that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. President Bush believes that it is a tragic accident. Bruno Dellinger explains his evacuation of the North Tower as “People were very calm. There were three flows of people: the regular people, like me, going down; the people who were coming down from the other floors and who were very badly burned. No skin. No hair. Just burnt. And so they were coming down, and they were walking or carried down by people, held by people.”
9:03 A.M. Flight 175 crashes into the floors 77 through floor 85 of the South Tower. There is no known number of how many people were killed inside the tower but there were 51 passengers and nine crew members on Flight 175. 9:05 A.M. President Bush is informed that the South Tower had been hit and that was the instant he knew the first crash was not an accident that it was an attack of the United States. Bush wraps up his visit at the elementary school in Florida and heads to the airport to head to an unclear location. While Bush wants to return to Washington D.C. but Barksdale Air Force Base recommends that President Bush lands in Louisiana because it would be the most secure airport.
9:12 A.M flight attendant Renee May calls her mother and tells her Flight 77 the plane she was on had been hijacked and that all passengers and crew members including herself were forced to the rear end of the plane. Renee and her mother then lost connection. May’s mother calls American Airlines. 9:37 A.M the Pentagon had been hit. Louise Rogers says “ At first I thought I had blown up the fax machine… And then I realized it wasn’t me. I smelt the jet fuel.” The attack caused a lost of 125 military and civilian personnel lives.
9:59 A.M. The South Tower collapses. The South Tower burned for just under an hour. It takes a short 10 seconds to completely collapse to the ground. 10:15 A.M. the Pentagon E Ring collapses. The North Tower collapse at 10:28 A.M. after burning for 102 minutes. President George Bush lands at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana after about three hours of searching for a good, secure place to land. At 12:16 P.M. the U.S. Airspace is closed. People tried to travel nationally by train, bus or rental cars. Most of the alternative options were either cancelled or sold out within hours of the first attack. President Bush travels throughout the day in search of a secure place to land. Bush leaves Barksdale Air Force Base and heads for Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
It took almost two full days for rescue crews to get all of the people who were trapped at the site. Cleanin up the wreckage was a very dangerous job. Most firefighters and police officers wrote their names and phone numbers on their forearms incase they fell in a hole or were crushed (History.com, 2010).
Rescue works work for months to clean up and find human remains. It took until December 19th for the fires to be declared extinguished. Firefighters still remain on stand by incase hotspots were to start another big fire.
The memorial opened on the attacks 10th anniversary. The memorials are twin reflecting pools, are set within the footprint of where the twin towers sat. The pools feature a 30-foot waterfall, which is the largest man-made waterfall in North America. Around the outside edges of the pools is bronze, etched with names from all of the attacks on 9/11 and from the 1993 bombing. There is also a callery pear tree called the “survivor tree”. It was found severely damaged in October 2001 during clean up of the ruble. New York City Park and Recreation to great care of it and once it recovered from all of its damage it was placed at the Memorial in 2010. The tree symbolizes the living reminder of survival and rebirth.