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[[Image:WorldTradeCenter.jpg|right|thumb|World Trade Center, destroyed on [[9/11]].]]

[[Image:WorldTradeCenter.jpg|right|thumb|World Trade Center, destroyed on [[9/11]].]]

The '''World Trade Center''' included two 110-story towers at the southern tip of Manhattan. Constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the government of [[New York City]], at the insistence of [[Nelson Rockefeller|Nelson]] and [[David Rockefeller]].  They were unique in their government ownership for the purpose of leasing to private companies engaging in world trade.  Yet few of the tenants were actually trade organizations, and instead the offices were filled mostly with investment banks and large law firms.

The World Trade Center was a complex of seven buildings that were mostly designed by Minoru Yamasaki and were developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) that were located in Lower Manhattan, in New York City. All of the buildings in this complex were destroyed in a series of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001.  One and Two World Trade Center were the tallest buildings in New York at the time of their destruction and were the tallest buildings in the world between 1973 and 1974.  Tower One was 1,368 feet tall and Tower Two was 1,362 feet tall.  The other buildings included the Marriot Hotel World Trade Center, the US Customs House, the New York Emergency Management Office, and two other office buildings.

In 1993, [[Muslim]] [[terrorist]]s detonated a massive truck bomb in an underground parking lot with the goal of knocking the towers over and killing its capacity of 25,000 workers.  This attempt failed, killing only a few, but severely damaged portions of the parking garage  and smoke forced evacuation of the building.

==Tragedies at the World Trade Center==

On the morning of [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11th, 2001]] (9-11), fundamentalist Muslim terrorists hijacked airplanes from Boston and flew one airplane into each tower, killing instantly all aboard the airplanes and on the floors of the impact.  The attacks occurred on or before about 9 am, the beginning of the workday for many Manhattan workers, and the towers were therefore not filled to capacity.  Many evacuated, but the towers collapsed from the ensuing fire before all could leave.  2,749 died from this attack, including hundreds of firefighters who rushed into the buildings in the hope of rescuing trapped workers.

On February 13, 1975, Tower One of the World Trade Center was beset by a large fire that consumed over half of the eleventh floor and spread to several other floors.  However, the fireproofing applied to the steel trusses protected them from melting or softening so there was no structural damage done to the tower.  This fire led to the installation of sprinkler systems throughout both of the Twin Towers.

[[Image:New wtc.jpg|right|thumb|200px|New World Trade Center, expected to be completed in 2012.]]

[[Image:1993attack.jpg|right|thumb|Damage Done By 1993 Truck Bombing]]

 

[[Image:Wtc.jpg|right|thumb|World Trade Center ablaze on September 11]]

On the morning of September 11, 2001 at 8:46 AM, al-Qaeda operatives crashed the hijacked transcontinental airliner, American Airlines Flight 11 into the northern side of One World Trade Center.  At first, some news stations reported that it may have been an accident of some sort, possibly a navigational error.  However, at 9:03 AM, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into Two World Trade Center.  Landing gear from one of the planes crashed through the roof of 3 World Trade Center (Marriot Hotel) causing damage to that building as well.  The impact of the airplanes was so hard and at such a fast speed that it knocked off most of the fireproofing applied to the steel trusses of the building.  In Tower One all of the stairwells were destroyed at the site of the impact and in Tower Two all but one of the stairwells were destroyed at the impact zone leaving hundreds of people trapped in the tops of the Twin Towers.  After the resulting fires burned for close to an hour, the steel trusses of the south tower began to soften and melt collapsing several stories of the tower which put enormous pressure on the floors below.  As a result of this, at 9:59, the entire skyscraper collapsed in seconds, becoming the first high rise building to ever collapse.  This collapse completely crushed 3 World Trade Center.  Then at 10:28, the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.  At 5:20 PM, 7 World Trade Center (New York City Emergency Management Office) collapsed due to total ruin by fire and debris which caused structural failure.  Buildings 4, 5, and 6 were all completely gutted by fires and had to be demolished later.  In addition, the collapse of Tower 2 caused the destruction of the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, which was not a part of the complex.  The Deutsche Bank Building suffered damage beyond repair and is still standing as of May 2007 and is set for deconstruction in the near future.  As a result of the attack on the World Trade Center, at least 2,749 people died.  The large pile of rubble that sat at Ground Zero (the World Trade Center site) smoldered and smoked for 99 days to come.  For 8 and a half months, cleanup and recovery crews worked tirelessly 24 hours a day.  Today, a new complex of buildings is being built to take the place of the Twin Towers as the new World Trade Center.

 

*This page is not yet complete and may seem incomplete or in need of revision.*   

[[Category:United States History]]

[[Category:United States History]]

[[Category:Buildings]]

[[Category:Buildings]]