World Trade Center
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.
Tragedies at the World Trade Center
February 13, 1975 Fire
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.
February 26, 1993 Bombing
On the morning of February 26, 1993, at 12:17 PM a Ryder truck truck filled with approximately 1,500 pounds of explosives was planted by Ramzi Yousef and detonated in the underground parking garage of Tower One opening an approximately 100 foot hole in 5 sublevels of concrete. The objective of the Islam extremist was to destabilize the base of Tower One and send it crashing into Tower Two, destroying the complex. Mass panic sent people running out of the tower. Six people were trampled to death in the stampede. After this terrorist attack, the Port Authority installed emergency stairwell lighting. As a memorial to the bombing and those lives that were lost that day, a reflecting pool, including the names of those killed, was installed at the center of Tobin Plaza (also known as the World Trade Center Plaza).
September 11, 2001 Attacks
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.
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