Difference between revisions of "World Trade Center"
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The WTC became a symbol of American capitalism and economic dominance, and a vulnerable target for [[Islamic]] [[terrorists]]. In 1993, Muslim terrorists 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 caused smoke and evacuation of the building. | The WTC became a symbol of American capitalism and economic dominance, and a vulnerable target for [[Islamic]] [[terrorists]]. In 1993, Muslim terrorists 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 caused smoke and evacuation of the building. | ||
| − | On the morning of September 11, 2001 (9-11), fundamentalist [[Muslim]] terrorists | + | On the morning of September 11, 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. |
[[Image:WorldTradeCenter.jpg|left|thumb|World Trade Center, destroyed on [[9/11]].]] | [[Image:WorldTradeCenter.jpg|left|thumb|World Trade Center, destroyed on [[9/11]].]] | ||
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[[category:terrorism]] | [[category:terrorism]] | ||
[[category:buildings]] | [[category:buildings]] | ||
Revision as of 04:33, February 21, 2008
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, at the insistence of 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 WTC was a government project that was supposed to cost $350 million, but by its completion more than a decade later actually cost at least double that. It lost money through the 1970s and probably never recouped the value of its investment and expenses. It never became fully occupied until the dot-com boom of the 1990s, and it was the internet industry, not world trade, that filled it. Promoted to the public as government-promoted export-import, only 5 percent of the WTC leases were held by trade service and export-import tenants.
By comparison, the privately developed Sears Tower was built around the same time at a cost of only about $150 million -- only one-fifth the cost of the WTC -- and took only three years to complete compared to the ten years for the WTC.
The WTC became a symbol of American capitalism and economic dominance, and a vulnerable target for Islamic terrorists. In 1993, Muslim terrorists 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 caused smoke and evacuation of the building.
On the morning of September 11, 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.
