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Built: 1969-1973
Designed by: Minoru Yamasaki, Yamasaki and Associates, with Emery Roth and Sons
Type: Skyscraper
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Cost: US$800,000,000.00
Maximum height: Tower one - 1,709 feet (with television mast)
Maximum height: Tower two - 1,363 feet
Demolished: 11 September, 2001 in a terrorist attack
Observation deck: Yes

The World Trade Center is a collection of buildings in lower Manhattan. Towers number one and two (the "Twin Towers") were considered the tallest in the world by some people. It depends on how you define "tallest." Including the antenna, tower number one was 521 meters tall. However, including the antenna may also bring building-less antennae and towers into the running, which really mucks things up. The center was constructed on the site of the old Hudson and Manhattan rail terminal. The original plan called for a single 150-story tower, but this design was abandoned as impractical.

The twin towers were unusual in that the outer cladding of the building actually carried the load for the structure. Each floor was suspended from the external walls, rather than the other way around, which is common in most skyscrapers where internal pillars provide the strength, and the walls merely keep the wind out. While intended to provide strength while maximizing rentable office space, this actually proved to be a lifesaving innovation. When each tower was hit by hijacked jumbo jets in 2001 the planes punched holes in the side and did extensive damage inside. But the buildings stayed standing for some time. It was actually the heat from the fire that caused the buildings to collapse. The jets were fully loaded with fuel for transcontinental flight, providing a massive amount of fuel to feed the fire. When the heat inside exceeded 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit the steel holding the floors to the walls weakened, causing each floor to collapse onto the one below. The result was the buildings imploded upon themselves, rather than fell over knocking over countless other buildings in a literal domino-effect.

The following buildings were partially or completely destroyed in the attack:
One World Trade Center (north tower)
Two World Trade Center (south tower)
Four World Trade Center
Five World Trade Center
Six World Trade Center
Seven World Trade Center
The Marriott Hotel
One Liberty Plaza
Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

The following buildings suffered major damage:
The Millennium Hilton Hotel
One World Financial Center
Two World Financial Center
Three World Financial Center
The Federal Building
Banker's Trust Building

* There were sky lobbies on the 41st and 71st floors.
* Tower number one had a restaurant on the 107th floor.
* Tower number two had observation decks on the 107th and 110th floors.
* 181,400 metric tons of steel was used to build the towers.
* The towers had 43,600 windows.
* There were 93 elevators in the two buildings.
* In 1974 a tightrope walker walked between the two towers.
* Owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
* 11 September, 2001 - The Twin Towers are destroyed by terrorists. They hijacked two jumbo jets from Boston and slammed one into each of the towers, killing an estimated 5,000 people. A third hijacked jet was rammed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC; and a fourth crashed in a rural area 80 miles east southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. o 8:45am - Hijacked American Airlines Boeing 767 hits the north tower. o 9:03am - Hijacked United Airlines Boeing 767 hits south tower. o 9:50am - South tower collapses. o 10:30am - North tower collapses. o 11:40am - New York Fire Department pulls our of Seven World Trade Center as fire rages uncontrolled through the skyscraper. o 5:25pm - Seven World Trade Center collapses. o It is estimated that the jets hit the buildings going between 470 and 590-miles-an-hour. o It takes 99 days for the fire to go out. o 18 people are pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center still alive. o The city of New York loses 13,000,000 square feet of office space -- more than all the office space in Miami, and more than the entire space of downtown Houston. o 83,000 people lose their jobs in the ensuing economic turmoil. o 105 children never see their fathers because they were conceived before, and born after the terrorist attacks.
* 14 September, 2001 - There is serious talk among politicians and New York City leaders about rebuilding the Twin Towers better, and possibly bigger, than before.
* 25 September, 2001 - One of the last remaining large sections of the building's exoskeleton is demolished. Part of it is saved by the city for possible use in a memorial, museum, or monument.
* 22 October, 2001 - the 53-story One Liberty Plaza reopens.
* 1 December, 2001 - Britain’s SR International Business Insurance Company, Limited is suing over the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. SR International is one of the companies that insured the Twin Towers. It wants a court to rule that the attacks were a single incident, and not two separate attacks. If successful, the companies will only have to pay the developer US$3,600,000,000.00 for the single attack, rather than US$7,200,000,000.00 if it is ruled to be two attacks. Larry Silverstein plans to use the money to rebuild the World Trade Center complex. US$3.6 billion is enough to do it, but obviously US$7.2 billion would provide more flexibility.
* 4 December, 2001 - CNN reports that the US$300,000,000.00 donated to the September 11th Fund is going to some organizations that the donors might not expect. Among those getting the money: The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, AIDS activist organization Mother's Voices; the Jennifer Muller modern dance group; The Institute for the Development of Earth Awareness, and the performing arts group Three Legged Dog. The CNN report featured a screen from Three Legged Dog's web site showing a dominatrix.
* 12 December, 2001 - Questions are raised about the floor joists in the World Trade Center. Tests done in the 1990's suggest that they were not adequately fireproofed. The engineer who supervised construction of the World Trade Center insists the fireproofing met the highest standards and was not a factor in the collapse of the towers.
* 17 December, 2001 - One of the mysteries of the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York may have been solved. Engineers have puzzled over why the 47-story 7 World Trade Center collapsed seven hours after the Twin Towers fell. It turns out, the culprit may have been the mayor’s emergency command bunker inside. The New York Times reports that the building had several hidden caches of diesel fuel to power generators for the command bunker. It was stored in and under the building and may have caught fire, weakening the structure in the same way that thousands of gallons of jet fuel weakened the steel in the Twin Towers. According to the Times, there was a 6,000 gallon tank on the second floor, and four tanks holding up to 36,000 gallons of fuel in the basement.
* 18 December, 2001 - To honor those killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush has created a new holiday. September 11th will now be known as Patriot Day.
* 18 December, 2001 - A group of relatives of those killed in the September, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center have chosen to blame the building, instead of the terrorists, for the deaths. They are demanding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency launch an investigation into the event, and the design and construction of the Twin Towers. In their opinion, the towers should have been designed to withstand the impact of a pair of jumbo jets and the intense heat created by the burning of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel. Some engineers believe the Twin Towers fireproofing was inadequate. Others say it met strict safety standards and no fireproofing could withstand a blaze that hot raging for as long as it did. Some relatives believe the plane is to blame and should have withstood a 500-mile-an-hour impact.