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The well-known World Trade Center was, until September 2001,  a complex of seven buildings, designed by the famous architect Minoru Yamasaki. The World Trade Center was officially opened on the 4th of April, 1973 in New York. The Center had become the greatest construction in New York City after its construction. However, the most tragic day of the US history is associated with the World Trade Center. On the 11th of September 2001, the two Twins Towers were destroyed.

The dominant architectural of the complex was two 110-story twin towers – North, 417 meters in height and with the antenna mounted on the roof – 526 meters. The South Tower is 415 meters high. After the construction of the towers, they were the highest skyscrapers in the world. The World Trade Center complex was destroyed during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. After the collapse of the World Trade Center, the tallest building in New York became the Empire State Building (Crown 11).

First and foremost, the World Trade Center is exclusively commercial and office building. The Center Tower of the World Trade Center is a huge building where people can access both to the offices on the upper floors of the building, as well as a great number of restaurants, exhibits and an information center. In addition, on the underground level there are special lobbies, connecting the building with the New York subway and PATH rail lines (Crown 17). The uppermost levels of a skyscraper, at a height of about 415 meters, are equipped with a restaurant with stunning city views and a traditional viewing platform. 

The construction of the World Trade Center complex was planned in 1943, but by the 1949 work on designing the buildings were suspended. This was due to the fact that the basic development of Manhattan in the late 40’s moved to the center of the New York City. To draw attention to the promising area of Lower Manhattan, David Rockefeller asked the port management with a proposal to build in it the world’s largest shopping mall – The World Trade Center (Glans and Lipton 30).

The active negotiations, on the issue of locating the shopping center, were conducted by the authorities of the New York City for 5 years, from 1961 to 1966. In the beginning of the negotiations between the authorities and Rockefeller, it was planned to start the construction of the World Trade Center on the east cost of the river, but due to the decision of the huge transport hub, built across the Hudson River, a place for the construction of the complex was located in Lower Manhattan. The chosen place was regard as the most geographically advantageous for the future railway passengers (Crown 23).

Over the architecture of the World Trade Center worked the famous architect Minoru Yamasaki. Furthermore, by the time of the construction of the World Trade Center, the architect has already owned several projects of national importance, it is also important to note his assistance to architects in the company Emery Roth & Sons. According to the initial plan, the complex comprised a project of two towers of 80 floors high, but the Port Authority executives sponsoring the construction, insisted on the area of at least 10 million square meters. Due to this decision the architect Yamasaki has increased the number of stores of buildings, up to 110 stories in each tower of the World Trade Center.

The architect presented the finished design of the construction of the World Trade Center, in January 1966. Nevertheless, the architect decided to help all those people, who are afraid of heights, to feel as comfortable as possible, even on the upper floors of the World Trade Center complex. In order to do this, he developed a narrow window, which creates the effect of full security and protection for everyone who was under the roof of towers of the World Trade Center (Abbott 6).

Minoru Yamasaki indicating the model of the complex. (1960s)

At the time of the creation, the structural arrangements of the buildings were truly revolutionary. Firstly, the architects have used for the construction of skyscrapers, a new system with bearing beams and columns, which are separated by a space. However, engineers have proposed a radically new view of the structure of the building – it was called the principle of pipe-frame. With this innovation the twin towers were robust and resistant not only to the side and wind loads, but also to gravity.

Building a shopping center for the first time faced with serious problems in February 1975, when a fire started on the eleventh floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. The fire spread through the central tube up to 9 and 14 floors (Glans and Lipton 34). The investigation revealed the fact that the fire happened in the office on the 11th floor, and the reason was negligence. In 1993 there was the first terrorist attack of the World Trade Center, which killed 6 people and injured more than 1,000.  The explosion took place in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, when a truck drove into the underground garage with 680 kg of explosives in it.

First terrorist attack

The twin towers of the World Trade Center for nearly three decades had been a symbol of the United States and financial power of New York. Today the towers of the World Trade Center are associated with one of the most tragic events in recent history – the September 11 terrorist attacks. A chain of catastrophes which have caused massive deaths in New York, Washington and southwestern Pennsylvania has happened. The organizers were undermining as the terrorists who were later convicted and sentenced to prison (Abbott 13).

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened when two passenger aircraft crashed the Twin Towers. The aircrafts were seized by Islamist terrorists. This Terrible destruction that has been followed by the collision of aircraft has destroyed both shopping center buildings, and led to thousands of deaths and a lot of destruction in the New York City. Nowadays, a two-fountain pool memorial is established on the place were used to be the towers of the World Trade Center, with the names of those people, killed in the terrorist attacks of 1993 and 2001.

In addition to the 110-stores twin towers, five other buildings of the World Trade Center including the seventh building, Marriott, Four subway stations, as well as the building of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, were destroyed destroyed or badly damaged. In general, in Manhattan 25 buildings suffered and all 7 World Trade Center buildings had to be destroyed. Later the Deutsche Bank Building, which was located opposite to the World Trade Center, were also destroyed, because of the unfit for existence, a toxic environment within the office tower. It goes without saying that in recent history, both of the US and the whole world, there is a great number victim of terrorist attacks. It is something quite unprecedented and truly terrifying. One can say with confidence that it is September 11 the first such event in the history of the new millennium, after which it is possible to say that the world has already changed.

As a result of the terrorist attack, both the skyscrapers and the adjacent buildings, as well as one wing of the Pentagon were destroyed; nearly three thousand people were killed during the attack.

NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: (FILE PHOTO) A fiery blasts rocks the south tower of the World Trade Center as the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the building September 11, 2001 in New York City. Almost two years after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the New York Port Authority is releasing transcripts on August 28, 2003 of emergency calls made from inside the twin towers. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

In November 2014, thirteen years after the fall of the Twin Towers, The World Trade Center was open for business. The publisher occupies almost 24 floors of the tower. Furthermore, a viewing platform on the roof of the new World Trade Center building was finally opened to all citizens. The World Trade Center has been renovated and open to all visitors for the first time, on the 4th of November. The Executive Director of the port city administration has explained that the landscape of New York City has finally been restored. The memorial in memory of the dead and the museum, which opened this year is now located on the territory of the highest skyscraper in the United States of America (Haerens 14).

All in all, throughout its history, the World Trade Center in New York caused a wide range of disputes. At the dawn of the great opening of the World Trade Center complex, it has become the most recognizable structure of the city, due to the legendary towers called Twins. However, today the name of the World Trade Center Towers is increasingly associated with the tragedy, that has become the most cruel event in the history the whole world.