TheWorld Trade CenterisacomplexofbuildingsunderconstructioninLowerManhattan,NewYork City, United States, replacing an earlier complex of seven buildings with the same name

on the same site.TheoriginalWorldTradeCenterfeaturedlandmarktwintowers,whichopenedonApril4,1973and were destroyed in the September 11 attacks of 2001, along with 7 World Trade Center. The other buildings in the complex were damaged in the attacks, and their ruins were eventually demolished. The siteisbeingrebuiltwithfivenewskyscrapersandamemorialtothosekilledintheattacks.AsofAugust 2013,onlyoneskyscraperhasbeencompleted;and2othershavebeentoppedout.Theremaining3are expected to be completed before 2020. One World Trade Center will be the lead building for the new complex, reaching more than 100 stories at its completion.[4] It became the tallest building in New York City on April 30, 2012, and is now topped out. It is expected to officially open for business in 2014. A sixthtowerisawaitingconfirmation. Atthetimeoftheircompletion,theoriginal1WorldTradeCenter(theNorthTower)and2WorldTrade Center (the South Tower), known collectively as the "Twin Towers", were the tallest buildings in the world. The other buildings included 3 WTC (the Marriott World Trade Center), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. All of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1985. The cost for the construction was $400million($2,300,000,000in2013dollars).[5]ThecomplexwaslocatedintheheartofNewYorkCity's downtownfinancialdistrictandcontained13.4millionsquarefeet(1.24millionm2)ofofficespace.[6][7] TheWorldTradeCenterexperiencedafireonFebruary13,1975,abombingonFebruary26,1993anda robbery on January 14, 1998. In 1998, the Port Authority decided to privatize the World Trade Center, leasingthebuildingstoaprivatecompanytomanage,andawardedtheleasetoSilversteinPropertiesin July2001. On the morning of September 11, 2001, AlQaedaaffiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the complex, one into each tower, in a coordinated terrorist attack. After burning for 56minutes, the South Tower (2) collapsed, followed a halfhour later by the North Tower (1), with the attacks on the World Trade Center resulting in 2,753 deaths.[8] Falling debris from the towers, combined with fires that the debris initiated in several surrounding buildings, led to the partial or complete collapse of all the other buildings in the complex and caused catastrophic damage to ten other large structures in the surrounding area. The process of cleanup and recovery at the World Trade Center site took eight months. Over the following years,plans for a rebuilt World Trade Center took form. The first new building at the site was 7World Trade Center, which opened in May 2006. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), established in November 2001 to oversee the rebuilding process, organized competitions to select a site plan and memorial design. Memory Foundations, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was selected as the master plan, but this went through substantial changes in design. The new World Trade Center complex will include One World Trade Center, three other highrise office towers,andtheNationalSeptember11Memorial&Museum.

Planningandconstruction
Mainarticle:ConstructionoftheWorldTradeCenter TheideaofestablishingaWorldTradeCenterinNewYorkCitywasfirstproposedin1943.TheNewYork State Legislature passed a bill authorizing New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to begin developing plans for the project[9] but the plans were put on hold in 1949.[10] During the late 1940s and 1950s, economic growth in New York City was concentrated in Midtown Manhattan. To help stimulate urban renewal in Lower Manhattan, David Rockefeller suggested that the Port Authority build a World Trade CenterinLowerManhattan.[11] Initialplans, madepublicin1961,identifiedasitealongtheEast RiverfortheWorldTradeCenter.[12]As abistateagency,thePortAuthorityrequiredapprovalfornewprojectsfromthegovernorsofbothNew York and New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner objected to New York getting a $335million project.[13] Toward the end of 1961, negotiations with outgoing New Jersey Governor Meynerreachedastalemate.[14] At the time, ridership on New Jersey's Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (H&M) had declined substantiallyfromahighof113millionridersin1927to26millionin1958afternewautomobiletunnels and bridges had opened across the Hudson River.[15] In a December 1961 meeting between Port Authority director Austin J. Tobin and newly elected New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes, the Port Authority offered to take over the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad to have it become the Port Authority TransHudson (PATH). The Port Authority also decided to move the World Trade Center project to the Hudson Terminal building site on the west side of Lower Manhattan, a more convenient location for NewJerseycommutersarrivingviaPATH.[14]WiththenewlocationandPortAuthorityacquisitionofthe H&MRailroad,NewJersey,agreedtosupporttheWorldTradeCenterproject.[16] Approval was also needed from New York City Mayor John Lindsay and the New York City Council. Disagreements with the city centered on tax issues. On August 3, 1966, an agreement was reached that the Port Authority would make annual payments to the City in lieu of taxes for the portion of the World Trade Center leased to private tenants.[17] In subsequent years, the payments would rise as the real estatetaxrateincreased.[18]

Architecturaldesign
On September 20, 1962, the Port Authority announced the selection of Minoru Yamasaki as lead architect and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects.[19] Yamasaki devised the plan to incorporate twin towers; Yamasaki's original plan called for the towers to be 80 stories tall,[20] but to meet the Port Authority's requirement for 10,000,000 square feet (930,000m2) of office space, the buildings would eachhavetobe110storiestall.[21]

 AtypicalfloorlayoutandelevatorarrangementoftheWTCtowers. A major limiting factor in building height is the issue of elevators; the taller the building, the more elevators are needed to service the building, requiring more spaceconsuming elevator banks.[21] Yamasaki and the engineers decided to use a new system with two "sky lobbies"floors where people could switch from a largecapacity express elevator to a local elevator that goes to each floor in a section. This system, inspired by the New York City Subway system,[22] allowed the design to stack local elevators within the same elevator shaft. Located on the 44th and 78th floors of each tower, the sky lobbiesenabledtheelevatorstobeusedefficiently,increasingtheamountofusablespaceoneachfloor from 62 to 75 percent by reducing the number of elevator shafts.[23][24] Altogether, the World Trade Centerhad95expressandlocalelevators.[25] Yamasaki's design for the World Trade Center, unveiled to the public on January 18, 1964, called for a squareplanapproximately208feet (63m)indimensiononeachside.[20][26]The buildingsweredesigned withnarrowofficewindows18inches(46cm)wide,whichreflectedYamasaki'sfearofheightsaswellas his desire to make building occupants feel secure.[27] Yamasaki's design included building facades sheathed in aluminumalloy.[28] The World Trade Center was one of the moststriking American implementations of the architectural ethic of Le Corbusier, and it was the seminal expression of Yamasaki'sgothicmodernisttendencies.[29] Inadditiontothetwintowers,theplanfortheWorldTradeCentercomplexincludedfourotherlowrise buildings, which were built in the early 1970s. The 47story 7World Trade Center building was added in the 1980s, to the north of the main complex. Altogether, the main World Trade Center complex occupieda16acre(65,000m2)superblock.[30]

 Structuraldesign

TheWorldFinancialCenterandBatteryParkCitywerebuiltonreclaimedland. The structural engineering firm Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson worked to implement Yamasaki's design, developing the tubeframe structural system used in the twin towers. The Port Authority's Engineering Department served as foundation engineers, Joseph R. Loring & Associates as electrical engineers, and Jaros, Baum & Bolles as mechanical engineers. Tishman Realty & Construction Company was the general contractor on the World Trade Center project. Guy F. Tozzoli, director of the World Trade Department at the Port Authority, and Rino M. Monti, the Port Authority's Chief Engineer, oversaw the project.[31] As an interstate agency, the Port Authority was not subject to local laws and regulationsoftheCityofNewYorkincludingbuildingcodes.Nonetheless,thestructuralengineersofthe World Trade Center ended up following draft versions of the new 1968 building codes.[32] The tube frame design, earlier introduced by Fazlur Khan, was a new approach that allowed more open floor plans than the traditional design that distributed columns throughout the interior to support building loads. The World Trade Center towers used highstrength, loadbearing perimeter steel columns called Vierendeel trusses that were spaced closely together to form a strong, rigid wall structure, supporting virtually all lateral loads such as wind loads, and sharing the gravity load with the core columns. The perimeterstructurecontaining59columnspersidewasconstructedwithextensiveuseofprefabricated modularpieceseachconsistingofthreecolumns,threestoriestall,connectedbyspandrelplates.[32]The spandrel plates were welded to the columns to create the modular pieces offsite at the fabrication shop.[33] Adjacent modules were bolted together with the splices occurring at midspan of the columns and spandrels. The spandrel plates were located at each floor, transmitting shear stress between columns, allowing them to work together in resisting lateral loads. The joints between modules were staggeredverticallysothecolumnsplicesbetweenadjacentmoduleswerenotatthesamefloor.[32]

The core of the towers housed the elevator and utility shafts, restrooms, three stairwells, and other support spaces. The core of each tower was a rectangular area 87 by 135feet (27 by 41m) and contained 47 steel columns running from the bedrock to the top of the tower. The large, columnfree space between the perimeter and core was bridged by prefabricated floor trusses. The floors supported their own weight as well as live loads, providing lateral stability to the exterior walls and distributing wind loads among the exterior walls.[34] The floors consisted of 4 inches (10cm) thick lightweight concrete slabs laid on a fluted steel deck. A grid of lightweight bridging trusses and main trusses supported the floors.[35] The trusses connected to the perimeter at alternate columns and were on 6foot 8inch (2.03m) centers. The top chords of the trusses were bolted to seats welded to the spandrelson theexteriorsideanda channelwelded tothe corecolumnsontheinteriorside.Thefloors were connected to the perimeter spandrel plates with viscoelastic dampers that helped reduce the amountofswayfeltbybuildingoccupants. Hat trusses (or "outrigger truss") located from the 107th floor to the top of the buildings were designed to support a tall communication antenna on top of each building.[35] Only 1WTC (north tower) actually had an antenna fitted; it was added in 1978.[36] The truss system consisted of six trusses along the long axis of the core and four along the short axis. This truss system allowed some load redistribution betweentheperimeterandcorecolumnsandsupportedthetransmissiontower.[35] The tube frame design using steel core and perimeter columns protected with sprayedon fire resistant material created a relatively lightweight structure that would sway more in response to the wind compared to traditional structures such as the Empire State Building that have thick, heavy masonry for fireproofing of steel structural elements.[37] During the design process, wind tunnel tests were done to establishdesignwindpressuresthattheWorldTradeCentertowerscouldbesubjectedtoandstructural response to those forces.[38] Experiments also were done to evaluate how much sway occupants could comfortably tolerate, however, many subjects experienced dizziness and other ill effects.[39] One of the chief engineers Leslie Robertson worked with Canadian engineer Alan G. Davenport to develop viscoelastic dampers to absorb some of the sway. These viscoelastic dampers, used throughout the structures at the joints between floor trusses and perimeter columns along with some other structural modifications,reducedthebuildingswaytoanacceptablelevel.[40]

Construction

 ThisportionofCortlandtStreet(shownin1936)wasacquiredanddemolished. In March 1965, the Port Authority began acquiring property at the World Trade Center site.[41] Demolition work began on March 21, 1966, to clearthirteen square blocks of low rise buildings in Radio Row for construction of the World Trade Center.[42] Groundbreaking for the construction of the World TradeCentertookplaceonAugust5,1966.[43] The site of the World Trade Center was located on landfill with the bedrock located 65 feet (20m) below.[44] To construct the World Trade Center, it was necessary to build a "bathtub" with a slurry wall around the West Street side of the site, to keep water from the Hudson River out.[45] The slurry method selected by Port Authority's chief engineer, John M. Kyle, Jr., involved digging a trench, and as excavationproceeded,fillingthespace witha"slurry"mixturecomposedofbentoniteandwater,which plugged holes and kept groundwater out. When the trench was dug out, a steel cage was inserted and concrete was poured in, forcing the "slurry" out. It took fourteen months for the slurry wall to be completed; it was necessary before excavation of material from the interior of the site could begin.[46] The 1.2million cubic yards (917,000m3) of material excavated were used (along with other fill and dredgematerial)toexpandtheManhattanshorelineacrossWestStreettoformBatteryParkCity.[47][48]

WorldTradeCenterunderconstructionin1971

 TheWorldTradeCenterfromthethennewlycompletedWestSideHighwayinJuly2001. In January 1967, the Port Authority awarded $74million in contracts to various steel suppliers, and Karl Koch was hired to erect the steel.[49] Tishman Realty & Construction was hired in February 1967 to oversee construction of the project.[50] Construction work began on the North Tower in August 1968; constructionontheSouthTowerwasunderwaybyJanuary1969.[51]TheoriginalHudsonTubes,carrying PATH trains into Hudson Terminal, remained in service as elevated tunnels during the construction processuntil1971whenanewPATHstationopened.[52] The topping out ceremony of 1WTC (North Tower) took place on December 23, 1970, while 2WTC's ceremony (South Tower) occurred later on July 19, 1971.[51] The first tenants moved into the North TowerinDecember1970; theSouthToweracceptedtenantsinJanuary1972.[53]Whenthe WorldTrade Center twin towers were completed, the total costs to the Port Authority had reached $900million.[54] TheribboncuttingceremonywasonApril4,1973.[55]

Criticism
Plans to build the World Trade Center were controversial. The site for the World Trade Center was the location of Radio Row, home to hundreds of commercial and industrial tenants, property owners, small businesses, and approximately 100 residents, many of whom fiercely resisted forced relocation.[56] A group of small businesses affected filed an injunction challenging the Port Authority's power of eminent domain.[57] The case made its way through the court system to the United States Supreme Court; the Courtrefusedtoacceptthecase.[58] Private real estate developers and members of the Real Estate Board of New York, led by Empire State Building owner Lawrence A. Wien, expressed concerns about this much "subsidized" office space going ontheopenmarket,competingwiththeprivatesectorwhentherewasalreadyaglutofvacancies.[59][60] The World Trade Center itself was not rented out completely until after 1979.[61] Others questioned whether the Port Authority really ought to take on a project described by some as a "mistaken social priority".[62] The World Trade Center design brought criticism of its aesthetics from the American Institute of Architects and other groups.[28][63] Lewis Mumford, author of The City in History and other works on urban planning, criticized the project and described it and other new skyscrapers as "just glassand

metal filing cabinets".[64] The twin towers' narrow office windows, only 18 inches (46cm) wide and framed by pillars that restricted views on each side to narrow slots, were disliked by many.[27] Activist and sociologist Jane Jacobs also criticized plans for the WTC's construction, arguing that the waterfront shouldbekeptopenforNewYorkerstoenjoy.[65] The trade center's "superblock", replacing a more traditional, dense neighborhood, was regarded by some critics as an inhospitable environment that disrupted the complicated traffic network typical of Manhattan. For example, in his book The Pentagon of Power, Lewis Mumford denounced the center as an "example of the purposeless giantism and technological exhibitionism that are now eviscerating the livingtissueofeverygreatcity".[66] Formanyyears,theimmenseAustinJ.TobinPlazawasoftenbesetbybriskwindsatgroundlevelowing to the venturi effect between the two towers.[67] In fact, some gusts were so high that pedestrian travel had to be aided by ropes.[68] In 1999, the outdoor plaza reopened after undergoing $12million renovations, which involved replacing marble pavers with gray and pink granite stones, adding new benches,planters,newrestaurants,foodkiosksandoutdoordiningareas.[69]

Complex
NorthandSouthtowers

TheWTCsitebuildingarrangement Withtheconstructionof7WorldTradeCenterinthe1980s,theWorldTradeCenterhadatotalofseven buildings,butthemostnotablewerethemaintwotowers.Eachstoodover1,350feet(410m)high,and

occupied about one acre (43,560square feet) of the total 16 acres (65,000m2) of the site's land. During apressconferencein1973,Yamasakiwasasked,"Whytwo110storybuildings?Why notone220story building?"Hisresponsewas:"Ididn'twanttolosethehumanscale."[70] When completed in 1972, 1World Trade Center (the North Tower) became the tallest building in the world for two years, surpassing the Empire State Building after a 40year reign. The North Tower stood 1,368feet(417m)tallandfeaturedatelecommunicationsantennaormastthatwasaddedatthetopof the roof in 1978 and stood 360 feet (110m) tall. With the 360foot (110m)tall antenna/mast, the highest point of the North Tower reached 1,728ft (527m). 2World Trade Center (the South Tower) became the second tallest building in the world when completed in 1973. The South Tower's rooftop observationdeckwas1,362ft(415m)highanditsindoorobservationdeckwas1,310ft(400m)high.[71] The World Trade Center towers held the height record only briefly: Chicago's Sears Tower, finished in May 1973, reached 1,450 feet (440m) at the rooftop.[72] Throughout their existence, however, the WTC towers had more floors (at 110) than any other building. This number was not surpassed until the adventoftheBurjKhalifa,whichopenedin2010. Of the 110 stories, eight were set aside for technical services in mechanical floors Level B5/B6 (floors 7/8, 41/42, 75/76, and 108/109), which are four twofloor areas that evenly spaced up the building. All the remaining floors were free for openplan offices. Each floor of the towers had 40,000 square feet (3,700m2) of space for occupancy.[25] Each tower had 3,800,000 square feet (350,000m2) of office space. Altogether the entire complex of seven buildings had 11,200,000 square feet (1,040,000m2) of space.

LobbyofTower1,lookingsouthalongtheeastsideofthebuilding Initially conceived as a complex dedicated to companies and organizations directly taking part in "world trade",theyatfirstfailedtoattracttheexpectedclientele.Duringtheearlyyears,variousgovernmental organizationsbecamekeytenantsoftheWorldTradeCenterincludingtheStateofNewYork.Itwasnot until the1980sthatthe city'sperilousfinancialstateeased,after whichanincreasingnumberofprivate companiesmostly financial firms tied to Wall Streetbecame tenants. During the 1990s, approximately 500 companies had offices in the complex including many financial companies such as Morgan Stanley, Aon Corporation, Salomon Brothers and the Port Authority itself. The basement concourseoftheWorldTradeCenterincludedTheMallattheWorldTradeCenter,[73]alongwithaPATH

station.[74] The North Tower became the home of the corporate headquarters of Cantor Fitzgerald,[75] anditalsobecametheheadquartersofthePortAuthorityofNewYorkandNewJersey.[76] ElectricalservicetothetowerswassuppliedbyConsolidatedEdison(ConEd)at13,800volts.Thisservice passedthroughtheWorldTradeCenterPrimaryDistributionCenter(PDC)and sentupthroughthe core ofthebuildingtoelectricalsubstationslocatedonthemechanicalfloors.Thesubstationsstepped down the 13,800 primary voltage to 480/277volt secondary service, and then further down to 208/120volt general power and lighting service. The complex also was served by emergency generators located in thesublevelsofthetowersandontheroofof5WTC.[77][78] The 110th floor of 1World Trade Center (the North Tower) housed radio and television transmission equipment. The roof of 1WTC contained a vast array of transmission antennas including the 360ft (approx 110m) center antenna mast, rebuilt in 1999 by Dielectric Inc. to accommodate DTV. The center mastcontainedthetelevisionsignalsforalmostallNYCtelevisionbroadcasters:WCBSTV2,WNBCTV4, WNYW5, WABCTV7, WPIX11, WNET13 Newark, WPXNTV31 and WNJU47 Linden. It also had four NYC FM broadcasters: WPATFM93.1, WNYC93.9, WKCR89.9, and WKTU103.5. Access to the roof was controlledfromtheWTCOperationsControlCenter(OCC)locatedintheB1levelof2WTC.

TopoftheWorldobservationdeck

TwoWorldTradeCenter'sobservationdeckreceivedanestimated80,000visitorsaday. Although most of the space in the World Trade Center complex was offlimits to the public, the South Tower featured an indoor and outdoor public observation area called Top of the World Trade Center Observatoriesonits107thand110thfloors.Visitorswouldpassthroughsecuritychecksaddedafterthe 1993 World Trade Center bombing,[79] then were whisked to the 107th floor indoor observatory at a height of 1,310 feet (400m). The columns on each face of the building were narrowed on this level to allow 28inches of glass between them. The Port Authority renovated the observatory in 1995, then

leased it to Ogden Entertainment to operate. Attractions added to the observation deck included a simulated helicopter ride around the city. The 107th floor food court was designed with a subway car themeandfeaturedSbarroandNathan'sFamousHotDogs.[80][81]Weatherpermitting,visitorscouldtake two short escalator rides up from the 107th floor viewing area to an outdoor viewing platform on the 110thfloorataheightof1,377ft(420m).[82]Onaclearday,visitorscouldseeupto50miles(80km).[80] An antisuicide fence was placed on the roof itself, with the viewing platform set back and elevated above it, requiring only an ordinary railing and leaving the view unobstructed, unlike the observation deckoftheEmpireStateBuilding.[81]