lewis black
July 7th, 2006, 09:02 PM
The World Trade Center consisted of two 110-story buildings (known as the "Twin Towers") and five smaller buildings. The buildings were light, economical structures designed to keep the wind bracing on the outside surfaces. Architect Minoru Yamasaki studied over a hundred models before adopting the twin tower plan. Plans for a single tower were rejected because the size was cumbersome and impractical. Plans for several towers "looked too much like a housing project," Yamasaki said. The World Trade Center Towers were among the tallest buildings in the world, and contained nine million square feet of office space.
Construction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers
* Tower One was 1,368 feet (414 meters) tall
* Tower Two was 1,362 feet (412 meters) tall
* Each tower was 64 m square
* Each tower stood 411 m above street level
* The Towers rested on solid bedrock and the foundations extended 21 m below grade
* The Towers had a height-to-width ratio of 6.8.
* The Tower facades were constructed of aluminum and steel lattice
* Each tower used a lightweight tube construction with 244 closely spaced columns on the outer walls
* A 80 cm tall web joist connected the core to the perimeter at each floor
* Concrete slabs were poured over the web joists to form the floors
* There were no interior columns in the Tower office spaces
* Each tower contained 104 passenger elevators
* Each tower had 21,800 windows
* Each tower weighed about 500,000 tons
* About 50,000 people worked in the World Trade Center complex
From Architect Minoru Yamasaki
Quotes from the Chief Architect of the World Trade Center in New York City
Why the World Trade Center Towers Fell
Engineers who studied the Twin Towers after the September 11 attacks explain why the buildings stood as long as they did, and why they eventually collapsed.
World Trade Center Reconstruction
Find news, links, photos, and structural information in our master index of World Trade Center information.
Could the Twin Towers have been made stronger or safer?
Tell us what you think.
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Three planes crashed into major U.S. landmarks in New York and Washington on Tuesday, destroying one of New York's mighty twin towers, in a dramatic and deadly attack on the United States.
Loss of life from the attacks was feared to be catastrophic and could number in the hundreds or even thousands.
Both of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were struck by planes deliberately plowing into them at the start of the workday. Shortly afterwards, a third plane crashed into or near the Pentagon in Washington, throwing people off their feet inside the building and touching off a big fire.
That building, the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and other key government buildings were evacuated as the nation ground to a virtual halt and panic spread throughout the country. Authorities grounded all planes in the United States, an unprecedented step.
President George W. Bush called the deliberate aerial assaults an ``apparent terrorist attack,'' and ordered a full-scale investigation.
Early reports said all three planes used in the attacks were hijacked, two of them from Boston. It was not immediately known who flew the planes and what happened to them.
The first plane crashed into one of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center as thousands of workers arrived to begin their day.
Huge Hole in Building
It opened a huge hole near the top of the building. Two hours later, the whole building in which thousands of people collapsed on itself in a huge cloud of smoke and fire.
TV stations caught the second plane ploughing into the second of the twin towers, exploding in a fire ball a few minutes after the first impact.
``It's clear that this is terrorist-related, we're not sure who is responsible,'' a U.S. official said.
``There was no advance warning of this,'' the official said on condition of anonymity.
One of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center was American Airlines' Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, said Lori Bassani, spokesperson for American's flight attendants union.
Bassani, who said she was in a meeting with American officials in Fort Worth, Texas, American's headquarters, said if full, the flight on the Boeing 767 would carry 158 passengers. That would include two pilots and nine or 10 flight attendants, she said.
She said she did not know how many people were on board.
Bush cut short a visit to Florida and rushed back to Washington to face the greatest crisis of his young presidency.
``Terrorism against our nation will not stand,'' Bush said before leaving for the capital.
``Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country,'' he said, speaking before schoolchildren, teachers and parents at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, where he had planned to talk about education.
``I have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of New York, to the director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and the families and to conduct a full scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act,'' said Bush.
He called for a moment of silence. ``May God bless the victims, their families and America,'' he said, his voice breaking with emotion.
Construction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers
* Tower One was 1,368 feet (414 meters) tall
* Tower Two was 1,362 feet (412 meters) tall
* Each tower was 64 m square
* Each tower stood 411 m above street level
* The Towers rested on solid bedrock and the foundations extended 21 m below grade
* The Towers had a height-to-width ratio of 6.8.
* The Tower facades were constructed of aluminum and steel lattice
* Each tower used a lightweight tube construction with 244 closely spaced columns on the outer walls
* A 80 cm tall web joist connected the core to the perimeter at each floor
* Concrete slabs were poured over the web joists to form the floors
* There were no interior columns in the Tower office spaces
* Each tower contained 104 passenger elevators
* Each tower had 21,800 windows
* Each tower weighed about 500,000 tons
* About 50,000 people worked in the World Trade Center complex
From Architect Minoru Yamasaki
Quotes from the Chief Architect of the World Trade Center in New York City
Why the World Trade Center Towers Fell
Engineers who studied the Twin Towers after the September 11 attacks explain why the buildings stood as long as they did, and why they eventually collapsed.
World Trade Center Reconstruction
Find news, links, photos, and structural information in our master index of World Trade Center information.
Could the Twin Towers have been made stronger or safer?
Tell us what you think.
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Three planes crashed into major U.S. landmarks in New York and Washington on Tuesday, destroying one of New York's mighty twin towers, in a dramatic and deadly attack on the United States.
Loss of life from the attacks was feared to be catastrophic and could number in the hundreds or even thousands.
Both of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were struck by planes deliberately plowing into them at the start of the workday. Shortly afterwards, a third plane crashed into or near the Pentagon in Washington, throwing people off their feet inside the building and touching off a big fire.
That building, the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and other key government buildings were evacuated as the nation ground to a virtual halt and panic spread throughout the country. Authorities grounded all planes in the United States, an unprecedented step.
President George W. Bush called the deliberate aerial assaults an ``apparent terrorist attack,'' and ordered a full-scale investigation.
Early reports said all three planes used in the attacks were hijacked, two of them from Boston. It was not immediately known who flew the planes and what happened to them.
The first plane crashed into one of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center as thousands of workers arrived to begin their day.
Huge Hole in Building
It opened a huge hole near the top of the building. Two hours later, the whole building in which thousands of people collapsed on itself in a huge cloud of smoke and fire.
TV stations caught the second plane ploughing into the second of the twin towers, exploding in a fire ball a few minutes after the first impact.
``It's clear that this is terrorist-related, we're not sure who is responsible,'' a U.S. official said.
``There was no advance warning of this,'' the official said on condition of anonymity.
One of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center was American Airlines' Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, said Lori Bassani, spokesperson for American's flight attendants union.
Bassani, who said she was in a meeting with American officials in Fort Worth, Texas, American's headquarters, said if full, the flight on the Boeing 767 would carry 158 passengers. That would include two pilots and nine or 10 flight attendants, she said.
She said she did not know how many people were on board.
Bush cut short a visit to Florida and rushed back to Washington to face the greatest crisis of his young presidency.
``Terrorism against our nation will not stand,'' Bush said before leaving for the capital.
``Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country,'' he said, speaking before schoolchildren, teachers and parents at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, where he had planned to talk about education.
``I have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of New York, to the director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and the families and to conduct a full scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act,'' said Bush.
He called for a moment of silence. ``May God bless the victims, their families and America,'' he said, his voice breaking with emotion.