  Construction September 9, 2009 THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, had two towers with the tallest one, the North Tower, standing 1,368 feet and the smaller, the South Tower, at 1,362 feet. The towers were constructed between 1966 and 1977. The architect conceived the World Trade Center as "a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace. . . a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men." From the top of the towers, it was possible to see 45 miles. At the World Trade Center site, the remains of what may be the ship, the Tijger, used to travel from Amsterdam to the New World by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block in 1613, were discovered during the construction of a subway tunnel in 1916. Pictured
above is a temporary reconstructed PATH subway station which opened
on November 27, 2003. A World Trade Center Transportation Hub,
designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to resemble "a bird being released from a child's hand, will become the third-largest transportation center in New York City in 2015. The hub will link pedestrians to the World Financial Center (WFC) and its ferries through an underground concourse. The photo taken on September 9, 2009 shows the construction and cranes at the World Trade Center. One of the buildings is the new headquarters for Goldman Sachs (3rd from the right). The dome and pyramid buildings on the left are Three World Financial Center and the glass skyscraper on the far right is Seven World Trade Center. Preliminary construction and the rebuilding of the WTC started on July 4, 2004. Currently, as of January 2012, the Freedom Tower's construction has reached the 90th floor. Blastings of the bedrock at the World Trade Center began June 12, 2006 and were the first steps
toward the construction of the Freedom
Tower. Changes to the design were announced in late
June 2006. Some of them include the
adding of a revolving beacon light to the spire’ top and the installation of
glass prisms to bring more light into the tower’s base. The final designs for the three towers that
are to surround the FREEDOM TOWER were
unveiled in
September 2007. During the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, the remnants of an 18 century ship were found 20 to 30 feet below street level at the WTC site on July 14, 2010. The wood-hulled vessel is a 30-foot length vessel and the first such large-scale archaeological find along the Manhattan waterfront since 1982 when an 18th-century cargo ship was found at 175 Water Street. The vessel is thought to date from the mid- to late 1700s and an old 1797 city map indicates that the WTC building site was near Lindsey's Wharf and Lake's Wharf at the Hudson River. The Sphere
sculpture was originally located at ground level in the outdoor plaza at the World Trade
Center. The bronze Sphere, which weighs 45,000 pounds, was designed as “a monument fostering world peace” by Fritz Koenig in 1971. It survived the
9/11/2001 terrorist attack. Although
damaged, it has been relocated to Battery Park as a temporary memorial to those who died that day. The entrance to the September 11th National Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero features two 70-foot columns savaged from the wreckage and debris of the World Trade Center's north tower. The 50-ton columns were permanently installed at the museum in September 2010. The World Trade Center is one of 11 world-wide sites, dedicated to fighting intolerance, chosen by the Anne Frank Center USA as the destination for saplings that originated from a horse Chesnut tree outside Anne Frank's window in Amsterdam, one she wrote of in her diary. The tree in Amsterdam, although diseased, is still standing and is 150 years old. The United States Navy commissioned the building of a warship, with its bow forged of 7.5 tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center and named U.S.S. New York, and the motto "Strength forged through sacrifice. Never forget." Ships have also been commissioned and will be named Arlington (the location of the Pentagon) and Somerset (the Pennsylvania county in which the fourth hijacked plane crashed); both locations hit on September 11th. The attack on the World Trade Center was the worst and most costly disaster in New York City history. Before the attack the event in the City that had cost the most lives was a fire on the General Slocum Steamboat on June 15, 1904. Over 1,000 immigrants -- most of them from the Lower East Side -- died in the fire. They were on an excursion up the East River to Locust Grove on Long island Sound for a day of recreation, good food, games and swimming. Other major disaster that have occurred in New York City are:
In the year 2010 a fierce national debate began over whether to allow the building of an Islamic Community Center and mosque near Ground Zero. That debate continues. Ironically, especially given the controversy surrounding the building of the community center, this area (around Washington Street) was once an Arab neighborhood of Syrian and Lebanese Christians and known as Little Syria On April 30, 2012, the Freedom Tower at One World Trade Center reached 1271 feet making the building the tallest one in New York City. When completed in the year 2013, the Freedom Tower will stand 1,776 feet. Once completed the new WTC will include:
|