True story the Twin Towers blown up in New York and what they really symbolized

Fifteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, the World War II complex was bombed in New York. shopping center. 2996 people were killed, over 10 thousand were injured of varying severity. Both Twin Towers have ceased to exist. Another building of the complex, the Marriott Hotel, was buried under the rubble of the first tower. The frames of the four others survived, but they were deemed beyond repair and demolished.

Idea

The idea to build the World Trade Center (WTC) in Manhattan was proposed by the famous billionaire brothers back in the late 1950s. David and former mayor of New York at the time Nelson Rockefellers. They were supported by the local Port Administration. Construction of the complex began in 1966 and cost, according to some estimates, $1.5 billion.

The World Trade Center skyscrapers were designed by an American modernist architect Minoru Yamasaki, who is believed to have won the competition because he proposed to build the towers quickly and cheaply. He worked together with Antonio Brittaiocchi and by Emery Roth & Sons. Before starting to build the two giants of steel, glass and concrete, Yamasaki created hundreds of models. Perhaps he felt that the most grandiose and modern building in the world at that time would become his swan song and therefore tried to express his idea in it. “The World Trade Center should be a symbol of faith in the power of man,” the architect said more than once.

When creating the project, Yamasaki mixed his Gothic tastes and the architectural and ethical ideas of the great Le Corbusier. Subsequently, some critics called the architectonics of the WTC towers limited and boring, and the poverty of form, in their opinion, served as an “indicator of internal disaster.” Some considered these buildings to be the embodiment of the existing social system in the United States.

When the first of the colossi appeared in New York, critics called it “the biggest finger in the sky.” A specialist in technical history Lewis Mumford regarded Twin Towers as "an example of the unintentional gigantism and technological exhibitionism that is now eviscerating the living fabric of every great city." Many people also did not like the narrow (only 46 cm wide) windows of the office premises of the towers. According to the prevailing opinions at that time, the architect made them this way because he was terribly afraid of heights.

However, there was also an opinion that the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center represented a man and a woman. As confirmation, it was pointed out that Yamasaki emphasized the male tower with an elastic antenna, and the female tower with an observation deck gateway. He and She seemed to be on the move towards the Hudson and all of America. The woman, as always, was half a step behind. Perhaps this was an architectural representation of Adam and Eve leaving Paradise? The architect himself definitely did not speak out on this matter.

Design

Dozens of low-rise buildings were demolished to clear space for a grandiose construction project near the city's port. 1.2 million cubic yards of earth were removed and transported to create a 21-meter-deep foundation under the skyscrapers and the Plaza, an underground space that later housed shops, restaurants, banks, airline ticket offices, travel agencies, a new metro station, and maintenance workshops for the twin towers. , warehouses and an underground garage for 2 thousand cars.

When building skyscrapers, an engineering idea was used that was first used to create the IBM office center in Seattle. In this case, the designers also used a structural model of a rigid “hollow tube” of closely spaced columns with a diameter of 990 mm, with floor trusses 83 cm thick, expanding towards the central part. Many steel columns inside the building became the load-bearing part that supported the entire building. The “stiffening ribs” were complex-profile steel floors. This concept made it possible to create spacious spaces inside, not cluttered with unnecessary structures.

The buildings' 64.5 m wide façade was a prefabricated steel lattice with columns 476.25 mm wide. They protected the entire structure from wind and other external overturning loads. The location of the “wind supports” outside the surface of the building prevented the transfer of forces through the membrane of the floors to the center. There were 61 steel beams along each of the four sides of the building along the entire height. Cables were stretched between them along the entire height. They, as well as a package of cables inside the elevator shafts, provided design flexibility. In general, the towers were a combination of steel cages from factory-produced modules measuring 10x3 m and weighing 22 tons. The external columns of the buildings were finished with a silver aluminum alloy. This gave the impression that the skyscrapers had no windows at all. Although there were as many as 43 thousand of them.

The Twins were the first supertall buildings designed without masonry. A special “dry-wall” system was developed for them, fixed in a reinforced steel base. The floors were supported by a series of lightweight trusses on rubber panels located between the outer columns and the elevator section. Both “brothers,” as the designers claimed, were able to withstand hurricane wind and were supposed to withstand even if rammed by a medium-sized aircraft, such as a Boeing 707.

They were constructed mainly from glass, steel and concrete using duralumin and durable titanium. In total, about 400 thousand cubic meters were needed for construction. m of cement, 200 thousand tons of steel and 20 thousand sq. m. m glass.

Operation

The first tower was built by 1970. But officially the World Trade Center in New York was opened only on April 4, 1973 after the second one was put into operation. The complex included five more ground-based structures. Among them are the high-rise Marriott Hotel, a commodity exchange and the 8-story palace of the American Customs House. 8 floors in both high-rise buildings (7-8, 41-42, 75-76 and 108-109) were technical. Everyone else total area more than 1 million sq. m, were rented.

The height of the World Trade Center skyscrapers (North Tower - 110 floors, 417 m, South Tower - 104 floors, 415 m) was a constant topic of jokes and anecdotes at that time. Here's one of them. At a press conference after the opening ceremony of the World Trade Center, Yamasaki was asked: “Why two buildings of 110 floors each? Why not one in 220? His answer: “I didn’t want to lose the human scale.”

In the 1990s, the World Trade Center towers housed 10% of all the offices in lower Manhattan. Almost 500 companies had offices there. Thus, in the South Tower, 25 floors for the head office were rented by the investment corporation Morgan Stanley, which manages capital worth $487 billion, and 5 floors were occupied by the Oppenheimer fund with a “modest” $125 billion under management. Fuji Bank was located on four floors . 3 floors each were occupied by the New York Stock Exchange, the insurance company AON, the telecommunications company Verizon (capitalization $17.5 billion), the architectural firm Manciani Duffi (recognized as the best interior designer in 2000) and the law firm Thacher, Proffit & Wood . The computer corporation Sun Microsystems, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, and the insurance agency Frenkel&Co had modest, only 2 floors.

On a typical day, 50 thousand employees and 200 thousand visitors and tourists came to work at the World Trade Center. On the 107th floor of the North Tower there was a fashionable and expensive restaurant “Windows to the World”. Americans loved to celebrate weddings there and celebrate various significant events. In the 1990s, tens of thousands of tourists climbed to the observation deck of the South Tower every day. On a clear day, through the suicide fence, they could survey the surrounding area within a radius of 78 km.

The system of 99 elevators in skyscrapers was designed in such a way that high-speed lifts from below went to the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd sections of the building, starting on the 44th and 78th floors. From there, “local” elevators took passengers to the desired floor. Each sectional elevator could lift 55 people at a speed of about 8.5 m per second. In total, the World Trade Center complex had 239 elevators and 71 escalators, which were controlled by a computer center. The windows in the two towers were washed automatically 3 times a week using special machines on moving steel cables.

Destruction

The great design advantage of the New York twins was that the buildings' steel beams were connected to supports located less than a meter apart, forming the building's outer walls. While the vertical supports of most other American skyscrapers are located at a distance of up to 6 m from each other, and the main load in them is transferred to the combined diagonal pillars, damage to which, as a rule, leads to the immediate destruction of the entire building.

The downside was the lack of foam fire-fighting systems that could cope with burning aviation fuel. Concrete is guaranteed to withstand flames for an hour or two. But 91 thousand liters of aviation fuel, which were used to fill both planes sent by terrorists to the World Trade Center buildings, turned the winged cars into thermal bombs. When the combustion temperature exceeded 800 °C, the steel supports began to melt. However, it was later discovered that this was not the main reason for the collapse of Gemini.

A few years after the tragedy, experts unequivocally established that the cause of the collapse was a gradual shift in the center of gravity in the buildings as a result of a fire. The outer columns could not withstand the extraordinary stress.

Oleg KLIMOV

(based on materials from foreign press)

FOR REFERENCE: Minoru Yamasaki — American architect who combined the international style with neoclassical features. Born in Seattle, USA, December 1, 1912 in Japanese family who had American citizenship.

In 1949 he founded his own company. In 1951 he received an award from the American Institute of Architects for a residential complex in St. Louis, USA. True, already in 1972 these buildings were destroyed as “morally obsolete and socially burdensome.”

Among the most famous buildings designed by Minoru Yamasaki are the US Consulate in Kobe, Japan (1955), Lambert Airport in St. Louis, USA (1956), Memorial community center McGregor in Detroit, USA (1958), Dhahran airport, Saudi Arabia(1961) and Eastern Province Airport in Riyadh (1985).

He built skyscrapers and at the same time was terrified of heights. While working on the WTC buildings, Minoru Yamasaki divorced his wife, married another, then divorced and married again, then again. Eventually he divorced again and returned to his first wife.

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World Trade Center. New York Twin Towers - Fallen Brothers

New Yorkers called the Twin Towers the World Trade Center skyscrapers that were destroyed on September 11, 2001. terrorist attack. This event became a national tragedy for the United States. It was not for nothing that the terrorists chose the Twin Towers as their target, because they were the national pride of the country, a symbol of democracy and a symbol of the greatness of the American people. Today we are reminded of Twins Towers by a huge memorial built on the site of the tragedy. In many Hollywood films released before the events of September 11, we can see a panorama of the City of Dreams of New York, in which the towers of the World Trade Center are always present. Gigantic “twins” were also traditionally depicted on tourist postcards of those times. And how many souvenirs were made related to these towers! Unfortunately, now these trinkets are more likely to remind us of the sad:

However, this article was not planned as an essay in memory of the fallen colossi, but rather as a story about an architectural masterpiece that went into oblivion, but, nevertheless, retained a good memory of itself. It is natural that there is no project exactly copying the World Trade Center in the plans of American city planners. Why strive to repeat success? Let the Towers “live” in our hearts.

However, in addition to the memorial, it was decided to build several high-rise buildings on the area once occupied by the World Trade Center. Indeed, why shouldn’t such a tasty area of ​​Manhattan be empty? The Freedom Tower skyscraper, which will have a height of over 500 meters, is already at the construction stage. It will be approximately completed by 2013. In addition to this office building, there are 4 more projects, but they still only exist on paper. 3 high-rise towers and one residential building have been developed. These giants will grow next to the memorial on Greenwich Street.

Before we begin the story about Twins Towers, let's give a little explanation. The World Trade Center was in fact a complex of seven buildings, which included the ill-fated North and South Towers. Each of the towers contained 110 floors, but the height varied - for the South Tower it was 415 meters, and for the North Tower - 417. Nearby was the 22-story Marriott hotel, which had the abbreviated name WTC-3. Three more buildings, WTC 4-6, each had 9 floors, and WTC 7, located across the street from the rest of the complex, contained 47 floors.

History of construction

The idea to build a grandiose skyscraper was born in the post-war years. The US economy was actively recovering from the recession caused by World War II. In the 50s, most large companies located their offices in New York, namely in Manhattan. Influential businessman David Rockefeller, using the guarantee of his brother Nelson (who served as the city's governor), proposed to begin construction of the World Trade Center here. The project was supported by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The entire project was led by the Manhattan Creative Association, whose head was David Rockefeller. It was assumed that the World Trade Center, upon completion of construction, would contain about 4% of all office real estate in the city.

For some time, the project remained only in the minds of his associates, but at the end of the 50s, the World Trade Center began to work closely. This was mainly due to the political situation in the country. In those years, US citizens had a noticeable decrease in faith in further development democracy, prosperity of the country. It was then that the authorities decided to bring Rockefeller’s ideas to life by building the World Trade Center “with sauce” national project. According to the authorities, the gigantic complex could rally the entire people of America around itself. Famous architects vied with each other to propose their projects, but preference was given to the design of Minoru Yamasaki. This American architect of Japanese origin was the author of many beautiful projects, including: the airport in St. Louis, the Concrete Institute, and the Institute of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. Together with Minoru Yamasaki, the architect Antonio Brittechi, as well as the company Emiri Roth and Sons, worked on the concept of the World Trade Center.

In 1964, by order of the Port Authority, the first drawings of the future twin towers with a reduction of 130 times were created, and on August 5, 1966, construction of skyscrapers began.

From the very first days, various technical problems began to arise at the construction site. The site of future construction was not stone, but artificial soil, which was a mixture of cobblestones, sand, and pebbles. Therefore, the construction of the Twins Tower foundation required much more concrete than originally planned; this circumstance led to a sharp increase in construction costs.

Then they had to solve a complex engineering and technical problem. On the site of future skyscrapers, it was necessary to demolish about 160 buildings, but at the same time preserve all utilities (gas pipeline, water supply, sewerage, electrical cables, etc.), as well as the nearby high-speed highway and road network.

Another important problem was the underground line railway, passing in this place. It was impossible to close it, since every day tens of thousands of people traveled by subway to work and home. The authorities decided not to build alternative transport routes, as this would further increase the costs of building the towers. Therefore, the New York subway line operated until a new one was launched, with a station in the lowest tier of the World Trade Center complex.

More than 1.2 million cubic yards of earth had to be removed from the ground during the construction of Twins Tower. The formed pit became not only the foundation of the twin towers, but also the Plaza was organized in it, which is a huge space that housed a parking lot for 2000 cars, a new underground railway station, restaurants, offices of various companies, banks, warehouses, shops and etc.

According to the plan proposed by Minoru Yamasaki, the Twins Towers were to become not only the tallest skyscrapers in the United States of America, but also in the world. This meant that the Twin Towers should be given a greater height than the Empire State Building, which at that time firmly held the title of the largest building on the planet. An interesting engineering solution was invented for this. The towers were actually a very strong hollow metal tube created from columns with trusses for the floors. Along the walls of the building there were 61 beams made of special steel. Each column had a diameter of 476.25 mm, they were installed tightly to each other. The distance between the beams was only 558.8 mm. Each such steel block weighed as much as 22 tons, and the height was equal to 4 floors of the future building! In total, about 210,000 tons of heavy-duty steel were used in the construction of the skyscrapers. The floors between floors were made of concrete slabs and corrugated steel, which were attached to the load-bearing elements of the entire structure. Steel columns were erected inside the buildings for future elevators.

The Twin Towers were the first building in the world without the use of masonry and engineers were afraid that high blood pressure air flows can disrupt the normal operation of elevator shafts. Therefore, a special engineering system was developed for elevators, which was later called “dry-wall”. For a standard elevator system serving a skyscraper, it would be necessary to use almost half of the entire floor area of ​​the lower tier in order to place elevator shafts in it, which was not economically viable. Therefore, specialists from the Otis Elevators company have developed a special system, called “fast” and providing for the transfer of passengers on the 44th and 78th floors of buildings. Such an elevator system made it possible to reduce the number of elevator shafts by half compared to the traditional system. As a result, the Twins Tower complex had 239 elevators and 71 escalators. Each elevator was designed for a load capacity of 4535 kilograms, that is, it could simultaneously lift 55 people. The speed of the elevators was 8.5 meters per second. By the way, engineers also used this system of “transplants” when designing other skyscrapers that were born much later than Gemini.

During the construction of the facility, financial difficulties arose more than once, but despite this, construction not only did not stop, but also continued rapidly. In 1965-1970, New York authorities could not fully finance construction, so loan bonds were issued. In 1970 there was a major economic crisis, as a result of which payments on bonds were stopped by the authorities. At first, the administration decided to freeze construction for several years. But then this seditious idea was abandoned, because the prestige of the United States could have suffered greatly from these measures. Then economists developed another way of financing and the money was found. Taxes for entrepreneurs were raised, lease agreements for office space in the World Trade Center skyscrapers were concluded (with prepayment), etc.

Construction of the North Tower was completed in 1971, and two years later the South Tower was also commissioned. The official opening date of the World Trade Center in New York is April 4, 1973.

Characteristics of the World Trade Center Towers

As a result, the twin towers became the tallest skyscrapers in the United States. Each “giant brother” had 110 floors. The height of the 1st WTC building was 526.3 meters including the antenna. The last floor in the South Tower rose 411 m from the ground, and in the North Tower - 413! The depth of the foundation was 23 meters underground. The length of power cables exceeded 5,000 kilometers, and the total power electrical network amounted to about 80,000 kW. Thus, the builders really managed to bring to life the “Project of the Century,” which became one of the symbols of the United States and the pride of the American people.

IN recent years During the existence of the Complex, about 50,000 people came to work at the World Trade Center every day, and another 200,000 people a week visited the World Trade Center as tourists.

An Observatory was established in the South Tower on the 107th floor. The observation deck offered a magnificent view of the city. In the North Tower, on the level between the 106th and 107th floors, there was a chic restaurant “Windows on the World”, which was opened in 1976 and was the highest “high-rise” food outlet in the world.

At that time, no one could have imagined that these towers would ever fall. After all, the frame of the building, according to engineers, could withstand a blow of colossal force, for example, when rammed by an airplane. Moreover, the towers were not afraid of the strongest gusts of wind that raged at an altitude of 400 meters. The design of the skyscrapers was highly durable and stable, thanks to facades made in the form of steel frames and aluminum modular sections built into them. These elements measured 10x3.5 meters. All technical tricks were in vain, since when the planes crashed, it was not destructive force collisions, and high temperature. As a result of the explosion of fuel tanks containing over 5000 liters of gasoline, the steel was instantly heated to 1000 degrees Celsius! This is what triggered the collapse.

Reference

Currently, on the site of the twin towers, construction is underway of three new skyscrapers, under the working names Tower 2, 3 and 4, and a tower 541 meters high, which received the symbolic name “Freedom Tower”. All new buildings will be strikingly different from the first towers that fell in the terrorist attack. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new World Trade Center was held in July 2004, and construction itself began on April 27, 2006. The site is being developed by Larry Silverstein, a real estate entrepreneur. According to the plan, the completion of the Freedom Tower should take place before 2013. In addition to this tower, the new World Trade Center in New York will also include a residential skyscraper, three high-rise office buildings, a museum and memorial to the victims of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, as well as a concert and exhibition center. Many Americans dubbed the 540-meter skyscraper the "Tower of Fear" because... During its construction, innovative technologies will be used to prevent destruction in the event of a terrorist attack of any force. In particular, it is planned to encase the first 52 meters of the building in a concrete frame, and use prismatic glass for the exterior decoration; this is the only way to avoid the notorious “stone bag” visual effect.

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York divided the history of the United States of America into before and after. The three thousand people killed in the explosion of the Twin Towers is an irreparable loss for the American people. Question: “Who blew up the towers?” For many it remains open to this day. There are too many logical inconsistencies in the official version of the investigation.

Is the mission possible?

According to the official version, the twin towers were destroyed due to the explosions of planes that rammed the buildings. The fire that broke out during the attack weakened the metal structures and the building collapsed. Then the same thing happened to another skyscraper.

Ordinary people are still perplexed: how could people from Arab countries, whose names were previously known to the intelligence services, come to the United States, undergo training to pilot passenger Boeings, carry dummy firearms on board aircraft, hijack several aircraft at the same time and ram several buildings with enviable accuracy?

This whole operation looks incredible in appearance, but, nevertheless, theoretically it is feasible. Much more complex questions to the commission involved in the investigation are asked by experts who have received the results of analyzes obtained after examining the wreckage of the twin towers. At the scene of the tragedy, traces of explosives and thermite were found - a substance that reaches a temperature of 1500 degrees when burning. But let's talk about everything in order. Let's consider the main conspiracy theories of explosions.

Analysis of building debris taken to landfill

Less than a month after the terrorist attack, the US Army invaded Afghanistan, destroying the breeding grounds of terrorism, and at the same time writing off its debts, destabilizing the situation in the region and laundering multi-billion dollar investments in military industry, in which, as it became known during the election campaign Hillary Clinton, Washington “hawks” have not only state, but also personal interests.

The terrorist attack freed the hands of US intelligence services, which received the right to listen to other people's conversations and read other people's letters, not only on their own territory, but in any corner of the world. Even the leaders of the G7 countries have no right to their little secrets from Washington. This was clearly demonstrated by the scandal surrounding phone tapping. Angela Merkel.

There are many supporters of the idea that American intelligence services at least knew about the preparation of terrorist attacks, and most likely played a key role in the preparation. Only with the support of "Big Brother" could Islamic radicals with ties to al-Qaeda find themselves on US soil, receive top-notch flight training, end up on board planes with gun-like items, hijack planes and fly them into the wrong direction. predetermined goals.

Like a house of cards

Looking at the collapse of the Twin Towers, experts agree that it looks a lot like a controlled explosion. Such explosions are used when it is necessary to demolish a large building in a densely populated area of ​​the city. Explosive engineers, having studied the design of the structure, calculate the power of each charge placed at the base of the supporting structures. As a result, the demolished object should fold like a house of cards, so that each wall rushes inward.

When carrying out such events, residents of nearby houses are evacuated just in case. If there is an error in the calculations or some charges do not work, the building, instead of folding inward, may fall on its side, and then the destruction will be much greater than planned. Looking at the video, it’s hard not to be amazed at how neatly and how quickly the towers fold. It looks like real professional explosives experts worked on this.

Well, what about airplanes? After all, thousands of people saw them, and they were captured on film. Proponents of the controlled explosion theory are confident that the planes were needed for beautiful picture and so that ordinary people don’t have questions: how could a bunch of terrorists deliver tons of explosives into two heavily guarded buildings in the center of New York and set the charges in such a way that they collapse completely?

As for the plane that hit the Pentagon, it may not have been there at all. Images taken immediately after the attack show destruction, but do not show any details of the Boeing. The plane could explode, but it could not dissolve. Large pieces of the fuselage and engines should be visible. In addition, the damage to the building is too minor for a large passenger airliner to invade. They look more like the consequences of being hit cruise missile, and the terrorists simply could not have such missiles.

Who shot down the fourth plane?

There was also a fourth hijacked airliner, which the terrorists planned to aim either at White House, or to the Capitol. But he did not reach his goal. According to the official version, the passengers began to fight the terrorists and, as a result of a fight that broke out on board the plane, the plane crashed to the ground. Some conspiracy theorists are confident that the plane was shot down by the American military. This theory is confirmed by the fact that the debris was scattered at a great distance from each other. But several passengers managed to call their loved ones before the crash; even recordings of these conversations were preserved, confirming the official version.

Small atomic bomb

There are so many different opinions about the September 11 tragedy that some of them are even completely fantastic and incredible. For example, they say in all seriousness that a small bomb was blown up under each building. atomic bomb. Allegedly, the developers who planned to build the Trade Center were given a condition by the New York authorities - to provide for the possibility of dismantling the building. After all, it is clear that sooner or later it will fall into disrepair, and demolishing such a huge structure at that time, as it seemed then, would be much more difficult than building it. And for subsequent dismantling, the builders allegedly placed a nuclear charge under each building. But this theory is easily refuted by critics. On the spot nuclear explosion, even if small, must be observed increased level radiation. But he was not observed.

She's also a victim

According to the official version of the American government, the most painful issue is the third tower that collapsed during the terrorist attack. This skyscraper was called the Seventh Tower of the World Trade Center. This building was not hit by a plane, however, it collapsed overnight, like the two twin towers.

According to the official theory, the cause of the collapse was a fire that spread from neighboring towers. Allegedly, the communications through which water was supplied to the building to automatically extinguish the fire were destroyed, the fire engulfed the building, the structures could not stand it and collapsed.

Half of Americans surveyed a few years ago were unaware that three buildings were destroyed in New York City during the 2001 events. Many of those who know do not believe that the 47-story structure could instantly collapse as a result of a fire. In the United States, activists have repeatedly demanded a new investigation into the case and the publication of the results of the investigation, but the authorities did not hear them or simply did not want to hear them.

Suicide bombers in the US terrorist organization Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger planes, sending two of them to the symbol of business New York - the World Trade Center towers, and the other two - to the Pentagon and, presumably, the White House or the Capitol. All aircraft except the last one reached their targets. The fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

New York District Judge George Daniels issued a default judgment ordering Iran to pay $7.5 billion to relatives and other representatives of those killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The judge determined that Iranian authorities must pay another three billion to insurers who covered property damage and other material losses. Earlier, Judge Daniels ruled that Tehran could not prove its non-involvement in providing assistance to the organizers of the terrorist attack, and therefore the Iranian authorities bear a share of responsibility for the damage caused during it.

On the site of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2011, there was the World Trade Center Memorial. It consists of two square fountain pools located right at the bases of the former twin towers, along the inner walls of which streams of water cascade into square holes located at the bottom of each of the pools.

The names of 2,983 terrorist victims (including six who died in the 1993 World Trade Center attack) are carved into bronze slabs that line the parapets of both fountains.

Was open new complex World Trade Center. It is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world - its height is 541 meters. Construction began in April 2006 on the corner of a plot of 65 thousand square meters, where the twin towers of the destroyed shopping center previously stood.

Celebrated in the United States as Patriot Day since 2009, after the approval of Act 111-13 of the US General Law, this date is also referred to as the national Day of Service and Remembrance.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Exactly 45 years ago, on April 4, 1973, the World Trade Center, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, was inaugurated in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The architectural dominant of the complex were two twin towers, each with 110 floors - North (417 m high, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m) and South (415 m high). They became a world-famous symbol of New York.

The idea of ​​​​creating the World Trade Center in New York was born long before this. In 1943, the New York State Legislature passed a bill allowing New York Governor Thomas Dewey to begin planning for construction, but development was suspended in 1949.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s economic growth in New York was concentrated in the center of Manhattan. To stimulate redevelopment in other areas of Manhattan, David Rockefeller proposed that the Port Authority build a shopping center in Lower Manhattan. However, construction began 30 years later.

The architects of the project were Emery Roth & Sons and Minoru Yamasaki, who came from a family of emigrants and had previously built the buildings of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, the Pruitt-Igoe residential complex in St. Louis (Missouri), etc. Yamasaki was afraid of heights, so all his projects are distinguished by narrow vertical windows. The windows of the World Trade Center buildings were only 46 cm wide. Yamasaki explained that in this way he strives to create a feeling of security for a person who could go to the window and lean on it with both hands, feeling safe.

Yamasaki's original plan called for the twin towers to be 80 stories high, but due to Port Authority building requirements, the height of the buildings was increased to 110 stories. Opened in 1973, the towers are the world's tallest skyscrapers. In addition to the towers, the WTC plan included the construction of four low-rise buildings and a 47-story "7" World Trade Cente" (built in the mid-1980s).

The main factor in limiting the height of buildings was the installation of elevators - the higher the building, the more elevators were required to service it, requiring more cumbersome elevator shafts. Yamasaki and engineers decided to use new system with two "skylobbies" where people could move from a large express elevator to local elevators that went to the desired floors in their section.

Preparations for construction began in 1965 with the purchase of the Radio Row area and the demolition of existing buildings, mainly residential and small shops. Many local residents refused to move to other areas, so the start of construction was postponed several times. A group of small business owners filed a lawsuit against the Port Authority, challenging the relocation of their businesses from the area, but Supreme Court refused to accept it.

The complex was built on an embankment site, so the foundation, 20 meters deep, had to be made using complex technology to prevent water from breaking through from the Hudson into the construction area. This work took 14 months. In August 1968, construction began on the center's North Tower, and seven months later - on the South Tower.

Engineers from Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson decided to build the towers using a tube-frame system, without the use of load-bearing beams and columns - the steel columns in the core of the building, as well as in the external wall, were located so close to each other that they formed a rigid wall structure , which could withstand almost all lateral loads: wind and gravity. This made it possible to increase the usable area of ​​the twin towers.

The walls consisted of 59 columns on each side, each modular part included three columns, three stories high, connected by lintels, which in turn were welded to the columns and created new modular parts.

The columns were protected with sprayed fire-resistant material. To ensure the comfort of people inside the building, a series of experiments were carried out, after which engineers developed viscoelastic shock absorbers to absorb some of the vibrations, as some experienced nausea and dizziness in the towers.

A rectangular core of 27x41 m was constructed in each tower. Elevator and communication shafts, toilets, and auxiliary rooms were placed in it. It was built from 47 steel columns. The space between the outer wall and the core was covered with floor structures that connected to the outer wall in such a way as to reduce the amount of vibration. In this case, lateral loads were transferred from the outer wall to the central core.

The total cost of constructing the towers amounted to $900 million. The complex was inaugurated on April 4, 1973.

The design of the constructed World Trade Center drew criticism from urbanists and many architects. The Twin Towers have been called "glass-and-metal cabinets," "an example of the aimless gigantism and technological exhibitionism that is currently eviscerating the living fabric of every great city."

However, very quickly the towers became one of the symbols of New York along with the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Their image adorned postcards, the towers appeared in the screensavers of TV series ("Friends", "Sex in big city") and movies ("King Kong" 1976).

Before the world-famous terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, when the towers and other buildings of the complex were destroyed, the World Trade Center experienced a major fire and another terrorist attack.
On February 13, 1975, floors 9 to 14 of the North Tower burned down. The fire spread due to the fire of telephone wires in the shaft between floors. The fire was brought under control within several hours and no one was injured.

On February 26, 1993, a truck carrying 680 kg of explosives drove into the underground parking lot of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The explosion killed six people and injured more than 1,000 people. The goal of the terrorists was to destroy the North Tower, which, according to their calculations, was supposed to fall on the South Tower, which was supposed to lead to the destruction of both and mass casualties. After the terrorist attack, the alarm and fire safety systems were replaced.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked two American Airlines planes and flew them into the North and then the South Tower. The first plane crashed into the North Tower between the 93rd and 99th floors, trapping 1,344 people on the upper floors, unable to use the elevators or emergency exits.

In the South Tower, one of the staircase openings remained intact, but not everyone was able to use it before the collapse. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am, the North Tower at 10:28 am. As a result of the terrorist attack, 2,752 people died - 200 of them jumped out of windows. 20 people were pulled out alive from the rubble.