The World Trade Center is a partially completed complex of buildings, under construction, in Lower Manhattan, New York City,United States, replacing an earlier complex of seven buildings with the same name on the same site. The original World Trade Center featured landmark twin towers, which opened on April 4, 1973, and were destroyed in the September 11 attacks of 2001, along with 7 World Trade Center. The other buildings in the complex were severely damaged by the collapse of the twin towers, and their ruins were eventually demolished. The site is being rebuilt with six new skyscrapers, a memorial to those killed in the attacks, and atransportation hub. One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the United States, is the lead building for the new complex, reaching more than 100 stories[16] upon its completion in November 2014.[17]
At the time of their completion, the "Twin Towers" — the original 1 World Trade Center, at 1,368 feet (417 m); and 2 World Trade Center — were the tallest buildings in the world. The other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. All these buildings were built between 1975 and 1985, with a construction cost of $400 million ($2,300,000,000 in 2014 dollars).[18] The complex was located in New York City's Financial District and contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space.[19][20]
The World Trade Center experienced a fire on February 13, 1975,[21] a bombing on February 26, 1993,[22] and a robbery onJanuary 14, 1998.[23] In 1998, the Port Authority decided to privatize the World Trade Center, leasing the buildings to a private company to manage, and awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in July 2001.[24]
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the complex, beginning with the North Tower at 8:46 AM then the South Tower at 9:03 AM, in a coordinated act of terrorism. After burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 AM. 29 minutes later, the North Tower collapsed. The attacks on the World Trade Center killed 2,753 people.[25] 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 (including the World Financial Center); three buildings in the World Trade Center complex collapsed due to fire-induced structural failure,[26] and when the North Tower collapsed, debris fell on the nearby 7 World Trade Center building (7 WTC), damaging it and starting fires so that it eventually collapsed.[27][28] The process of cleaning up and recovery at the World Trade Center site took eight months.[29][30]
Over the following years, plans were created for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), established in November 2001 to oversee the rebuilding process,[31] organized competitions to select a site planand memorial design.[32] Memory Foundations, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was selected as the master plan;[33] however, substantial changes were made to the design.[34]
The first new building at the site was the 7 World Trade Center, which opened in May 2006.[5] The memorial section of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened on September 11, 2011[35] and the museum opened in May 2014.[36] 1 World Trade Center opened on November 3, 2014;[17] the 4 World Trade Center opened on November 13, 2013;[4] the 3 World Trade Center is under construction and expected to open in 2017;[37][38] As of November 2013, according to an agreement made with Silverstein Properties Inc., the 2 World Trade Center will not be built to its full height until sufficient leasing is established to make the building financially viable;[39] and 5 World Trade Center will be developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, but, as of February 2014, a schedule was not confirmed.[40]
Before the World Trade Center
The western portion of the World Trade Center site was originally under the Hudson River, with the shoreline in the vicinity of Greenwich Street. It was on this shoreline close to the intersection of Greenwich and the former Dey Street that Dutch explorerAdriaen Block's ship, the Tyger, burned to the waterline in November 1613, stranding Block and his crew and forcing them to overwinter on the island. They built the first European settlement in Manhattan. The remains of the ship were buried under landfill when the shoreline was extended starting in 1797, and were discovered during excavation work in 1916. The remains of a second ship from the eighteenth century were discovered in 2010 during excavation work at the site. The ship, believed to be a Hudson Riversloop, was found just south of where the Twin Towers used to stand, about 20 feet below the surface.[41]
Later, the area became Radio Row. New York City's Radio Row, which existed from 1921 to 1966, was a warehouse district on theLower West Side in the Financial District. Harry Schneck opened City Radio on Cortlandt Street in 1921, and eventually the area held several blocks of electronics stores, with Cortlandt Street as its central axis. The used radios, war surplus electronics (e.g., ARC-5radios), junk, and parts often piled so high they would spill out onto the street, attracting collectors and scroungers. According to a business writer, it also was the origin of the electronic component distribution business.[42]
The idea of establishing a World Trade Center in New York City was first proposed in 1943. The New York State Legislature passed a bill authorizing New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to begin developing plans for the project[43] but the plans were put on hold in 1949.[44] 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 Center in Lower Manhattan.[45]
Plans for the use of eminent domain to remove the shops in Radio Row bounded by Vesey, Church, Liberty, and West Streets began in 1961 when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was deciding to build the world's first world trade center. They had two choices: the east side of Lower Manhattan, near the South Street Seaport; and the west side, near the H&M station, Hudson Terminal.[46](p56) Initial plans, made public in 1961, identified a site along the East River for the World Trade Center.[47] As a bi-state agency, the Port Authority required approval for new projects from the governors of both New York and New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner objected to New York getting a $335 million project.[48] Toward the end of 1961, negotiations with outgoing New Jersey Governor Meyner reached a stalemate.[49]
At the time, ridership on New Jersey's Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (H&M) had declined substantially from a high of 113 million riders in 1927 to 26 million in 1958 after new automobile tunnels and bridges had opened across the Hudson River.[50] In aDecember 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 Trans-Hudson (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 New Jersey commuters arriving via PATH.[49] With the new location and Port Authority acquisition of the H&M Railroad, New Jersey agreed to support the World Trade Center project.[51] In compensation for Radio Row business owners' displacement, the PANYNJ gave each business $3,000 each, without regard to how long the business had been there or how prosperous the business was.[46](p68) After the area had been purchased for the World Trade Center in March 1964,[52] Radio Row was demolished starting in March 1965.[53] It was completely demolished by 1966.[54]
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.[55] In subsequent years, the payments would rise as the real estate tax rate increased.[56]
