The World Trade Center is a 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 a transportation hub. One World Trade Center will be the lead building for the new complex, reaching more than 100 stories at its completion. It will be the tallest building in the United States when complete.The original World Trade Center was thought of as a North American cultural icon. At the time of their completion the "Twin Towers", the original 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower), at 417 metres (1,368 ft), and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower), 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 of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1985, with a construction cost of $400 million ($2,300,000,000 in 2014 dollars). 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.The World Trade Center experienced a fire on February 13, 1975, a bombing on February 26, 1993 and a robbery on January 14, 1998. 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.On the morning of September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the complex, one into each tower, in a coordinated act of terrorism. After burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower (2) collapsed, followed a half-hour later by the North Tower (1). The attacks on the World Trade Center killed 2,753 people. 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). The process of cleaning up and recovery at the World Trade Center site took eight months.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, organized competitions to select a site plan and memorial design. Memory Foundations, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was selected as the master plan; however, substantial changes were made to the design.The first new building at the site was the 7 World Trade Center, which opened in May 2006. The memorial section of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened on September 11, 2011 and the museum is expected to open in spring 2014. Construction of the One World Trade Center is nearing completion and it is expected to open in 2014; the 4 World Trade Center opened on November 13, 2013; the 3 World Trade Center is under construction and expected to open in 2016; 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; 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.
Building end date
1970-12-23
1971-07-19
Destruction date
2001-09-11
Floor area (m2)
173542.878720
399483.072000
46451.520000
Floor count
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Opening date
1973-04-04
Comment
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