Twin Towers Facts

Twin Towers Facts
The Twin Towers were part of a seven-building complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City, which opened officially on April 4th, 1973, and existed until the 9/11 terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 brought them down. The Twin Towers were 1 World Trade Center and 2 World Trade Center. The original design of the Twin Towers was created by Minoru Yamasaki, an architect. He designed them to be 80 stories high but the Port Authority had a minimum square footage requirement for office space and they were extended to 110 stories. In order to safely construct such tall buildings a variety of tests were performed including wind tunnel tests to ensure the Twin Towers would stand up to strong winds.
Interesting Twin Towers Facts:
1 World Trade Center was also referred to as the North Tower. 2 World Trade Center was also referred to as the South Tower.
The Twin Towers could house 50,000 employees in its 10 million square feet of office space.
The Twin Towers were at the heart of New York City's Financial District.
The Twin Towers were part of a seven-building complex called the World Trade Center Complex. The other five buildings included 3 World Trade Center, 5 World Trade Center, 6 World Trade Center, and 7 World Trade Center.
The cost to build the World Trade Center Complex was $400 million in 1973. By today's value this would be equal to $2.3 billion.
The Port Authority wanted the Twin Towers to beat the Empire State Building for the title of world's tallest building.
It took more than 10,000 workers to build the Twin Towers. 60 of those workers lost their lives during its construction.
A French tightrope walker named Phillipe Petit strung up a rope between the Twin Towers in 1974 and walked across from one tower to the other.
In 1993 a terrorist attacked the North Tower by planting a bomb in its underground garage. He used 1500 pounds of explosives and the blast tore a hole 100 feet up five levels. Six people were killed and more than 1000 more injured.
There were 7 levels under the Twin Towers which held a subway station, shopping stores, and services.
There were 43,600 windows in the Twin Towers.
87 tons of food was delivered on a daily basis to the World Trade Center Complex.
There were a total of 17 babies born at the World Trade Center Complex.
Three men jumped from the top of the Twin Towers and parachuted down, and 12 mountain climbers managed to scale the Twin Towers' exteriors.
The Twin Towers collapsed on September 11th, 2001 after jet airliners crashed into them.
There were 2,192 civilians, 71 law enforcement officers, 343 firefighters, and 147 passengers on the planes that died in the attacks on 9/11 at Ground Zero (the Twin Towers' site).
There were an estimated 3800 gold bars stored in the basement of the Twin Towers. They were worth an estimated $100 million.
The Twin Towers housed approximately $100,000 worth of artwork at the time of their collapse.

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