Who built the twin towers. New world trade center in new york

It has been 16 years since the terrible fall of the Twin Towers in America on September 11, 2001. But the memories of that day still haunt millions of Americans. Many people's fates have been changed forever.

How many people have died?

In addition to American citizens, representatives of other countries were also among the dead. Among the dead there were 96 citizens from the former Soviet Union... After the completion of the search and rescue operations, specialists determined that approximately 10,000 fragments of human bones and tissues were found at the site of the crash of buildings, which significantly increases the indicators of the initial statistics of the incident. Fragments were also found much later, in 2006, when Deutsche Bank was reconstructed. Average age the death toll was 40 years.

Course of events

On September 9, terrorists hijacked four planes and were able to send two of them to the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and one to point at the Pentagon. The remaining plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers were able to defeat the hijackers.

The day, which began with a clear blue sky, ended with a mass of sinuous, smoldering smoke from twisted metal where the huge buildings of a shopping center once stood. As a result of this incident, 2,977 people died.

People's memory

The tragedy of 9/11 happened almost two decades ago. A quarter of Americans are too young to remember this disturbing event. “I have three children who do not remember the incident at all, since they have not yet been born. But we certainly don't want to forget, even when we live and face new challenges, ”says one American.

Thus, in memory of that day, 23 images hang here, serving as a reminder that no American should forget. The tragedy has taken on enormous proportions. Witnesses of what happened can tell a lot.

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center have been symbols for New Yorkers. For decades, people raised their eyes to them, and the structures were unshakable. It was a reassuring sight. According to the American's recollections, he visited the towers many times and looked at them many times. On the morning of September 11, he had just finished voting in Brooklyn when he looked up to see one of the towers on fire. Just a few minutes later, a second plane crashed into another tower. Something was wrong.

When President George W. Bush was informed of the tragic incident, at that time he was at a school event. The expression on his face, captured in the photograph, expresses almost all emotions. At that time, none of the members of the government knew what serious consequences this terrorist attack had for the country.

Major fire

The impact of the two jets of fire was devastating. It broke the steel structures of the towers and sparked fires that eventually led to the destruction of buildings. Combat aircraft took to the sky. Every non-military flight in US airspace was ordered to land.

Thousands of people were trapped in the upper floors of the towers. Many died instantly when planes crashed into buildings, and even more died when fires broke out and towers began to collapse. Some citizens jumped out of windows to avoid fire and smoke. A total of 2,606 people died in the towers.

The weather was wonderful, the sky was bright blue. The wind carried a massive plume of smoke over the city and harbor of New York. "Manhattan looked like it had exploded 10 megatons," - later wrote the British writer Martin Amis.

A terrible outcome

The structure of the towers was so damaged that their collapse was an inevitable consequence of the impact. At the time, however, no one expected such a dire outcome. People on the streets around the World Trade Center fled in panic. Buildings began to collapse one by one and fill the streets with rubble and dust.

The fires burned for hours and smoldered for several days in a mass of twisted steel and rubble. Lower Manhattan, below 14th Street, would later be closed to non-rescue traffic.

The area around the World Trade Center was a scene of total devastation. Smoke and dust hung in the air. Countless cars, trucks and rescue vehicles were destroyed.

Ruined tower structure

The feeling of tragedy was everywhere. Department of fire department in New York he lost his chaplain, the Reverend Michael, who was killed by falling debris.

Little remains of the elegant Twin Towers facades that Japanese architect Minoru Yamasaki designed to include narrow window openings and soaring arches.

The two 110-story towers overlooking the city have been compressed into a twisted mass of molten metal. Welders spent months cutting the steel so that the damaged structure could be disassembled.

Rescue work

New York City Fire Department personnel rushed to the scene and suffered incredibly high casualties among their workers while trying to rescue people from the burning towers. As a result, 343 members of the brigade were killed during the extinguishing operation. Strong men could not stand it, tears flowed down their cheeks every now and then.

In the days that followed, rescuers arrived in New York from neighboring cities and states. The sight of the bodies in the wreckage was indescribable horror. A contrasting sign of inflexibility was the moment when American flags were raised over the scene of the tragedy.

Close people posted photos of missing friends and family members in the desperate hope that they might be alive.

Tragedy united everyone

A city knit together is something that many Americans have never seen. Townspeople lined the streets to cheer the National Guard and rescuers as they arrived in Manhattan on a mission that became known as Ground Zero.

The Americans were seized with a thirst for vengeance. Soon, national troops were stationed in Afghanistan.

These attacks were not limited to New York. The Pentagon was also hit hard, killing 125 people.

The view of the Pentagon was also terrifying, but the military headquarters building itself did not collapse.

A new tower has risen to Ground Zero along with a memorial. It made many Americans feel proud the moment it opened. But this is not enough to make people forget this terrible day, in which many lives were cut short. America itself at that moment changed radically.

Lower Manhattan's new architecture dominates New York City. Here is the famous Oculus, from where you can once again look at the endless space of the city from above.

Memorial memorial

In commemoration of the huge losses in the 2001 terrorist attacks, a museum was opened in New York, the exposition of which is constantly expanding. More than 900,000 people attended the memorial, according to American media reports.

Here you can see fragments of a skyscraper frame made of steel, a mangled firefighters' vehicle that took part in the elimination of the fire, many photographs depicting the victims of that ill-fated day, and stunning videos.

Also, viewers can contemplate the jacket of a fighter who took part in the elimination of the largest terrorist Osama bin Laden, and a symbolic coin that belonged to a CIA officer who tracked down a dangerous terrorist.

The exhibits displayed at the memorial provide citizens with the opportunity to pay tribute to the courage of the multitudes of people who sacrificed their lives for their country.

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center have been a symbol of the financial power of the United States and New York for nearly three decades, and as a result, today they are associated with one of the most tragic events in recent history- the September 11 attacks. However, it will not be superfluous to look at the undoubtedly unique history that the Twin Towers had.

The decision to build a state-of-the-art office complex in an inconspicuous part of Lower Manhattan dates back to the early 1960s. New York was significantly updated in those years, so it was quite logical that the developer and chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank David Rockefeller and his brother, Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, came to the conclusion that such a large-scale project was necessary in a rather squalid part of the city at that time. ... In 1962, under the leadership of the Port Authority, planning began for the complex, the author of the project of which was the famous American architect of Japanese origin Minoru Yamasaki. His idea to build two huge towers, the likes of which no other city in the world knew then, caused a lot of controversy. In particular, many noted that they simply disfigure the city's appearance.

Nevertheless, in 1966 construction began, which lasted 7 years and encountered many difficulties. To begin with, it was necessary to demolish 164 buildings, close five streets and take out 1.2 million cubic yards of land, of which Battery Park City was later formed. Up to 3,500 workers could work at a construction site at a time. In total, about 10,000 people were involved in the construction of the towers, of which 60, alas, did not live to see the end of the construction.

The structure of the towers was very atypical for their time - avoiding masonry, the engineers used special steel beams that run the entire height of the building. There were 61 such beams on each side. The columns of the towers were lined with aluminum and were located only half a meter from each other, so that from a distance the twin towers could appear as buildings with no windows at all. Overlapping between floors consisted of concrete slabs and corrugated steel and attached to the external load-bearing walls.

Particular attention was paid to the elevators, which were specially designed by Otis for the towers. In total, 239 elevators with a lifting capacity of over 4.5 tons were installed. The North and South towers, which opened on April 4, 1973, were 417 and 415 meters high, respectively, and the northern one was also crowned by a huge antenna. In total, the towers had 110 floors, and at the time of construction they were the tallest skyscrapers on the planet.

Act of terrorism

The Twin Towers had a lot of trials. The first truly serious disaster was the 1975 fire that broke out on the 11th floor, and then spread in the space between the 9th and 14th.

However, these were still flowers compared to the terrorist attack of 1993, when on February 26 a truck with 680 kilograms of explosives was blown up in the underground parking of the North Tower. The result was a 30-meter hole, "decorating" 5 underground floors at once, and severe smoke pollution of the building, which was felt even on the upper floors. 5 people were killed, and the perpetrator of the terrorist attack, Ramzi Yusef, managed to escape to Pakistan. However, he was soon caught and extradited to the States, where he faced a life sentence.

Alas, after the first terrorist attack, the WTC buildings had only eight and a half years to stand. It all ended on September 11, 2001, when two terrorist attacks led to the destruction of both towers.

First, at 8:46 am, a hijacked American Airlines plane on flight 11 collided with the North Tower. It hit the north facade of the building between the 93rd and 99th floors. At the same time, as a result of this blow, a violent fire broke out, and all possible outputs for those on the upper floors, over a thousand people were thus trapped.

Seventeen minutes after the first attack, another United Airlines plane, hijacked by terrorists, crashed into the South Tower, performing flight number 175. Moreover, this airliner landed in the space between the 77th and 85th floors, that is, noticeably lower than the first, but due to the fact that the space closer to the corner of the tower was damaged, one flight of stairs remained intact, which saved many lives.

The South Tower collapsed first - at 9:59 am, as its bearing structures were badly damaged by an aircraft strike and a fire that broke out after. The fire in the North Tower lasted 102 minutes, so it collapsed a little later - at 10:28.

Also on September 11, but in the evening, the seventh building of the WTC complex collapsed. As a result, it was necessary to get rid of all the buildings of the World Trade Center as not subject to restoration and further use. The same fate befell the neighboring Marriott Hotel, damaged by tower debris, and the Deutsche Bank building, which was subsequently dismantled.

The total number of victims of these terrible terrorist attacks in New York is estimated at 2,752 people - this is the number of death certificates issued by the authorities. Nevertheless, it is very often emphasized that if the strikes were struck not in the morning, but at the height of the working day, then there could be many times more victims, since in the towers at the same time during these hours there were usually about 50 thousand people.

After the terrorist attacks huge number stories of how many people, due to various household or transport problems, did not have time to work, which ultimately saved their lives. Among all companies greatest number victims - 658 - fell on the bank Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., located on the 101-105 floors of the North Tower. Also, 343 New York firefighters, 84 Port Authority employees and about 60 police officers were killed in the attacks.

In recent history of both the United States and the entire world, such victims as a result of terrorist attacks are something completely unprecedented and truly terrifying. It is safe to say that it was September 11 that was the first such event in the history of the new millennium, after which it can be said that the world has really changed.

New skyscraper built on the site of the destroyed twin towers

A new World Trade Center building has opened in New York. A new 104-storey skyscraper was built on the site of the twin towers destroyed on September 11, 2001. The new building, 541 meters high, is the tallest structure in the United States.

Western media reported that tenants have already begun to move to their offices in the new WTC building, for example, workers at the Conde Nast publishing house. In total, 60% of the skyscraper's area has already been commissioned. But the observation deck at the top of the building can be visited freely, many tourists have already reached there.

At the same time, no official ceremonies have been held in connection with the opening of the WTC. This is because the date for the ceremonies is still being negotiated by the Governors' Secretariats of New York and New Jersey.

"The New York landscape has been restored," said Patrick Foyer, executive director of the city's Port Authority, which owns the building and 6.5 hectares of land on which the center was built.

The construction of the new WTC building cost $ 3.9 billion. The construction took eight years. The building is currently the tallest in the United States. On the territory of a skyscraper with a height of 541 meters there is a memorial in memory of the victims and a museum that opened this year.

According to Foyer, the World shopping center"sets new standards in construction, design, prestige and integrity." Also, according to Foyer, the building is the safest office center in the entire United States.

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center opened in 1973. During the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, when two planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into skyscrapers, the towers were destroyed. As a result of the terrorist attack, almost three thousand people were killed. After that, it was decided to build a new skyscraper in place of the destroyed towers.

In the United States, al-Qaeda suicide bombers hijacked four passenger planes, flying two toward the symbol of business New York, the World Trade Center towers, and the other two toward the Pentagon and, presumably, the White House or the Capitol. All planes, except for the last one, reached their targets. The fourth hijacked plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Federal District Judge George Daniels of New York issued a court decision in absentia, according to which Iran must pay $ 7.5 billion to relatives and other representatives of those killed in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building. The judge determined that the 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 innocence in providing assistance to the organizers of the terrorist attack, in connection with which the Iranian authorities bear a share of responsibility for the damage caused during it.

The site of the destroyed Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2011 was the site of the World Trade Center Memorial. It consists of two square fountain pools located right in the foundations of the former twin towers, along interior walls which cascade streams of water going into square holes located at the bottom of each of the pools.

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

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

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

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Prior to September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center ensemble consisted of seven buildings. The WTC was built in New York in 1973 based on the architectural ideas of Minoru Yamasaki. The impressive center of the complex is two skyscrapers, each with 110 floors - South (415 m high) and North (417 m).

At the time of completion of construction, they ranked first in the world in height. For nearly three decades, the twin towers towered over Manhattan, symbolizing the financial strength of the United States, but on September 11, 2001, attacks by fanatical terrorists caused the destruction of skyscrapers.

The plane, hijacked by a terrorist group, rammed the north tower at 8:46, a devastating blow fell on the north side of the building between the 93rd and 99th floors. A violent fire broke out, which cut off the exit routes of the people above. After 102 minutes of burning, the skyscraper collapsed. The second plane collided with the South Tower 17 minutes after the previous attack, hitting between the 77th and 85th floors. The plane collided with the building in the space closer to the corner, so one stairwell remained intact - this helped many people to escape.

The structures of the South Tower were badly destroyed by fire and collision, so it collapsed 29 minutes earlier than the North. The flying debris of the twin towers and the resulting fire caused the collapse of another building of the complex, WTC-7, at 17:20. The remaining four buildings were so badly damaged that it was decided to demolish them. As a result of the terrorist attack, 2,752 people died, including the crews and passengers of the aircraft hijacked by the terrorists.

Documentary video: see how it really was.

After the disaster, a museum and a National Memorial were built at the WTC crash site, which is a two square pool in the place of the destroyed twin towers. Another WTC is under construction around the memorial, with the new Freedom Tower as its center. The height of the building together with the spire reaches 541 m - it will become the third highest in the world and the first in the Western Hemisphere. The architects report that the Freedom Tower is a very reliable skyscraper: its foundation was reinforced with steel beams, and the first floors were built as a reinforced concrete foundation without windows.

This is how the Tribute in Light memorial looked from the side, September 6, 2011. (Photo by Mark Lennihan | AP). Two pillars of light, 1,500 meters high each, hit from the very spot where the WTC towers stood.

2 swimming pools, located exactly on the site of the former "twin towers". The underground museum is located directly under the memorial.