The seven-building World Trade Center complex at the edge of lower Manhattan has had, like large developments today, a stormy past.
Even before work began, developers resented the intrusion of the Port Authority into private business, while residents resented the idea of tall towers invading their neighborhood.
In 1960, the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association recommended the Port Authority develop a trade center, and in March 1961, the authority agreed.
The architectural plans designed by Minoru Yamasaki and Emory Roth & Sons were unveiled in January 1964, and site excavation began in August 1966.
Two years later, the steel started going up, delayed first by a tug strike that blocked delivery of material.
The 500-by-1,000-foot site involved the excavation of 1.2 million cubic yards of earth and rock that were disposed of on the western side of the West Side Highway.
Engineers Worthington, Skilling, Helle and Jackson designed the world’s strongest load-bearing walls, while Tishman Realty & Construction coordinated construction.
The first office tenant moved there in December 1970.
At 110 stories – and 1,362 and 1,368 feet high each – the Twin Towers dwarfed the long-time record holder, the Empire State Building, by nearly 100 feet.
At the official opening in 1973, architect Yamasaki was asked, “Why two 110-story buildings? Why not one 220-story building?”
He responded, “I didn’t want to lose the human scale.”
Eventually, through the efforts of New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman and New York Gov. Pataki, steps to privatize the buildings took hold.
Last July 21, the Port Authority concluded a 99- year lease with Silverstein Properties, which already leased the ground for the 47-story 7 World Trade Center, to privatize almost all the office buildings.
Yesterday it was all gone.
“Five years to build, and an hour and half to take down,” Richard Kielar, a spokesman for Tishman, said in mourning.
