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World Trade Center
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Building the World Trade Center Towers : The construction of the World Trade Center was conceived as an urban renewal project, spearheaded by David Rockefeller, to help revitalize Lower Manhattan. The project was developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which hired architect Minoru Yamasaki who came up with the specific idea for twin towers. After extensive negotiations, the New Jersey and New York State governments, which oversee the Port Authority, agreed to support the World Trade Center project at the Radio Row site on the lower-west side of Manhattan. To make the agreement acceptable to New Jersey, the Port Authority agreed to take over the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (renamed as PATH), which brought commuters from New Jersey to the Lower Manhattan site. The towers were designed as framed tube structures, which provided tenants with open floor plans, uninterrupted by columns or walls. This was accomplished using numerous closely spaced perimeter columns to provide much of the strength to the structure, along with gravity load shared with the core columns. The elevator system, which made use of sky lobbies and a system of express and local elevators, allowed substantial floor space to be freed up for use as office space by making the structural core smaller. The design and construction of the World Trade Center twin towers involved many other innovative techniques, such as the slurry wall for digging the foundation, and wind tunnel experiments. Construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower began in August 1968, and the South Tower in 1969. Extensive use of prefabricated components helped to speed up the construction process. The first tenants moved into the North Tower in December 1970 and into the South Tower in January 1972. Four other low-level buildings were constructed as part of the World Trade Center in the 1970s, and a seventh building was constructed in the mid-1980s.
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New York City skyline dominated by the twin towers of the World Trade Center
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World Trade Center
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Towers of the World Financial and World Trade Centers
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Towers of the World Financial and World Trade Centers
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Manhattan Island seen from the South : Southern tip of Manhattan Island with World Trade and World Financial Centers to the left. The Cirque du Soleil is camping out in Battery Park
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General Information

Other name(s): North Tower
Beginning of works: 1966
Completion: 4 April 1973
Status: destroyed (11 September 2001)

Project Type

Structure: Tubular System
Function / usage: Office building

Location

Location: , , ,
Address: 1 World Trade Center
Part of:
Next to: Two World Trade Center (1973)
Replaced by: National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center (2011)
Coordinates: 40° 42' 43.62" N    74° 0' 47.43" W
Show coordinates on a map

Technical Information

Dimensions

height 417 m
height to antenna tip 526 m
number of floors (above ground) 110
dimensions at base 63.4 m x 63.4 m
gross floor space (per floor) 4 000 m²
gross floor area ca. 418 000 m²
floor height 3.65 m
building core dimensions at base 26 m x 41 m

Quantities

structural steel 78 000 t

Design Loads

wind resistant to 240 km/h

Cost

cost of construction United States dollar 700 000 000

Materials

façade glass
aluminum
floor slabs reinforced concrete
exterior columns steel
cross beams steel
floor beams steel

Chronology

December 1970

First tenants move into One World Trade Center.
26 February 1993, ca. 12:28

Islamic terrorists detonate a bomb causing 6 deaths and hundreds of injuries; one tower remains closed for one month.
11 September 2001, 08:45

A hijacked Boeing 767 by American Airlines crashes into the north façade of One World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack. The plane hits floors 94 through 99 and explodes causing severe fires in the building.
11 September 2001, 09:03

Another hijacked airplane, a United Airlines Boeing 767, crashes into the southern façade of Two World Trade Center causing a severe explosion. Floors 78 to 84 are hit directly in the impact.
11 September 2001, 09:59

Two World Trade Center collapses 56 minutes after impact. The collapse also crushes Three and Four World Trade Center.
11 September 2001, 10:29

One World Trade Center collapses 1 hour and 43 minutes after impact. Five and Six World Trade Center are severely damaged by the falling debris.
30 May 2002, 10:29

In an official ceremony, the last column remaining from the World Trade Center rubble is removed and the cleanup work at ground zero is formally completed. The official death toll of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York is set at 2 823 dead. The remains of 1 731 victims were never recovered.

Notes

The World Trade Center towers were built to resist the impact of a Boeing 707.

Aerialist Philippe Petit walked between the two towers on a tightrope in 1974.

During the collapse of the Twin Towers, 2 830 people lost their lives including 2 270 occupants in the buildings, 157 passengers and crew on board the aircraft and 403 emergency response personnel on the ground.

Participants

Initial construction (1966-1973)
Owner
Architecture
Structural engineering
General contractor
Refurbishment (1993)
Structural engineering

Relevant Web Sites

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  • About this
    data sheet
  • Structure-ID
    20000088
  • Published on:
    28/10/1998
  • Last updated on:
    26/10/2015
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