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1. The WTC
opened in 1970 after 8 years of construction.
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2. The WTC
was the dream of David Rockefeller, chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank
& Nelson Rockefeller, former Governor of NY.
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3. The Rockefellers
wanted to name the towers after themselves, but the mayor of NYC, John
Lindsay, insisted on the World Trade Center.
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4. The city
chose to build the WTC instead of building a new tunnel & large bridge
over the Hudson River.
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5. The World
Trade Center was designed by architect Minoura Yamasaki.
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6. According
to Yamasaki, downtown Manhattan was the perfect place to erect the towersbecause
there wasn't "a single building worth saving in the neighborhood."
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7. Owners
of nearby buildings disagreed, & delayed demolition by 3 wks. with
their protests.
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8. Sixteen
(16) blocks were cleared to house the completed WTC.
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9. More
than 10,000 workers involved in building the complex.
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10. More
than 60 of them died during construction.
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11. The
excavation work displaced enough soil to create Liberty Park, were four
60-floor towers and four apartment buildings were constructed.
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12. The
WTC's foundations were laid at 60 feet below ground level.
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13. The
complex covered 16 acres when finished.
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14. In addition
to the towers, five other office buildings made up the WTC complex.
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15. The
WTC had 12 million square feet of space.
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16. Each
floor was 50,000 square feet.
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17. The
buildings had their own ZIP codes - 10047 and 10048.
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18. The
towers were designed to look like a futuristic sculpture.
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19. The
structure was revolutionary its main supports were external, lining the
four (4) corners of each tower.
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20. Critics
condemned the completed buildings as "boring."
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21. When
completed, the towers were 100 feet taller than the Empire State Building.
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22. Until
the construction of Chicago's Sears Tower & the PetronasTowers in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, the twin towers were the world's tallest buildings.
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23. The
North Tower's 347 foot radio tower technically allowed the WTC to still
call itself the world's tallest building.
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24. The
towers were different heights. The South tower was 1,362 ft. tall, big
brother North, on the left was 1,368.
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25. Sixty-eight
miles of steel were used in the construction of the buildings.
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26. The
concrete poured was enough to build a road from New York to Washington,
D.C.
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27. The
steel inside the WTC could have made 3 more Brooklyn Bridges.
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28. The
Twin Towers had more than 16 miles of staircases.
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29. There
were 43,600 windows.
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30. The
windows were kept small to reduce the amount of heat or cold entering the
building. Regular size windows would have made the heat unbearable in the
summertime.
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31. The
building's 600,000 square feet of glass was cleaned by an automatic machine.
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32. The
building had 20,000 elevator doors.
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33. The
WTC housed 239 banks of elevators, including one known as the fastest in
the U.S.
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34. The
main elevators traveled at 27 ft. per second and could reach the top in
under a minute.
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35. There
were 828 emergency exit doors.
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36. 23,000
fluorescent lightbulbs lit the interior.
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37. Originally,
there were no light switches in the towers, because energy prices were
one-third less than they are today. In 1982, switches were installed.
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38. 12,000
miles of electrical cable snaked through the building, supplying power
to 15 trading floors for stockbrokers.
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39. The
75,000 telephones were maintained by 19,600 miles of cable.
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40. There
were more than 300 computer mainframes on site.
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41. The
WTC used more power in one (1) day than most small American cities.
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42. Steam
supplied by a plant on New York's East River was used to heat the buildings.
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43. The
buildings housed 49,000 tons of air-conditioning equipment.
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44. More
than 250,000 cans of paint were needed every year for upkeep of the Towers.
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45. The
surrounding shopping center complex included 3250,000 sq. ft. of restaurants
& stores.
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46. 6 banks,
5 investment firms and 3 insurance companies called their headquarters
there.
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47. The
Port Authority of NY & NJ had its headquarters in the building.
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48. American
Express had 3 floors in the WTC.
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49. The
WTC was home base for Bank of America.
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50. The
trade center housed 2 top restaurants - the Windows on the World
& Wild Blue.
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51. Windows
on the World had one of the best vintage wine collections in the USA.
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52. More
than 50,000 people worked in the twin towers.
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53. By 9
AM each weekday morning, the buildings had an average of 35,000 employees
at their desks.
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54. More
than 200,000 people - half of them tourists - moved through the buildings
each day.
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55. The
South Tower had an observation deck that was visited by more than 26,000
people a day.
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56. An information
sign at the top assured visitors that the buildings had been designed to
withstand airplane crashes.
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57. The
towers could be seen from at least 20 miles away.
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58. On a
clear day, it was possible to see for 45 mi. in every direction from the
observation deck.
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59. The
express elevator to the observation deck was the largest in the U.S. with
a 55-person capacity.
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60. Every
president since 1973 paid a visit to the landmark.
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61. Pres.
Ronald Reagan watched July 4th fireworks celebrations from the WTC on 2
occasions.
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62. Superstars
- Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Liza Minelli all sang in
WTC restaurants.
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63. Two
New York TV stations incorporated the twin tower image into their logos.
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64. The
towers served 10 New York TV stations with 10 antennas on the top.
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65. More
postcards of the WTC were sent each year than any other building in the
world.
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66. In 1974,
a Frenchman, Phillipe Petit, strung a tightrope between the 2 towers &
walked across.
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67. Three
men successfully parachuted from the top of the towers.
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68. More
than a dozen mountain climbers have scaled the building.
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69. In 1975
a jobless construction worker parachuted from the So. Tower to publicize
the
plight of the unemployed.
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70. The
most famous man to climb the building was George Willig, & was arrested
at the top.
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71. Willig
was fined one penny (1) for each of the 110 ($1.10) floors he scaled.
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72. Last
year, 2000, a man in a micro-light aircraft crashed into the North Tower.
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73. In the
concourse beneath the towers, there were more than 75 stores.
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74. Each
day, over 150,000 commuters passed through the 3 subway stations there.
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75. Eighty
seven (87) tons of food was delivered to the building each day.
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76. Over
30,000 cups of coffee were poured daily in the basement cafes.
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77. Twenty-two
(22) doctors had practices there.
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78. Seventeen
(17) babies were born on the site.
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79. Irv
Silverstein recently bought the WTC for almost $3.2 billion.
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80. The
WTC generated $110 million a year in profit.
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81. More
than three (3) dozen movies have been filmed there.
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82. The
best known film to use the WTC as a location was the 1976 remake of "King
Kong."
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83. The
1993 bombing of the WTC killed 6 people and injured 1,000 more.
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84. 1,300
lbs. of explosives ripped through the garage in the 1993 attack.
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85. That
bomb created a crater 16 ft. deep and badly damaged inner support beams.
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86. Before
the 1993 attack, there were 3 closed circuit television networks for security.
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87. After
the bombing, the cameras were increased to 300 monitored by computers.
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88. More
than 300 security guards worked there.
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89. The
WTC featured security centers on 14 different floors and its own police
station.
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90. The
entrance lobbies had 16 concierge desks and 12 X-ray machines.
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91. After
the first bombing, no one could get inside the buildings without an I.D.
check.
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92. It took
an average of 5 min. for a visitor to pass through security checks.
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93. Before
the 1993 bombing, there were more than 1,000 parking spaces beneath the
buildings, 600 remained afterward.
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94. All
vehicles using the parking lot had to show FBI security passes.
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95. On Sept.
11, 2001, the building was 95% full, with over 400 tenants.
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96. NY Gov.
George Pataki had an office in the WTC, but wasn't there when the disaster
struck.
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97. Both
the Secret Service and the FBI rented office space there.
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98. $110.3
million in gold and 120.7 million in silver is buried in the rubble.
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99. The
combined weight of the towers was more than 1.5 million tons.
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100. Each
tower was built to safely sway about three feet during strong wind storms.
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101. Blue
Cross-Blue Shield, New York's largest health insurance company, moved into
the building 3 years ago.
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102.
Nine (9) chapels serving six (6) different faiths called the WTC home.
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103. Twenty-nine(29)
countries had trade mission offices in the buildings.
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104. Every
major U.S. airline had ticket offices inside the WTC.
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105. It
is the *first skyscraper in the world destroyed by terrorists. (& the
last, I pray)
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105 Interesting Statistics about the WTC