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Construction of the Twin Towers
Construction begins on One World Trade Center in August of 1968. Tower two would begin shortly after in January. The process would take 5 years. -
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World Trade Center Timeline
From construction, destruction, to the rebuilding of America's tower. -
World Trade Center opens
One World Trade Center (north tower), tops out its consturction on December 23, 1970 and Tower two (south tower), topped out on later on July 19th of 1971. The official ribbon cutting ceremony took place on April 4, 1973, and the World Trade Center was finally opened up for business. -
1975 Fire
On the 11th floor of the North tower, a fire broke loose to the 9th-14th floors of the building. At the time, there was no sprikler systems installed in the building. It took firefights two hours to put out the fire. It also damaged a few floors below the 9th floor from water being sprayed onto the fires. -
Windows on the World
Windows on the World official opens on the 106 and 107 floors of the north tower. It gave marvelous views to its guests and was one of the finest resturants in the city during its time of completion. It ran up until September 11, 2001. -
WTC Tower 7
In 1987, World Trade Center 7, the seventh building of the WTC complex is completed. It housed Drexel Burnham Lambert for a lease of $3 billion for the next 30 years. It operated all the way up to the 9/11 attacks when it was destroyed. -
1993 Bombing
On Februrary 26, 1993, terrorist drove a truck carrying 1,336 pounds of explosive to the parking garage of the north tower. They intended to bring down the north tower, which in turn would fall into the south tower, bringing the twin towers down. Their attempt failed but it did kill 6 people and injured over a thousand. -
9/11 Attacks
On the morning of September 11, 2001, at 8:46 AM, the North tower is hit by American Airlines Flight 11. At 9:03, the South tower is hit by United Airlines Flight 175. In a matter of 102 minutes from the first airplace strike in the North tower, both towers have collasped killing a total of 2,996 people. At 5:20 PM on the same day, WTC 7, another building in the complex collasped from a fire from the twin towers. All World Trade Center complex buildings were completely destroyed in the attacks. -
Clean-Up is complete
On May 30, 2002, a ceromony is held comemorating the end of the ground zero clean-up. Since 9-11-01, clean-up took place 24 hours a day for that eight months until its completion on May 30. -
New One World Trade Center is Unveiled
The new design for the World Trade Center complex is unveiled after failed designs did not meet the Port Authority's safety requirements. The new design called for One World Trade Center to meet the symbolic height of 1,776 feet with its spire. -
World Trade Center's Tower 1 is topped
On August 30, 2012, the new One World Trade center is topped out at 1,368 feet (the same height as the old One World Trade Center). On May 10, 2013, the buildings spire is added to make its official height out to 1,776 feet; the fourth-tallest building in the world.
