Twin Towers news
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The gist
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, memorials and new towers mark how the Twin Towers'.
The date keeps the 2,977 killed in public memory as the rebuilt site takes.
Background
The Twin Towers stood at the center of the World Trade Center from 1966 and officially opened in 1973, briefly the world's tallest buildings, holding close to 10 million square feet of office space and drawing roughly 70,000 tourists and commuters a day. On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda hijackers flew two of four hijacked planes into the towers, and both collapsed; 2,977 people from 90 nations were killed, including 2,753 in New York, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 on Flight 93. Twenty-five years on, the anniversary has brought a wave of retrospectives on the skyline's transformation, memorials and the towers' place in memory.
How it unfolded
- 1966The Twin Towers stand at the center of the World Trade Center; the New York Times reports arguments that the 'flat-topped behemoths' will destroy the beauty of the lower Manhattan skyline.
- 1970 -71The towers are completed; by the time they officially open in 1973 they are briefly considered the tallest buildings in the world.
- 10:28am, Sep 11, 2001The North Tower and then the South Tower collapse after two hijacked planes strike them, killing almost 3,000 people and devastating an entire city precinct.
- 2014One World Trade Center opens, a chamfered prism rising to 541m (1,776ft) to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence; architectural critics consider it unremarkable.
- Sep 2026Ahead of the 25th anniversary, a field of 2,977 flags is displayed in Oak Brook, Illinois, and a drone show in New York recreates the Twin Towers to honor the 2,977 victims.
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- Architectural critics consider One World Trade Center unremarkable, according to The Conversation.
- Public
- Sue Mladenik, whose husband Jeffrey was aboard Flight 11, and organizer Christopherson say the flag memorial humanizes the victims: 'Otherwise it's just a number. A terrible number, but it's just a number.'
- Public
- Susan Caputo, who worked across the street from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, called the flag display 'a beautiful sight.'
Still unverified
President Donald Trump said at an event ahead of the 25th anniversary that two firefighters picked him up off the ground near the U.S. Steel Building close to ground zero 'right after' the attacks and whisked him away because they thought the building would collapse; the material also recounts his earlier claims of witnessing people jump from the towers and of celebrations in Jersey City, which fed a conspiracy theory.