Ground Zero/ World Trade Center Site travel guide

A somber and emotionally stirring sight.

September 2001, the two towers of the World Trade Center were New York's tallest buildings and together with the five side buildings symbolized American financial power. Today the area is a giant building site, and the construction of the Freedom Tower is underway. The twin towers, both built 1966–1977, 417m/1,368ft high and with 110-storeys, were masterpieces of engineering (plans: Minoru Yamasaki & Assocs. and Emery Roth and Sons). They stood on foundations that were sunk 21m/69ft deep into the slate bedrock (the excavated ground was dumped into the river and Battery Park City was built on it). Around 50,000 people worked there, and 80,000 visitors came every day. The two towers, in which a total of 180,000 tons of steel were used, stood 101 and 56 minutes respectively, after the aeroplanes had crashed into them. The north tower collapsed first, followed by the south tower Ground Zero (moreover, ultimately all of the side buildings were destroyed). Their steel scaffolding could not stand up to the temperatures of thousands of litres of burning kerosene. About 3,000 people lost their lives in the attack. Six weeks before 11 September 2001 the real estate tycoon Larry Silverstein had signed the lease for the WTC for 99 years – the total cost was $3.2 billion. Soon after 9/11 the desert of ruins in south Manhattan and then the bottom of the gigantic crater that was created when the masses of rubble from the WTC were removed were called Ground Zero

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