World Trade Center (It's A Brighter Millennium Dawn)

The World Trade Center is a building complex located in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. It was built between 1968 and 1973 and remains one of the most important commercial centers in the US and the world. It features the Twin Towers, an iconic landmark.

## **Timeline**

### **1942**

Austin J. Tobin is appointed executive director of the Port of New York Authority, which later will be renamed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

### **July 22, 1944**

Forty-three nations meet to negotiate the Bretton Woods agreement, an American and British plan establishing a postwar economic order based on the primacy of the U.S. dollar, and intended to encourage the reconstruction of the world's war-shattered economies through the expansion of international trade.

### **1945**

David Scholtz, a real estate developer and former governor of Florida, first proposes a concept for a "world trade center" in Lower Manhattan to encourage port and maritime activities in New York.

### **1946**

The New York State legislature authorizes a World Trade Corporation to develop the proposed World Trade Center and appoints Winthrop Aldrich, chairman of the Chase Bank (and uncle of David and Nelson Rockefeller), to explore the feasibility of the concept.

In December, encouraged by his sons Nelson and David, John D. Rockefeller Jr. donates $8.5 million to the United Nations to purchase a site along the East River for the world organization's permanent headquarters.

### **1947**

David Rockefeller initiates an ambitious urban renewal plan for Morningside Heights in upper Manhattan, the location of Columbia University and other educational and religious institutions.

### **1948**

The U.S. Congress passes the Marshall Plan to aid the economic reconstruction of Western Europe.

New York has become the world's largest center for manufacturing, wholesaling and shipping. It has also become the world's financial and corporate capital.

### **April 4, 1949**

Ten European nations, Canada and the United States sign the North Atlantic Treaty. America's first-ever peacetime military alliance.

Also this year, congress passes Title I urban renewal legislation.

### **November 1955**

David Rockefeller announces a plan to construct the new headquarters for the Chase Manhattan Bank in Lower Manhattan. Built at a cost of $121 million, the 60-story building, known as 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, is intended to initiate the revival of the downtown financial district.

### **1956**

The Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association is started, spearheaded by David Rockefeller.

### **1958**

John D. Rockefeller III, Nelson and David's brother, initiates the development of the Lincoln Square project, an urban renewal effort to create a performing arts complex, Lincoln Center, on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

### **October 1958**

The Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (D.L.M.A.) and David Rockefeller release an 80-page master plan for the transformation of Lower Manhattan through traffic improvements and the creation of new housing, office buildings, and recreational facilities, including a new exhibition-and-office complex dedicated to world trade.

Within a few weeks, brother Nelson A. Rockefeller will be elected governor of New York.

### **January 1960**

The D.L.M.A. releases its formal plan for a five million square foot World Trade Center on the East Side of Manhattan, and proposes that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey "study" the concept's feasibility.

### **December 1960**

Austin Tobin agrees that the Port Authority will begin planning for the World Trade Center project.

### **Spring 1961**

In March, the Port Authority releases its plan for a World Trade Center along the East River, featuring several office buildings and a major exhibition hall for industrial products. New Jersey governor Richard Meyner claims the proposed project will do little for his state.

The New York and New Jersey legislatures approve the joint Port Authority Trans-Hudson/World Trade Center bill. It is quickly signed by Governor Nelson Rockefeller and newly elected New Jersey governor Richard Hughes.

### **December 1961**

Responding to objections from New Jersey, the Port Authority relocates the World Trade Center site from the East River to a 16-acre parcel of land along the Hudson River. The new site is located above the Manhattan terminus of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, a deteriorating commuter line which the Port Authority has agreed to take over, renovate, and rename the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line.

### **1962**

Local businessmen in Lower Manhattan, many of them part of an electronics district known as "Radio Row," begin a series of legal and political challenges to the World Trade Center, whose development will eliminate their businesses. Their protests will continue for four years.

### **February 1962**

Port Authority employee Guy Tozzoli takes over the planning and operations of the enormous building project.

### **September 12, 1962**

Encouraged by recent successes in the space program, President John F. Kennedy announces to the nation his intention that the United States land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, marking the start of what becomes the Apollo Project.

### **October 1962**

The Detroit-based architect Minoru Yamasaki is hired as primary designer of the trade center, working in association with Emery Roth & Sons, a New York architecture firm known for its speculative building projects.

### **January 1964**

The completed design of the World Trade Center, consisting of twin 110-story towers along with four smaller structures surrounding a central plaza, is presented at a press conference at the New York Hilton.

Also this year, the New York World's Fair opens in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

### **March 1966**

The New York State Court of Appeals turns back the final legal challenge to the World Trade Center, clearing the way for the project to proceed.

Demolition of existing structures on the site begins on March 21.

### **August 1968**

Steel work begins on the north tower of the World Trade Center. It will begin on the south tower the following January.

### **April 1970**

While construction of the towers continues, scores of construction workers (called "hardhats" in the press) attack demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War in Lower Manhattan.

### **December 23, 1970**

The final column of the north tower is hoisted into place on the 110th floor where the workers hold their traditional "topping-off" ceremony. That same week, the first tenants begin moving into the lower floors of the building.

### **Spring 1972**

After several years of criticism and attacks from New Jersey governor William Cahill, Austin Tobin decides to retire from the Port Authority, ending a 30-year-long tenure as director, and a 45-year career at the agency.

### **April 4, 1973**

The Port Authority holds a dedication ceremony for the World Trade Center in the north tower. Austin Tobin does not attend.

The following month, in May, the 1,454-foot Sears Tower in Chicago opens, and surpasses the World Trade Center as the world's tallest structure by 100 feet.

### **August 7, 1974**

Just after 7am, a French wirewalker named Philippe Petit crosses the 131-foot divide between the tops of the two towers eight times, to the delight — and terror — of thousands of New Yorkers watching from below. Afterwards he is arrested and "sentenced" to perform free highwire acts for children in Central Park.

### **December 19, 1974**

Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United States. Following Richard Nixon's resignation in August, President Garald Ford had nominated Rockefeller to the position, despite the fact that Rockefeller did not serve as an elected official.

### **The 2/13/1975 Fire is Never Happened**

On February 13th 1975, the fire is never started on One World Trade Center's 11th floor.

### **Summer 1975**

The observation deck opens on the 110th floor of the south tower, and quickly becomes one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city.

### **October 1975**

New York's fiscal crisis is never happened, bankruptcy is never happened, and the world is saved.

### the financial crisis is never happened.

In May, Windows on the World— called "the greatest restaurant in the world" by food critic Gael Greene — opens its doors on the 106th and 107th floors of the north tower.

### **7 World Trade Center**

During 1980, the Port Authority held a bid to construct a new 7 World Trade Center as the final part of their site. Larry Silverstein would win this bid, leading construction for the 47 story building starting 10/2/1984. It was completed in 1987 and officially opened on May 1987. However, once the building opened, tenants would not be attracted. The Salomon Brothers would eventually sign a lease on 1988, becoming the anchor tenant.

### **The 2/26/1993 Bombings is Foiled**

Twin Towers of The World Trade Center Continue to Exist and the bombings is foiled.

### **The 1/14/1998 Robbery is Foiled**

Twin Towers of The World Trade Center Continue to Exist and the bank robbery is foiled.

### **February 15, 2001**

Bids for the lease came from Vornado Realty Trust, a joint bid between Brookfield Properties Corporation and Boston Properties, and a joint bid by Silverstein Properties and The Westfield Group. Privatizing the World Trade Center would add it to the city's tax rolls and provide funds for other Port Authority projects.

### **April 26, 2001**

the Port Authority announced that Vornado Realty Trust had won the lease for the World Trade Center, paying $3.25 billion for the 99-year lease. Vornado outbid Silverstein by $600 million though Silverstein upped his offer to $3.22 billion. However, Vornado insisted on last-minute changes to the deal, including a shorter 39-year lease, which the Port Authority considered nonnegotiable. Vornado later withdrew and Silverstein's bid for the lease to the World Trade Center was accepted.

### **July 24, 2001**

the deal was accepted. After the purchase, Westfield was planning a massive renovation and expansion of the mall, and was going to rename it Westfield Shoppingtown World Trade Center in 2002.

### **Summer 2001**

The World Trade Center buildings -- now among the most profitable parcels of real-estate on earth -- are sold to a private landowner, Larry Silverstein, for over a billion dollars.

### **September 11, 2001**

Terrorist attacks on the United States is Never Happened. Timeline of events (Eastern Daylight Time): Safe Flights And Blue Skies. People begin to settle into their flights, knowing they are safe on board with no terrorists and a captain at around 8:30 am. The President is currently contuining to read a story to a group of children, and everyone is starting their day. As people start to file into their work places in the World Trade Center and Twin Towers, the two Boston flights, a Washington and finally a Newark flight began their safe journey to their destinations. So breakfast was served to the public, but because of renovations, the restaurant is opened to the public during the time of the attacks is never happened! And the members of The World Trade Center Club were people who worked at the World Trade Center! Morning activities have commenced at the World Trade Center, a commercial building complex in lower Manhattan owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an interstate agency. In addition to the signature Twin Towers (1 and 2 World Trade Center), the complex included a hotel (3 World Trade Center), four office buildings (4, 5, 6, and 7 World Trade Center), a shopping mall, restaurants, a public plaza, and a major transportation hub. Around 8:30 a.m., roughly 80 people have gathered to attend the Risk Waters Group financial technology conference on the 106th floor of the North Tower. Seventy-two restaurant staff have arrived in advance of the morning’s breakfast service and conference preparation. Other special events at the World Trade Center planned for September 11 include the annual National Association for Business Economics (NABE) conference, already underway in the Marriott hotel, an evening dance performance on the World Trade Center’s outdoor plaza, and a Peace Corps information session scheduled for 6:00 p.m. in 6 World Trade Center.

### **December 25, 2001**

The Mall at the World Trade Center is temporarily closed for a major renovation, which will expand the mall and bring in new tenants, and even introduce a food court. The mall, which was acquired by the Westfield Group back in August, is set to reopen in the Summer of 2002, and will be renamed "Westfield Shoppingtown World Trade Center".

### **August 10, 2002**

The newly-expanded WTC Mall, now known as Westfield Shoppingtown World Trade Center, reopens to the public.

## **Gallery**

Twin Towers of The World Trade Center Continue to Exist on September 11, 2001Twin Towers of The World Trade Center Continue to Exist on September 11, 2001