Twin towers at the moment. Builder is all about Construction, Architecture, Repair, Design! Construction from A to Z! From idea to object

16 years have passed since the terrible fall of the Twin Towers in America on September 11, 2001. But the memories of that day still haunt millions of Americans. The destinies of many people were changed forever.

How many people died?

In addition to American citizens, representatives of other countries were also among the dead. Among the dead were 96 citizens from the former Soviet Union. At the end of the search and rescue operations, experts stated that approximately 10,000 fragments of human bones and tissues were found at the site of the fall of the buildings, which significantly increases the initial statistics of the incident. Fragments were found much later, in 2006, when Deutsche Bank was being reconstructed. Average age the number of deaths was 40 years.

Course of events

On September 9, terrorists hijacked four planes and were able to fly two of them to the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and one to the Pentagon. The remaining plane crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers were able to overpower the hijackers.

The day that started out bright blue sky, ended in a twisting mass of smoldering smoke from twisted metal where the huge buildings of the shopping center once stood. As a result of this incident, 2977 people died.

People's memory

The tragedy of September 11 occurred almost two decades ago. A quarter of Americans are too young to remember this disturbing event. “I have three children who do not remember the incident at all, since they were not born yet. But we, of course, do not want to forget, even as we live and face new challenges,” says one of the Americans.

So, in remembrance of that day, 23 images hang here, serving as reminders of what no American should forget. The tragedy has acquired enormous proportions. Witnesses to what happened can tell a lot.

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were symbols for New Yorkers. For decades, people looked up to them, and the structures stood firm. It was an encouraging sight. According to the American’s recollections, he visited the towers many times and looked at them many times. On the morning of September 11, he had just finished voting in Brooklyn when he looked up and saw one of the towers on fire. Just minutes later, a second plane crashed into another tower. Something was wrong.

When President George W. Bush was informed of the tragic incident, he was at a school event. The expression on his face, captured in the photograph, expresses almost every emotion. At that time, none of the government members knew what serious consequences this terrorist attack had for the country.

Major fire

The impact of the two fire jets was devastating. It broke steel structure towers and contributed to the ignition of fires that ultimately led to the destruction of the buildings. Warplanes took to the skies. Every non-military flight in US airspace was ordered to land.

Thousands of people were truly trapped on the upper floors of the towers. Many died instantly when planes crashed into buildings, and more more people died when fires broke out and the towers began to collapse. Some citizens jumped out of windows to escape the fire and smoke. A total of 2,606 people died in the towers.

The weather was wonderful, the sky was bright blue. The wind carried a massive plume of smoke over the city and New York Harbor. “Manhattan looked as if 10 megatons had exploded in it,” British writer Martin Amis later wrote.

Terrible outcome

The structure of the towers was so damaged that their collapse was an inevitable consequence of the impact. At the time, however, no one expected such a terrible outcome. People in the streets around the World Trade Center fled in panic. Buildings began to collapse one by one and fill the streets with rubble and dust.

The fires burned for hours and smoldered for days in a mass of twisting steel and rubble. Lower Manhattan, below 14th Street, will later be closed to non-rescue traffic.

The area around the World Trade Center was a scene of complete devastation. Smoke and dust hung in the air. Countless cars, trucks and rescue vehicles were destroyed.

Destroyed tower structure

The feeling of tragedy was everywhere. The New York City Fire Department lost its chaplain, Reverend Michael, who was killed by falling debris.

Little remains of the elegant facades of the Twin Towers, which Japanese architect Minoru Yamasaki designed to include narrow window openings and soaring arches.

Two 110-story towers overlooking the city were compressed into a twisted mass of molten metal. Welders spent months cutting away steel so the damaged structure could be dismantled.

Rescue work

The New York City Fire Department rushed to the scene and suffered incredibly high casualties as they tried to rescue people from the burning towers. As a result, 343 brigade members died during the suppression operation. Strong men They couldn’t stand it, tears kept running down their cheeks.

In the following days, rescuers arrived in New York from neighboring cities and states. The sight of the bodies in the rubble brought indescribable horror. A contrasting sign of indomitability was the moment when American flags were raised over the site of the tragedy.

Loved ones have posted photos of missing friends and family members in the desperate hope that they might be alive.

Tragedy brought everyone together

A city coming together is something many Americans have never seen. Citizens lined the streets to cheer on the National Guard and rescue workers as they arrived in Manhattan for the mission that became known as Ground Zero.

The Americans were consumed by a thirst for revenge. Soon national troops were stationed in Afghanistan.

These attacks were not limited to New York. The Pentagon was also hit hard, killing 125 people.

The view of the Pentagon was also terrifying, but the military headquarters building itself did not collapse.

A new tower rose to Ground Zero along with a memorial. This gave many Americans a sense of pride when it opened. But this is not enough to make people forget this terrible day, on which many lives were cut short. America itself at this moment changed radically.

The new architecture of lower Manhattan stands proudly above New York City. Here is the famous Oculus, from where you can once again look at the endless space of the city from above.

Commemorative Memorial

In memory of the enormous losses of the 2001 terrorist attacks, a museum was opened in New York, the exhibition of which is constantly expanding. According to American media reports, the memorial was visited by more than 900 thousand people.

Here you can see fragments of the steel frame of skyscrapers, a mangled fire truck that participated in putting out the fire, many photographs depicting those killed on that ill-fated day and stunning videos.

Viewers can also see the jacket of a fighter who took part in the elimination of the largest terrorist Osama bin Laden, and a symbolic coin that belonged to the CIA officer who tracked down the dangerous terrorist.

The exhibits on display at the memorial provide citizens with an opportunity to pay tribute to the courage of the many people who sacrificed their lives for their country.

Terrorist attack on the World shopping mall in New York divided the history of the United States of America into before and after. The three thousand people killed in the explosion of the Twin Towers is an irreparable loss for the American people. Question: “Who blew up the towers?” For many it remains open to this day. Too many logical inconsistencies in official version investigations.

Mission Possible?

According to the official version, the twin towers were destroyed due to the explosions of planes that rammed the buildings. The fire that broke out during the attack weakened metal constructions, and the building collapsed. Then the same thing happened to another skyscraper.

Ordinary people are still perplexed: how could people from Arab countries, whose names were previously known to the intelligence services, come to the United States, undergo training to pilot passenger Boeings, carry dummy firearms on board aircraft, seize several aircraft at the same time and with an enviable ram several buildings with precision?

This whole operation looks incredible in appearance, but, nevertheless, theoretically it is feasible. Much more difficult questions The commission involved in the investigation was asked by experts who were in possession of the results of analyzes obtained after examining the wreckage of the twin towers. At the scene of the tragedy, traces of explosives and thermite were found - a substance that reaches a temperature of 1500 degrees when burning. But let's talk about everything in order. Let's consider the main conspiracy theories of explosions.

Less than a month after the terrorist attack, the US Army invaded Afghanistan, destroying the hotbeds of terrorism, and at the same time writing off its debts, destabilizing the situation in the region and laundering multi-billion dollar investments in the military industry, in which, as it became known during the election campaign Hillary Clinton, Washington “hawks” have not only state, but also personal interests.

The terrorist attack freed the hands of US intelligence services, which received the right to listen to other people's conversations and read other people's letters, not only on their own territory, but in any corner of the world. Even the leaders of the G7 countries have no right to their little secrets from Washington. This was clearly demonstrated by the scandal surrounding phone tapping. Angela Merkel.

There are many supporters of the idea that American intelligence services at least knew about the preparation of terrorist attacks, and most likely played a key role in the preparation. Only with the support of "Big Brother" could Islamic radicals with ties to al-Qaeda find themselves on US soil, receive top-notch flight training, end up on board planes with gun-like items, hijack planes and fly them into the wrong direction. predetermined goals.

Like a house of cards

Looking at the collapse of the Twin Towers, experts agree that it looks a lot like a controlled explosion. Such explosions are used when it is necessary to demolish a large building in a densely populated area of ​​the city. Explosive engineers, having studied the design of the structure, calculate the power of each charge placed in the base load-bearing structures. As a result, the demolished object should fold like a house of cards, so that each wall rushes inward.

When carrying out such events, residents of nearby houses are evacuated just in case. If there is an error in the calculations or some charges do not work, the building, instead of folding inward, may fall on its side, and then the destruction will be much greater than planned. Looking at the video, it’s hard not to be amazed at how neatly and how quickly the towers fold. It looks like real professional explosives experts worked on this.

Well, what about airplanes? After all, thousands of people saw them, and they were captured on film. Proponents of the controlled explosion theory are confident that the planes were needed for beautiful picture and so that ordinary people don’t have questions: how could a bunch of terrorists deliver tons of explosives into two heavily guarded buildings in the center of New York and set the charges in such a way that they collapse completely?

As for the plane that hit the Pentagon, it may not have been there at all. Images taken immediately after the attack show destruction, but do not show any details of the Boeing. The plane could explode, but it could not dissolve. Large pieces of the fuselage and engines should be visible. In addition, the damage to the building is too minor for a large passenger airliner to invade. They are more reminiscent of the consequences of being hit by a cruise missile, and terrorists simply could not have such missiles.

Who shot down the fourth plane?

There was also a fourth hijacked airliner, which the terrorists planned to aim either at the White House or at the Capitol. But he did not reach his goal. According to the official version, the passengers began to fight the terrorists and, as a result of a fight that broke out on board the plane, the plane crashed to the ground. Some conspiracy theorists are confident that the plane was shot down by the American military. This theory is confirmed by the fact that the debris was scattered at a great distance from each other. But several passengers managed to call their loved ones before the crash; even recordings of these conversations were preserved, confirming the official version.

Small atomic bomb

There are so many different opinions about the September 11 tragedy that some of them are even completely fantastic and incredible. For example, they say in all seriousness that a small bomb was blown up under each building. atomic bomb. Allegedly, the developers who planned to build the Trade Center were given a condition by the New York authorities - to provide for the possibility of dismantling the building. After all, it is clear that sooner or later it will fall into disrepair, and demolishing such a huge structure at that time, as it seemed then, would be much more difficult than building it. And for subsequent dismantling, the builders allegedly placed a nuclear charge under each building. But this theory is easily refuted by critics. On the spot nuclear explosion, even if small, there should be an increased level of radiation. But he was not observed.

She's also a victim

According to the official version of the American government, the most painful issue is the third tower that collapsed during the terrorist attack. This skyscraper was called the Seventh Tower of the World Trade Center. This building was not hit by a plane, however, it collapsed overnight, like the two twin towers.

According to the official theory, the cause of the collapse was a fire that spread from neighboring towers. Allegedly, the communications through which water was supplied to the building to automatically extinguish the fire were destroyed, the fire engulfed the building, the structures could not stand it and collapsed.

Half of Americans surveyed a few years ago were unaware that three buildings were destroyed in New York City during the 2001 events. Many of those who know do not believe that the 47-story structure could instantly collapse as a result of a fire. In the United States, activists have repeatedly demanded a new investigation into the case and the publication of the results of the investigation, but the authorities did not hear them or simply did not want to hear them.

Twin Towers: History, Pride and Tragedy of America

Buildings, like people, have something in common. Some live simple lives unnoticed by most and, when they die, remain in the memory of only their closest relatives. Others are visible, admired or hated; at least many people know them. When they die, they remain part of history, living in the minds of millions, even after passing into eternity, influencing the living.

It was the second option that fate chose for the famous skyscrapers, the Twin Towers in New York. Blown up as a result of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, these buildings seem to continue to exist: everyone knows them, remembers them, they continue to be replicated in thousands of photographs. In the end, they still subtly influence the life of a huge metropolis, and the United States as a whole.

Construction of the Twin Towers

It's easy to build, difficult to negotiate. Any building in the world, even country house, is not born on construction site, but in the minds of its creators. The World Trade Center in New York was no exception, the architectural and visual dominance of which were two skyscrapers, immediately called towers: North and South.

The idea of ​​​​building a grandiose complex was born in the USA during the Second World War. By 1944, it became clear that as a result, there was only one state left in the Western world that managed not only to maintain its economic power, but to significantly strengthen it, especially against the backdrop of destroyed Europe and Japan. America became this state. There was no need to possess great mind to understand a simple truth: in the coming decades the country will become a superpower and will develop rapidly. And it will need a large financial and trading complex.

But a lot of time passed before the idea began to turn into reality. There were two main reasons.

The first is the heated arms race, cold war, requiring colossal financial investments.

The second is a clash of economic interests of several influential US groups, as well as two states, New Jersey and New York. In addition, the construction of the Center assumed the emergence of new skyscrapers that would exceed the height of the Empire State Building, the pride of the city, the tallest building in the world. The financial groups that controlled this building were not at all eager for the emergence of a formidable competitor.

And only by the beginning of the 60s all commercial, image and financial questions managed to settle it. The Rockefeller brothers, David and Nelson, played a significant role in this. Using their influence, connections and money, the brothers began to build the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

The entire complex, including the twin towers, was designed by several powerful design companies, but Japanese-American Minoru Yamasaki was chosen as the lead architect, the father of the project.

Before starting work on this project, Yamasaki completed several serious works in different cities of the United States, although he was not one of the most venerable professionals in the country. A proponent of Gothic modernism, strongly influenced by the architecture of Le Corbusier, the Japanese drew attention to the small ancient twin towers in the Italian town of San Gimignano, taking them as a model for his task.

And the master’s task was simple: to create something that would have 5 times more office space than the Empire State Building. Having gone through several possible options, Yamasaki came to the final conclusion: two slender towers with square section, having the shape of parallelepipeds.

The entire construction process can be divided into the following stages:

• design: 1962 - 1965;
• cleaning and preparing the area for construction - from March to August 1966;
• August 1966 - beginning earthworks, excavation of soil for the base of the towers;
• installation of the latest load-bearing element buildings - December 1970 (North Tower), July 1971 (South Tower);
• grand opening of the complex - April 4, 1974.

At the end of construction, the towers turned out to be the tallest buildings in the world, each with 110 floors. The upper elevation of the South was 415 meters, the North was 2 meters higher, and it was also decorated with an antenna with an elevation of 526.3 meters.

Among other things, the appearance of the towers launched a real race of skyscrapers that began in the world. Looking ahead a little, we can say that in place of the fallen “candles” the Americans built a new World Trade Center, which is crowned with the most high building Western Hemisphere. However, now it is only the fourth in a cohort of giant buildings.

The unusual face of the Twin Towers

Continuing the analogy we started, we can say that, like people, outstanding buildings also have their own records and unique life events. They are also available at the Yamasaki Towers. Here are some of them:

• During the construction of the buildings, deep 20-meter pits were dug to get to the “bedrock” rock. The earth from the excavations was used for an artificial embankment, on which several buildings of the World Financial Center were subsequently built.
• The design of the towers is based on hundreds of large and small steel pipes, creating a special frame that is resistant to wind and seismic vibrations.
• Building facades abound a huge amount narrow windows only 56 cm wide. Yamasaki suffered from a fear of heights, and designed the windows so that any person, approaching the window sill, could easily rest against the slopes of the window opening, which would create a special feeling of reliability.

• Each of the towers had 103 elevators, of which 6 were freight. Some passenger elevators were high-speed, some were ordinary. For the transition from the first to the second, platforms on the 44th and 78th floors were used.
• Immediately after the construction of the towers, they received derogatory criticism from the world's leading architects. The city residents didn’t really like the buildings either. But gradually they got used to them and even began to be proud of them. Approximately the same fate happened to Eiffel Tower in Paris.
• The first attempt to destroy the buildings was made in 1993. Then, in the garage of the North Tower, underground, a truck with more than half a ton of explosives was blown up.

In the end, the terrorists managed to blow up unusual buildings. But, having destroyed them, did they destroy the very idea, the desire of man to conquer, to create something unusual? After all, it is inherent in human nature itself.

And, perhaps, the daring Frenchman Philippe Petit said this very well, who in August 1974 managed to walk 8 times in a row (!) on a rope stretched between two towers, while dancing and even lying down: “Lying on the rope, I saw very close above you is a seagull. And I remembered the myth of Prometheus. Here, at this height, I invaded her space, proving that a person can be compared with a bird ... "

15 years ago, the bloodiest and most monstrous terrorist attack in human history took place. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers.

During this time, the world has only become more dangerous, and the bastards continue to kill innocent people. But life goes on.

Instead of the two destroyed twin towers, several new skyscrapers were built under the same name World Trade Center and a memorial to the victims was opened.

1 The tallest of the building complex, WTC 1 or “Freedom Tower,” opened in 2014.

2 To get inside, you need to know one of the employees. Dima took me there newyorkrealty , working as a realtor in New York. But having friends is not enough; you have to register and go through checks, like at the airport: send your things to an X-ray scanner, and go through the metal detector yourself. After this, you will be called for an elevator, which can only take you to a few permitted floors. There are even two elevators: the first goes from the 1st to the 45th floor, the second from the 46th to the 90th.

3 Sixty-fourth floor - observation deck.

4 How many times have I been to New York, I have never climbed up to the tourist lookouts. A useless waste of money. You can look at the no less breathtaking view on your own, but more original. In this case, alas, glass interferes, but one day we climbed onto the roof of a newly built 80-story skyscraper, and there was beauty there!

5 Twenty floors above is the coworking space itself. The public space occupies one floor, two more house meeting rooms, mini-offices and a dining room for tenants.

6 Outwardly, it is not very different from a regular office, the only difference is that there are almost no assigned places here. People come and go as they please. But in this case, you also need to carry your things with you.

7 If you can’t work without your favorite mug, a rug for your feet and a photo of your dog, the “hot desk” is not for you. An unassigned seat, when you occupy any free table, costs $450 per month.

8 There are 155 coworking spaces participating in the network, and membership gives you the opportunity to work in any of them. There are four locations in New York alone. In the USA there are also Chicago, Boston, Washington, San Francisco, but the main thing is that there are similar coworking spaces in dozens of countries around the world: do you want to work from Australia? There are offices in Sydney and Melbourne please.

9 Are you traveling in China and urgently need an office? Find the nearest one in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai or Guangzhou. Did something difficult bring it to Lebanon? Even Beirut has one. In Russia and Ukraine - alas, offices have not yet been opened.

10 Every office worker dreams of freeing himself from “slavery” and becoming a freelancer. Every freelancer sooner or later realizes that working in an office is more efficient. This is how coworking spaces appeared, which today are growing like mushrooms all over the world.

11 You can come here to work just for this view!

12 If you are excited by urbanism and tall narrow towers, the views from the window will give you +10 to your productivity!

13 When you look at New York from above, it's really motivating.

14 On the site of the twin towers there is now a memorial park with two swimming pools (one is visible in the photo), following the contours of the buildings.

15 Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

16 The usual New York life is seething below.

17 Rooftop air conditioners - great way do not disfigure the facades of buildings.

18 The Statue of Liberty - in full view!

19 Verrazano Bridge, one of the largest suspension bridges in the world.

20 Residents of the coworking space can take a break from work while playing a game Board games, ping pong or shuffleboard.

21 This is a type of table curling; the game board needs to be sprinkled with salt so that the puck glides better.

22 I've never seen anything like this before!

23

24

25

For the excursion Thanks a lot Dima

Exactly 45 years ago, on April 4, 1973, the World Trade Center, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, was inaugurated in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The architectural dominant of the complex were two twin towers, each with 110 floors - North (417 m high, and taking into account the antenna installed on the roof - 526.3 m) and South (415 m high). They became a world-famous symbol of New York.

The idea of ​​​​creating the World Trade Center in New York was born long before this. In 1943, the New York State Legislature passed a bill allowing New York Governor Thomas Dewey to begin planning for construction, but development was suspended in 1949.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, economic growth in New York City was concentrated in downtown Manhattan. To stimulate redevelopment in other areas of Manhattan, David Rockefeller proposed that the Port Authority build a shopping center in Lower Manhattan. However, construction began 30 years later.

The architects of the project were the Emery Roth & Sons bureau and Minoru Yamasaki, who came from a family of emigrants and had previously built the buildings of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, the Pruitt-Igoe residential complex in St. Louis (Missouri), etc. Yamasaki was afraid of heights, so all his projects are narrow vertical windows. The windows of the World Trade Center buildings were only 46 cm wide. Yamasaki explained that in this way he strives to create a feeling of security for a person who could go to the window and lean on it with both hands, feeling safe.

Yamasaki's original plan called for the twin towers to be 80 stories high, but due to Port Authority building requirements, the height of the buildings was increased to 110 stories. Opened in 1973, the towers are the world's tallest skyscrapers. In addition to the towers, the WTC plan included the construction of four low-rise buildings and the 47-story 7 World Trade Center (built in the mid-1980s).

The main factor in limiting the height of buildings was the installation of elevators - the higher the building, the more elevators were required to service it, requiring more cumbersome elevator shafts. Yamasaki and engineers decided to use new system with two "sky lobbies" where people could move from a large express elevator to local elevators that went to the desired floors in their section.

Preparations for construction began in 1965 with the purchase of the Radio Row area and the demolition of existing buildings, mainly residential and small shops. Many local residents refused to move to other areas, so the start of construction was postponed several times. A group of small business owners filed a lawsuit against the Port Authority, challenging the relocation of their businesses from the area, but Supreme Court refused to accept it.

The complex was built on an embankment site, so the foundation, 20 meters deep, had to be made using complex technology to prevent water from breaking through from the Hudson into the construction area. This work took 14 months. In August 1968, construction began on the center's North Tower, and seven months later - on the South Tower.

Engineers from Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson decided to build towers using the “pipe-frame” system, without using load-bearing beams and columns - steel columns in the core of the building, as well as in the outer wall, were located so close to each other that they formed a rigid wall structure that could withstand almost all lateral loads: wind and gravity. This made it possible to increase usable area twin towers.

The walls consisted of 59 columns on each side, each modular part included three columns, three stories high, connected by lintels, which in turn were welded to the columns and created new modular parts.

The columns were protected with sprayed fire-resistant material. To ensure the comfort of people inside the building, a series of experiments were carried out, after which engineers developed viscoelastic shock absorbers to absorb some of the vibrations, as some experienced nausea and dizziness in the towers.

A rectangular core of 27x41 m was constructed in each tower. Elevator and communication shafts, toilets, auxiliary premises. It was built from 47 steel columns. The space between external wall and the core was covered with floor structures that were connected to the outer wall in such a way as to reduce the amount of vibration. Lateral loads were transmitted from external wall to the central core.

The total cost of constructing the towers amounted to $900 million. The complex was inaugurated on April 4, 1973.

The design of the constructed World Trade Center drew criticism from urbanists and many architects. The Twin Towers have been called "glass-and-metal cabinets," "an example of the aimless gigantism and technological exhibitionism that is currently eviscerating the living fabric of every great city."

However, very quickly the towers became one of the symbols of New York along with the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Their image adorned postcards, the towers appeared in the screensavers of TV series ("Friends", "Sex in big city") and movies ("King Kong" 1976).

Before the world-famous terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, when the towers and other buildings of the complex were destroyed, the World Trade Center experienced a major fire and another terrorist attack.
On February 13, 1975, floors 9 to 14 of the North Tower burned down. The fire spread due to the fire of telephone wires in the shaft between floors. The fire was brought under control within several hours and no one was injured.

On February 26, 1993, a truck carrying 680 kg of explosives drove into the underground parking lot of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The explosion killed six people and injured more than 1,000 people. The goal of the terrorists was to destroy the North Tower, which, according to their calculations, was supposed to fall on the South Tower, which was supposed to lead to the destruction of both and mass casualties. After the terrorist attack, the alarm and fire safety systems were replaced.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked two American Airlines planes and flew them into the North and then the South Tower. The first plane crashed into the North Tower between the 93rd and 99th floors, trapping 1,344 people on the upper floors, unable to use the elevators or emergency exits.

In the South Tower, one of the stairwells, but not everyone was able to use it before the collapse. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am, the North Tower at 10:28 am. As a result of the terrorist attack, 2,752 people died - 200 of them jumped out of windows. 20 people were pulled out alive from the rubble.