This temporary reconstructed World Trade Center PATH subway station opened on November 23, 2003.  A World Trade Center Transportation Hub, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is scheduled to open in 2009.  The station is to resemble “a bird being released from a child’s hand.”   

 

The original World Trade Center twin towers, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, stood 110 stories (1,353 feet) and were constructed between 1966 and 1977.  The architect conceived the World Trade Center as “a living symbol of man’s dedication to world peace. . . a representation of man’s belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men.”  From the top of the towers, it was possible to see 45 miles. 

 

After September 11, 2001, there has been much discussion about how to rebuild the site.  Current plans by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation are for the building of a Freedom Tower (by architect Daniel Libeskind) which will be 1,776 feet (a tribute to the year 1776) and to become the tallest building in the country.  A World Trade Center Memorial, “Reflecting Absence,” (by designer Michael Arad) will be composed of:  “two square, one-acre reflecting pools marking the footprints of the twin towers, each with a square void at its center.”  At the base of these pools, visitors will find “the names of victims inscribed on walls at the water’s edge.”  Blastings of the bedrock at the World Trade Center began on June 12, 2006 and are the first steps toward the construction of the Freedom Tower.  Changes to the design were announced in late June 2006.  Some of them include the adding of a revolving beacon light to the spire’ top and the installation of glass prisms to bring more light into the tower’s base.  The final designs for the three towers that are to surround the Freedom Tower were unveiled in September 2007.  Construction continues at the World Trade Center site and is now expected to be completed by 2010 or 2011.

 

 

This 45,000 pound Sphere sculpture (bottom) was originally located at ground level in the outdoor plaza at the World Trade Center.  The bronze Sphere, designed as “a monument fostering world peace” by Fritz Koenig in 1971, survived the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack.  Although damaged, it has been relocated to Battery Park as a temporary memorial to those who died that day.  

 

The attack on the World Trade Center was the worst and most costly disaster in New York City history.  Before the attack the event in the City that had cost the most lives was a fire on the General Slocum Steamboat on June 15, 1904.   Over 1,000 immigrants -- most of them from the Lower East Side -- died in the fire.  They were on an excursion up the East River to Locust Grove on Long island Sound for a day of recreation, good food, games and swimming. 


Other major disaster that have occurred in New York City are: 

  • Fires during the American Revolutionary War in both September 1776 and August 1778;
  • The Great Fire of 1835;
  • A fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace (thought to be fireproof) on October 5, 1858; the Crystal Palace was constructed for the World's Fair of 1853 and located at what is now Bryant Park; (London also had a Crystal Palace in its Hyde Park which was also destroyed by fire);
  • The Triangle ShirtWaist factory fire on Greene Street in March 1911 in which 146 women were burned to death or jumped to their deaths;
  • A fire destroying Coney Island's Dreamland park in 1911 -- one day before it was to open;
  • A 1944 fire at Luna Park on Coney Island.