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Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center
A readable account of both the history of the construction of the Twin Towers and the life of the people who work there.
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are more than office buildings. They are symbols of America, just as the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben represent their countries. Commissioned in 1962 and completed in 1976, these edifices are still the tallest man-made structures in New York City. Indeed, the builders intended the towers to make a statement about the importance of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The complex rises like Emerald City, with fountains and sculpture from what was once a dilapidated area of half-abandoned stores.
Folklorist Angus Gillespie takes us on a tour that goes back in time and continues to the present day. He recounts the political maneuvering necessary to get the State of New Jersey to agree to situate the project at its present location. Deftly presenting portraits of the men responsible for mooring the World Trade Center at its present location, Gillespie provides ample evidence that the World Trade Center backers were “second to none in self promotion.”
Twin Towers also demonstrates how engineers prepared the site and solved complex problems (wind patterns, elevator placement, ground-water complications) in order to erect the towers, each with 110 stories. And he discusses the contrast between the architectural community’s almost universal disdain for the towers’ design and the public’s enthusiastic acceptance of the buildings as a symbol of New York.
There is more to the Twin Towers than its architecture, however. People give this complex life, purpose, vibrancy, Gillespie points out. The World Trade Center houses more than 400 businesses and organizations from some 60 different countries engaged in a broad range of international business activities. Through his numerous first-hand interviews conducted with the people who daily work there, Gillespie vividly portrays the world of bankers, shippers, freight forwarders, and traders. With skill and insight, he captures what happens during a normal 24-hour day in the Twin Towers, starting with early morning food deliveries and ending with the patrols of nighttime security guards.
Twin Towers is both a fitting tribute and careful analysis of one of the most resonating symbols in American culture.
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are more than office buildings. They are symbols of America, just as the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben represent their countries. Commissioned in 1962 and completed in 1976, these edifices are still the tallest man-made structures in New York City. Indeed, the builders intended the towers to make a statement about the importance of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The complex rises like Emerald City, with fountains and sculpture from what was once a dilapidated area of half-abandoned stores.
Folklorist Angus Gillespie takes us on a tour that goes back in time and continues to the present day. He recounts the political maneuvering necessary to get the State of New Jersey to agree to situate the project at its present location. Deftly presenting portraits of the men responsible for mooring the World Trade Center at its present location, Gillespie provides ample evidence that the World Trade Center backers were “second to none in self promotion.”
Twin Towers also demonstrates how engineers prepared the site and solved complex problems (wind patterns, elevator placement, ground-water complications) in order to erect the towers, each with 110 stories. And he discusses the contrast between the architectural community’s almost universal disdain for the towers’ design and the public’s enthusiastic acceptance of the buildings as a symbol of New York.
There is more to the Twin Towers than its architecture, however. People give this complex life, purpose, vibrancy, Gillespie points out. The World Trade Center houses more than 400 businesses and organizations from some 60 different countries engaged in a broad range of international business activities. Through his numerous first-hand interviews conducted with the people who daily work there, Gillespie vividly portrays the world of bankers, shippers, freight forwarders, and traders. With skill and insight, he captures what happens during a normal 24-hour day in the Twin Towers, starting with early morning food deliveries and ending with the patrols of nighttime security guards.
Twin Towers is both a fitting tribute and careful analysis of one of the most resonating symbols in American culture.
263 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1999
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126 people want to read
About the author
Angus Kress Gillespie
8 booksProfessor Angus Kress Gillespie is a folklorist who has studied myths, legends, tales, and ballads found in the United States. His courses in folklore range from historic figures such as Buffalo Bill, Casey Jones, Calamity Jane, and Molly Pitcher to contemporary issues such as urban legends and conspiracy theories. From time to time, Gillespie offers courses in weird folklore where he discusses creatures such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Jersey Devil. His courses in folklife consider physical folklore including architecture, art, craft, cookery, cattle ranching, seafaring, and fence construction.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 29, 2022
Angus Gillespie's 'Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center', is a superb deep dive into the World Trade Center complex. Gillespie takes us through the rich and interesting history, not just of the complex, but back to the establishment of the Port Authority (PA) in the early 1920s. He details how the PA evolved in the post-World-War-I era, how they devised the World Trade Center concept, and the battle they fought in the first half of the 60s to get permission to begin construction. While various planning-related skirmishes between the PA and their adversaries were ongoing, in 1962, the PA chose their architect, Minoru Yamasaki, who immediately commenced design work on the project. We see Yamasaki's technical innovations and details in the architecture of the towers, how upon opening in '73 they were met with disdain by critics and public alike, then how, through several events in the remainder of the 70s, people eventually came to accept and admire them. The book is brought to a close with a chapter that gives us an interesting and entertaining account of what a day at the complex typically entailed, which in the post-9/11 world, is important historical documentation—it really gave me a sense of the magnitude of what was lost with the destruction of the complex.
Although the loss of life on 9/11 was obviously devastating and I would never wish to take anything away from that, reading this book gives me the sense that the loss of the World Trade Center complex was the loss of one of the wonders of the world. In 1995, when I was 12 years old, on a family holiday from Scotland to the US, I got to see the towers with my own eyes. We didn't visit the complex, but I have a vivid memory of coming out of a subway station close to the towers, and being absolutely overwhelmed by their enormity—it was like being unexpectedly slapped in the face. I recently asked my parents if they could recall this experience, and neither could. I'm now suspicious of the veracity of that memory, and I wonder whether I fabricated it. However, without a doubt, I do remember also seeing the towers while we were waiting in a queue to climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty. Now, I have a really strong melancholic wish for the impossible: to visit and truly appreciate the complex as an adult. How I would love to sit in the Austin J. Tobin Plaza and admire the towers and 'The Sphere' sculpture, visit the South Tower observation deck, have dinner with a view in Windows on the World, then perhaps spend the night at the WTC3 Marriott Hotel, reading and people watching in the Tall Ships Bar & Grill, before going to bed in one of the 'Concierge Level' rooms. And just since I'm indulging in pure fantasy here, I'd love for the Windows on the World experience to be Joe Baum's original 1976 creation, which cost $17 million and was at least a couple of years in the making.
The only reason I'm not rating this book five is because I think the material could have benefited from slightly better structure, even though this may purely be a matter of personal preference. I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could. My only small complaint is, as someone who reads multiple books concurrently, I appreciate books that are organised such that you can read them in small chunks, perhaps for an hour here and there. The chapters in this book are very long and hard to digest in one sitting. Sometimes, they were broken down into smaller sections, which was great, but other times they weren't. Would have loved to see those sections applied consistently to every chapter.
Although the loss of life on 9/11 was obviously devastating and I would never wish to take anything away from that, reading this book gives me the sense that the loss of the World Trade Center complex was the loss of one of the wonders of the world. In 1995, when I was 12 years old, on a family holiday from Scotland to the US, I got to see the towers with my own eyes. We didn't visit the complex, but I have a vivid memory of coming out of a subway station close to the towers, and being absolutely overwhelmed by their enormity—it was like being unexpectedly slapped in the face. I recently asked my parents if they could recall this experience, and neither could. I'm now suspicious of the veracity of that memory, and I wonder whether I fabricated it. However, without a doubt, I do remember also seeing the towers while we were waiting in a queue to climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty. Now, I have a really strong melancholic wish for the impossible: to visit and truly appreciate the complex as an adult. How I would love to sit in the Austin J. Tobin Plaza and admire the towers and 'The Sphere' sculpture, visit the South Tower observation deck, have dinner with a view in Windows on the World, then perhaps spend the night at the WTC3 Marriott Hotel, reading and people watching in the Tall Ships Bar & Grill, before going to bed in one of the 'Concierge Level' rooms. And just since I'm indulging in pure fantasy here, I'd love for the Windows on the World experience to be Joe Baum's original 1976 creation, which cost $17 million and was at least a couple of years in the making.
The only reason I'm not rating this book five is because I think the material could have benefited from slightly better structure, even though this may purely be a matter of personal preference. I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could. My only small complaint is, as someone who reads multiple books concurrently, I appreciate books that are organised such that you can read them in small chunks, perhaps for an hour here and there. The chapters in this book are very long and hard to digest in one sitting. Sometimes, they were broken down into smaller sections, which was great, but other times they weren't. Would have loved to see those sections applied consistently to every chapter.
April 8, 2009
This book was written in 1999 as pressure was mounting for the Port Authority to turn the WTC over to a private agency. The book was reissued shortly after September 11 as the only scholarly history of the WTC. It's a fascinating study of political pressures and engineering feats.
It's impossible to discuss the World Trade Center Towers without first understanding the New York/New Jersey Port Authority. Conceptually, it was unique when it was created in 1921. Authorities - quasi-governmental agencies that were authorized to build projects and then levy user fees to pay for them - had a long and well-established history in England. What made this new authority unique in 1921, when it was created to build the Holland Tunnel, was that it was granted a charter to build facilities, i.e., multiple projects.
The idea for the WTC was conceived during a period of relentless optimism [Kenney:] but "completed during a period of national gloom and retreat [Vietnam, 1970's, and Nixon's collapse.:]" There were political aspects, aside from the desire to build the world's tallest building, and there was always the pressure from New Jersey to reduce bridge and tunnel tolls. A new project that would use these surplus funds would help to relieve that pressure. It was a project that was lauded by the critics at first, then reviled, only to be resurrected in the minds of New Yorkers, but never as an architectural triumph. It had the misfortune to fall between two architectural periods: International Style, with massive amounts of glass, and Postmodern, which represented a return to the more colorful and decorative building facades. Its Japanese architect, Minoru Yamasaki, used unique aluminum curtain walls that had been dyed to reflect light in unusual ways. The floor-to-ceiling windows were smaller, about the width of a large man, and set back from the curtain. This reduced heating and cooling expenses and eliminated the sense of vertigo that plagued other skyscrapers that had office space right up to the edge of the window, a more floor-efficient design. Yamasaki went through eighty iterations of the design, sometimes using three or four towers, but eventually settling on two. The spacing between them became critical because if placed too close together the winds sweeping down could create sympathetic vibrations in the buildings, destroying their integrity, i.e., a euphemism for causing them to fall down.
The engineering was incredible, and the building could not have been built without technologies developed in other countries. The "Kangaroo" cranes that hoisted themselves up the elevator shafts were developed in Australia. Nothing like them was available in the United States. They were needed to raise the very heavy steel columns that were the load- bearing walls, another unique design feature of the buildings, and the floors. It was initially thought that only U.S. Steel or Bethlehem Steel, the two largest steel companies in the United States, would be able to supply the enormous quantity of steel needed - the drawings for the steel construction weighed over 650 pounds - and Andrew Tobin, the Port Authority's director, thought that by involving them early in the design stage he would get a reasonable bid from them. Not so, and Tobin was so angry with their overbidding, which bore suspicions of collusion - a later investigation revealed no evidence of that - that he contracted portions of the steel to smaller companies, thereby saving over 30% of the anticipated costs. Going to different companies and subcontracting and bidding for smaller lots was to become the industry standard because of the cost savings.
Because the building was so close to the river and excavation for the huge buildings had to go deep down to hit bedrock (enough soil and material was excavated to create Battery Park, an eighteen-acre site that extended Manhattan Island an extra 700 feet into the river and creating additional real estate worth [$:]), some method to keep the water out was needed that would not affect the adjacent structures. A slurry method imported from Italy permitted concrete and steel reinforcement for the huge "bathtub" that kept the water out. Slurry containing betonite clay was pumped in as the trenches were dug and then pumped out as concrete and rebar were placed to create the final walls.
The effect of sway on humans had to be tested. The buildings had to be flexible; any degree of stiffness could be built in, but it could not be changed after the building was complete. At its top the Empire State Building sways three inches in a one hundred-mile-per-hour wind. Swaying rooms were built to test people's reactions. Psychologists found that people would tolerate up to eleven inches of slow sway. That represented winds of 140 miles per hour, wind speeds that had never occurred in New York. The building was designed to withstand much higher gusts than that.
Wind can cause other problems. On a gusty day, the buildings twisted and moved so much that the freight elevators could not be used. They were the only elevators to go all the way to the top - all the others had shorter runs to assorted lobbies where commuters changed cars - and the 1350-foot cables would slap around too much. Everything had to be inspected daily. The elevators made 450,000 "movements" (one person on one trip) per day.
The Port Authority has its own police force, and forty-two officers were assigned to the WTC buildings. It is a unique force in that the officers have bi-state authority, the only police force in the country to have such authority. In fact, their jurisdiction lies in a circle with a twenty-five mile radius from the Statue of Liberty.
It's impossible to recount all the riveting (not a pun, since no rivets were used) details of the gargantuan buildings. It's a fascinating story of a building, and, aside from the enormous human tragedies of September 11, it was a great engineering loss as well.
It's impossible to discuss the World Trade Center Towers without first understanding the New York/New Jersey Port Authority. Conceptually, it was unique when it was created in 1921. Authorities - quasi-governmental agencies that were authorized to build projects and then levy user fees to pay for them - had a long and well-established history in England. What made this new authority unique in 1921, when it was created to build the Holland Tunnel, was that it was granted a charter to build facilities, i.e., multiple projects.
The idea for the WTC was conceived during a period of relentless optimism [Kenney:] but "completed during a period of national gloom and retreat [Vietnam, 1970's, and Nixon's collapse.:]" There were political aspects, aside from the desire to build the world's tallest building, and there was always the pressure from New Jersey to reduce bridge and tunnel tolls. A new project that would use these surplus funds would help to relieve that pressure. It was a project that was lauded by the critics at first, then reviled, only to be resurrected in the minds of New Yorkers, but never as an architectural triumph. It had the misfortune to fall between two architectural periods: International Style, with massive amounts of glass, and Postmodern, which represented a return to the more colorful and decorative building facades. Its Japanese architect, Minoru Yamasaki, used unique aluminum curtain walls that had been dyed to reflect light in unusual ways. The floor-to-ceiling windows were smaller, about the width of a large man, and set back from the curtain. This reduced heating and cooling expenses and eliminated the sense of vertigo that plagued other skyscrapers that had office space right up to the edge of the window, a more floor-efficient design. Yamasaki went through eighty iterations of the design, sometimes using three or four towers, but eventually settling on two. The spacing between them became critical because if placed too close together the winds sweeping down could create sympathetic vibrations in the buildings, destroying their integrity, i.e., a euphemism for causing them to fall down.
The engineering was incredible, and the building could not have been built without technologies developed in other countries. The "Kangaroo" cranes that hoisted themselves up the elevator shafts were developed in Australia. Nothing like them was available in the United States. They were needed to raise the very heavy steel columns that were the load- bearing walls, another unique design feature of the buildings, and the floors. It was initially thought that only U.S. Steel or Bethlehem Steel, the two largest steel companies in the United States, would be able to supply the enormous quantity of steel needed - the drawings for the steel construction weighed over 650 pounds - and Andrew Tobin, the Port Authority's director, thought that by involving them early in the design stage he would get a reasonable bid from them. Not so, and Tobin was so angry with their overbidding, which bore suspicions of collusion - a later investigation revealed no evidence of that - that he contracted portions of the steel to smaller companies, thereby saving over 30% of the anticipated costs. Going to different companies and subcontracting and bidding for smaller lots was to become the industry standard because of the cost savings.
Because the building was so close to the river and excavation for the huge buildings had to go deep down to hit bedrock (enough soil and material was excavated to create Battery Park, an eighteen-acre site that extended Manhattan Island an extra 700 feet into the river and creating additional real estate worth [$:]), some method to keep the water out was needed that would not affect the adjacent structures. A slurry method imported from Italy permitted concrete and steel reinforcement for the huge "bathtub" that kept the water out. Slurry containing betonite clay was pumped in as the trenches were dug and then pumped out as concrete and rebar were placed to create the final walls.
The effect of sway on humans had to be tested. The buildings had to be flexible; any degree of stiffness could be built in, but it could not be changed after the building was complete. At its top the Empire State Building sways three inches in a one hundred-mile-per-hour wind. Swaying rooms were built to test people's reactions. Psychologists found that people would tolerate up to eleven inches of slow sway. That represented winds of 140 miles per hour, wind speeds that had never occurred in New York. The building was designed to withstand much higher gusts than that.
Wind can cause other problems. On a gusty day, the buildings twisted and moved so much that the freight elevators could not be used. They were the only elevators to go all the way to the top - all the others had shorter runs to assorted lobbies where commuters changed cars - and the 1350-foot cables would slap around too much. Everything had to be inspected daily. The elevators made 450,000 "movements" (one person on one trip) per day.
The Port Authority has its own police force, and forty-two officers were assigned to the WTC buildings. It is a unique force in that the officers have bi-state authority, the only police force in the country to have such authority. In fact, their jurisdiction lies in a circle with a twenty-five mile radius from the Statue of Liberty.
It's impossible to recount all the riveting (not a pun, since no rivets were used) details of the gargantuan buildings. It's a fascinating story of a building, and, aside from the enormous human tragedies of September 11, it was a great engineering loss as well.
June 9, 2023
A readable history of the World Trade Center's planning challenges, construction, and issues influencing acceptance over time. The book is a good complement to 102 Minutes, a history of the WTC on 9/11 as Gillespie writes prior to that event. This will be of particular interest to those with an interest in engineering or construction.
July 31, 2011
Comprehensive behind-the-scenes story of how the NY:NJ Port Authority was created, which was actually the owner of the World Trade Center (who knew??) and all the in-fighting that went on to design and build the 2 towers. The book is written (prior to the 9/11 attacks) by an American Studies college professor, and while it's very interesting, it's not a smooth trajectory. He back tracks and reiterates some of the same history/politics in several of the chapters, almost as if each chapter was written to stand alone as a scholarly article on some topic (history of NYC politics, role of unions, etc) rather than be a building block for the chapter to follow in the book.
October 24, 2011
Workman-like look -- published pre-9/11-- at the history, politics, architecture, engineering, social impact, and daily life of the World Trade Center. While informative, it is occasionally repetitive and a tad dry; it nevertheless offers a sense of what an achievement the WTC was, and -- especially in the cultural impact and daily life chapters -- what is now missing.
October 14, 2018
Good book that was exactly what I wanted when I read it after the destruction - an appreciation for the place, a feeling that it was a place with daily routines and normal activities like any other place. I saw the aftermath first hand, a few months after it was gone, while I was in NYC on a business trip.
April 11, 2009
This book was written before 9/11. It give an interesting look into the politics of getting the towers built as well as a bit of the enormous task of building the buildings and a bit of a look at a day in the life...It was interesting but could have been much more so.
February 6, 2011
A scholarly recounting of how the WTC complex came to be and the politics involved. This was written prior to 9-11-2001.
April 4, 2013
Detailed, excellent account on the construction of these buildings.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews