Exacerbating the potential fire risk was a quirk of timing in revisions to the New York City Building Code. As a public agency, the Port Authority wasn’t required to comply11 with the code, but its top officials promised to meet or exceed the city’s standards at the trade center. During initial planning, that meant applying strict rules adopted in 1938. But in the mid-1960s, as the towers took shape, a revised, less stringent code moved toward enactment.
