Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center - "Twin Towers is a richly textured study of an important American icon that symbolizes the intertwining of capitalism and government entrepreneurship in the United States. A nicely crafted study, certain to be of interest to students of American politics and culture, and to engineers and architects." -- Jameson W. Doig, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton University

Interview with Angus Kress Gillespie, Author of Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center

Question: What made you decide to write a book about the Twin Towers? Answer: I was inspired by Alan Trachtenberg's Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol. Trachtenberg explored the Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, as a cultural symbol of America. Just as the Brooklyn Bridge tells us about America of the 1880s, so the Twin Towers can tell us about the America of the 1970s. Indeed, while I wrote this book, I kept about my desk a photograph by Ralf Uicker of the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground with the World Trade Center in the background.

Question: In the book you wrote, "I approached the Twin Towers not just as an artifact, but as a living social institution." Can you elaborate on this unique approach? Answer: Well, the visitor tends to see the Twin Towers as a monument, as the tallest buildings in New York City. So the visitor tends to make a brief trip to the Observation Deck, to check it off his list, and move on to the next attraction. But, for the 35,000 tenants who work there daily, this is their home away from home. It's not just an office building. It's an entire complex with shops, restaurants, and bars. This is a place where office workers can meet their co-workers and their friends to share the joys and sorrows of everyday life. It's a place for something as mundane as a TGIF party or as significant as a retirement party.

Question: You also write, "But what do the Twin Towers mean? . . . The Twin Towers may be taken to symbolize American exceptionalism, or American capitalism, or even America itself." Why do you feel this is so? What do the Twin Towers mean? Answer: Knowing that the Twin Towers were built with pride by the Port Authority, we can say the complex is a symbol of New York harbor, where ships come and go, where goods are bought and sold. But it's more than that. It's a testimony to the economic power of American capitalism. So, when in 1993 the center was bombed, it was a moment of epiphany for me. I realized that the terrorists and I were on the same wavelength. We both saw the World Trade Center as an important symbol of the United States.

Question: Why was the World Trade Center built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. How is it that this agency, traditionally known for building bridges and tunnels, ended up with the project? Answer: In the post-World War II period, New York City enjoyed peace and prosperity. The city grew tremendously, but most of the growth was in midtown. In the 1950s, civic leaders were concerned about the decline of development in lower Manhattan. Particularly concerned was David Rockefeller, president of Chase Manhattan Bank, who has just built a 60-story headquarters for his bank as a stimulus for the area. It was not enough, so Rockefeller and other captains of finance decided to come up with a new plan. One element of the plan called for the construction of a World Trade Center. Rockefeller managed to interest his brother Nelson, the governor of New York, and Mayor Robert F. Wagner, as well as New Jersey Governor Robert Meyner. All agreed that the Port Authority should study the plans for a World Trade Center in an effort to revitalized downtown Manhattan.

It was obvious to these key figures that the Port Authority should be the leading agency for the project. In the first place, only the Port Authority had the ability to raise the enormous sums of money required. In addition, the agency had the power legally to appropriate land for public use under the right of eminent domain. Finally, the agency had a world-class engineering staff with the expertise to oversee such a large and complex project.

Question: Why was the World Trade Center built in New York rather than New Jersey? Answer: The original plan called for the World Trade Center to be built in New York City, so there never was a chance for the project to be built in New Jersey. Of course, since the Port Authority was a bi-state operation, the agency had to come up with something to placate New Jersey. The most pressing transportation need n New Jersey was to do something about the state's declining commuter rail system. So the Port Authority reluctantly agreed to take over the bankrupt Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, which was aptly given a new name, PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson). In a classical political deal, both sides won: New York got the Twin Towers and New Jersey got the PATH.

Question: The conception and construction of the World Trade Center and Twin Towers was fraught with controversy. What were some of the major controversies and what made this construction so contentious? Answer: The biggest controversy was over the size of the proposed Twin Towers when the plan was first unveiled in 1964. The major opponents were citywide real estate operators. They called upon the Port Authority to scale down its plans. They said that they proposed World Trade Center would be four times as large as necessary and would undermine the entire market for Manhattan office space. The opponents were led by Lawrence A. Wein, who controlled the Empire State Building. He put together a Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center. Wein appointed Robert Kopple, a 53-year-old lawyer known to be fond of a good legal fight, to head up the committee. Kopple promised, "We are ready to go to court to try to get this bloated project - these "Tobin Towers" - brought down to size.

Question: What's your favorite story that didn't make it into the book? Answer: With great reluctance, I gave cursory attention to the U.S. Customs Service, which has its regional headquarters in Six World Trade Center. There are dozens of intriguing stories about how that agency foils smugglers who seek to avoid the payment of import duties. Similarly, I had to leave out any discussion of the Commodities Exchange located in Four World Trade Center, where fortunes are won and lost everyday.

Question: What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned through your research? Answer: I was quite surprised to learn that the Port Authority, as landlord of the World Trade Center, saw itself not just as great builder but also as an important patron of the arts. Though the agency has been criticized for assuming this role, I happen to think that it is a good thing for government to support the arts. Sculptures and tapestries are found in the public areas of the World Trade Center. These include works by famous artists such as Alexander Calder, Joan Miro, Louise Nevelson, Fritz Koenig, James Rosati, and Masayuki Nagare.

Question: You predict that the Twin Towers will always be the tallest buildings in New York City. Why? Answer: In the first place, local neighborhoods have been empowered to block projects they do not want. In the second place, environmentalists can and do raise valid objections to large-scale projects. But the most important factor of all is that the culture has changed. Huge skyscrapers have fallen out of fashion. Today, they are seen as symbols of monumental ego, corporate extravagance, and terrible waste.

Fast Facts from Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center by Angus Kress Gillespie

The owner-builder-landlord of the Twin Towers is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The architect who designed the World Trade Center was Seattle-born Minoru Yamasake, whose design for the project was unveiled in January 1964. He was assisted by Emory Roth & Sons.

The original budget estimate for the World Trade Center was $350 million. This increased first to $550 million, then to $750 million. The project was ultimately finished for just under $1 billion.

One World Trade Center is 110 stories, or 1,368 feet tall Two World Trade Center is 110 stories and 1,362 feet tall.

Excavated material from the construction site was used as landfill, adding 23 acres of the most valuable land in the country to New York City - the present site of Battery Park City and the World Financial Center.

Numerous archaeological relics were unearthed during construction, including anchors, clay pipes, hand-blown drinking glasses, cannon balls, coins (including an almost perfect 1749 British half-penny) and a time capsule buried at the time of the 1884 construction of the Washington market.

During peak periods, as many as 3,600 construction workers worked on the site. Eight men died building the World Trade Center.

The Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world until 1974 when the Sears Tower in Chicago surpassed them, with 110 stories at 1,454 feet.

Each Tower has 23 express, 72 "locals," and nine freight elevators. The express elevators have a 10,000-lb. capacity and are capable of carrying 55 people at one time at a climbing speed of 1,600 feet per minute. There are also 49 heavy-duty, high-speed escalators.

At its peak, the cooling system at the World Trade Center uses 100.7 mill

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. Completed in 1976, these edifices are still the tallest man-made structures in New York City. Adorned with fountains and sculptures, the complex rises like Emerald City from what was once a dilapidated area of half-abandoned stores.

What went on before ground was even broken is a fascinating story in itself. Angus Gillespie recounts the political maneuvering necessary for the co-sponsor, the State of New Jersey, to agree to situate the project across the river in New York. Deftly presenting portraits of the men responsible for mooring the World Trade Center at its present location, he provides ample evidence that the 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 Gillespie discusses the contrast between the architectural community's almost universal disdain for the tower's design and the public's enthusiastic acceptance of the buildings as a symbol of New York.

It is the people who give this complex life, purpose, and vibrancy, folklorist Gillespie points out. Through numerous first-hand interviews conducted with the people who daily work there, Twin Towers portrays the world of bankers, shippers, freight forwarders, and traders. With skill and insight, Gillespie captures what happens during a normal twenty-four hour day in the Twin Towers, starting with early morning food deliveries and ending with the patrols of nighttime security guards.

Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center - Darton provides an insightful look at urban architecture, politics, and commerce, with New York's World Trade Center at the pivot point. He traces the history of Manhattan back to negotiations with the Algonquins that eventually led to the "transformation of land into real estate," through its early days as a shipping center to its current focus as a center of commerce. Darton explores the history of the skyscraper as the measure of the growth of technology, wealth, and ambition--buildings as monuments to commerce and objects of various protests from society's malcontents. Various architects and planners have vied to either preserve some human scale in the urban density or to build as many structures as possible in geographically limited space. Darton cites LeCorbusier, creator of the "autocratic urban ideal," as a major proponent of Manhattan's superblocks, choked with skyscrapers. To this highly detailed and informative book, Darton brings obvious affection for his subject.

The World Trade Center: A Tribute - This stunning tribute to the World Trade Center focuses on the history and architecture of the buildings and the lower Manhattan neighborhood where they stood with over 80 full-color photographs.

The World Trade Center Remembered - A stirring photographic tribute to the Twin Towers, which were the icons of the New York skyline. Rising dramatically above all other skyscrapers at the tip of Manhattan, the World Trade Center symbolized New York. From any direction the Towers were lodestars, Manhattan's local mountains. As New Yorkers desperately seek a path toward healing, following the dark events of September 11, they have been reminiscing about the view of the Towers they once had from their homes and offices. Visitors as well are remembering how the WTC looked as they approached Manhattan by car or by plane or from the water. The WTC was a compass. As we mourn for the terrible loss of life, we also want to remember.

The 72 images of the World Trade Center presented in this book depict a New York we once knew, one we are now working to rebuild. For more than two decades, practically since the Twin Towers were erected, Bullaty and Lomeo have been photographing these awesome buildings. The pictures featured here portray the WTC from all directions, starting with views from the east at dawn, and ending with evening views from the west. There are captivating panoramas from Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, New Jersey, and uptown, taken in all seasons, as well as a section showing the grand Plaza at the center of the buildings. Together, they create an unforgettable portrait of the Twin Towers.