The north tower opened in Dec. 1970 and the south tower in Jan. 1972. They were dedicated in April 1973. They were the world's tallest buildings for only a short time, since the Sears Tower in Chicago was completed in May 1973. However, the towers were ranked as the fifth and sixth tallest buildings in the world at the time of their destruction on Sept. 11, 2001.
Some 50,000 people worked in the buildings, while another 200,000 visited or passed through each day.
Previous Bombing
In 1993 terrorists drove a truck packed with 1,100 lbs of explosives into the basement parking garage at the World Trade Center. Despite the size of the blast it left a crater 22 ft wide and 5 stories deep. Only 6 people were killed and 1,000 injured. The towers were repaired, cleaned, and reopened in less than a month.
Rebuilding Plans
In 2002, separate design contests were held for rebuilding the World Trade Center site and creating a memorial for the victims of the attacks. The first round of finalists for the site, unveiled in July 2002, were widely criticized as being too boring and having too much of an emphasis on office space, leading to a new round of finalists in December.
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