The World Trade Center in the 1970s (Rewind)

Revisiting the World Trade Center

0:00We have a batch of newly recorded Bowery Boys podcasts arriving next week, but for now, it has been 25 years since September 11th, 2001, and we're marking this occasion today by presenting our show recorded for the 20th anniversary, looking at the planning and construction of the World Trade Center and how it transformed Lower Manhattan in the 1970s. This show also features information about the National September 11th Memorial and Museum.

0:32There is another symbol of international understanding, the World Trade Center in New York City. It will become the world's tallest building, rising over 1,300 feet into the sky. From a helicopter, we see the New York skyline as it will appear from the top of the Trade Center. Even New York's tallest building seems to shrink in comparison.

0:54A steelworker, John McKeever, looked at this United Nations of Commerce, which he's helping to build. That kangaroo up there is the one I'm working on right now, and after this job is over, maybe 15 years from now, I'll bring my children back here, my three sons, and I'll show them what we built here. The tallest building in the world. The Bowery Boys episode 350, the World Trade Center, in the 1970s. Hey, it's the Bowery Boys. Hey.

1:24Hi there. Welcome to The Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young. And this is Tom Myers. Greg, with our 350th episode of The Bowery Boys. It's 349 episodes about a wide range of subjects from the world of New York City history, and not one of those episodes has been about the World Trade Center until now.

2:02Why now, exactly? Well, this year, believe it or not, marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001, which caused the Twin Towers to collapse. It damaged and destroyed other buildings in the area and killed 2,606 people in and around the buildings, along with 157 passengers who were aboard the two flights. Now, when we started this podcast back in 2007, that was less than six years after 9-11.

2:39And it always felt inconceivable to us back then and for many years that we would ever even do an episode about that event. Like many of you, Tom and I have very specific experiences that are related to September 11th. I think you would agree with me, Tom, that we just don't know what we would be able to add to that discussion. But today, there's an entire generation that only knows the World Trade Center as a sort of emblem of tragedy.

3:13You know, most of its story, its creation, its life actually gets sidelined. And that's for understandable reasons, of course. But people sometimes forget that the World Trade Center was a very complicated and dramatic addition to the New York skyline when it officially opened in 1973. So today, we'd like to reintroduce the World Trade Center to you by looking at its first decade of operation, the 1970s.

3:44Because, you know, while it might be fun to think of New York City in the 1970s through the lens of places like Studio 54 or CBGBs, it was really the Twin Towers that redefined New York during this period. In a city beleaguered with the financial crisis and a rising crime rate, the shining New World Trade Center embodied the future. And it was during a period when it was really up for debate if New York City even had much of a bright future.

4:16So today, we're going to focus on details of the Trade Center's history that often get overlooked in discussions. For while our memories of the Twin Towers today are filled with reverence and sadness, those were not the emotions that were felt by New Yorkers in the mid-1970s. Or, to quote, the New York Times critic Glenn Collins, who was writing in 1972, quote, From a distance, the sight of these two mammoth, aluminum-faced slabs is annoyingly familiar.

4:53I didn't realize what they reminded me of, however, until I opened a box of staples. Ouch! And although today's show will stay mostly in the 1960s and 70s, we'll also be speaking at the end of the show with Kate Monaghan Connolly of the National 9-11 Memorial and Museum about how that institution memorializes those who were lost in the tragedy while still celebrating the technological marvels that once stood there. But now it's time, listener, to imagine yourself headed to work early in the morning, down the west side, down the length of the island, from the horizon,

5:37reflecting the sun's glow upon its gleaming aluminum shafts, you spot the two titans of the New York skyline, the towers of the World Trade Center. We're going to begin this story

David Rockefeller and Lower Manhattan

6:19actually further back in 1958, and we're going to start the story at the rich mahogany desk of one David Rockefeller, the youngest son of J.D. Rockefeller. Now, in 1958, David was vice president of the newly merged Chase Manhattan Bank, with offices that were located in downtown Manhattan, just north of Wall Street. David wanted to develop a brand new corporate headquarters for Chase here in the financial district.

6:55The problem, though, was that, you know, here in the 50s, the financial district was rather flagging. You know, it was a kind of depressed area as all of the major corporate centers had actually moved up to Midtown. Which is a bit ironic because many of those companies and corporate headquarters were relocating to Midtown, drawn up there by buildings like Rockefeller Center, which had been developed by his father. By his own family, right? Kind of a victim of his own success.

7:29But he wanted to stay down in the financial district. And indeed, one Chase Manhattan Plaza, which was their new corporate headquarters, was constructed and developed in the late 1950s. But Rockefeller wanted to revitalize the area, and he envisioned some ideas on how to do this. And so in 1958, the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association was formed, which was a development initiative that served the business community here. And it was through that association that Rockefeller envisioned a complex of several buildings

8:04that would be referred to as the World Trade Center, which was a neutral, apolitical space within the United States for international trade. Which seems kind of quaint and antiquated to us today. You know, this concept that foreign government and foreign businesses would want to locate inside one building because they could more easily communicate with each other and do business with each other. And his family, the Rockefeller family, had been obsessed with this whole idea.

8:35In fact, that was one of the purposes of developing Rockefeller Center. They wanted to bring international companies together. And the Rockefellers even had a hand, you know, in the development of the United Nations. Let's not forget. So this is all in their wheelhouse. So then what was David Rockefeller's plan for his Trade Center? Did it look anything like what we know would be developed a couple decades later? Not at all, actually. In fact, it more resembled the United Nations headquarters in at least some early sketches that were revealed in 1960.

9:09But the big difference, of course, is that it would be located on Manhattan's east side. So essentially clearing away everything from the South Street seaport to France's tavern. All that would have been potentially wiped away with a series of shimmering glass towers de commerce. But wait a second. Are you saying that in 1960, people were actually considering just wiping away these historic structures? Didn't they know, Greg, that you can't just do that?

9:40Well, you could, actually. I mean, this was the year before landmarking laws. So it was very likely that these buildings could have been severely reduced or completely demolished. However, it quickly became apparent that this project they were developing, it would be a real game changer for New York. And, of course, very expensive. One consulting firm actually advised, quote, it would have to be unusual in nature and spectacular in proportions to act as an irresistible magnet to prospective tenants.

10:16The initial price tag was actually $250 million, but, of course, it would balloon throughout the years. And so they would need funds from an operation with very deep pockets.

Austin Tobin and the Port Authority

10:28An organization that had been around since the 1920s, of course, operating bridges and tunnels between the two states, you know, like the Holland Tunnel, the George Washington Bridge. But why would they get involved in in a project like this, which is essentially a real estate project? Well, this was all the master idea of its executive director, Austin J. Tobin, who had been in charge of the authority since 1942.

11:04He really wanted to expand the profile of Port Authority, really expanding like what a port was even throughout the years. He had extended operations to include marine terminals and airports, and they still operate the airports, generating millions and millions of dollars in the process, which then Tobin could use to even expand Port Authority's reach even further into real estate development. I guess that makes sense.

11:36And this development was slated to be on the water, right? That's kind of a port, I guess. Your mind is being twisted for a good reason, but this is Tobin's great innovation here. To quote from the book City in the Sky by James Glanz and Eric Lipton, quote, Okay, so kind of a liberal interpretation of Port, but hey, they've got the money, they've got the clout, the political strength.

12:23Like, they could probably do it. Yeah, I mean, they were in by 1961. I mean, they had the blessing of the governor, who, oh, yes, just happened to be David Rockefeller's brother, Nelson Rockefeller. Keeping it all in the family. Yeah, and they also had the blessing of the New York State Legislature. Was that it? Were we good to go? Well, keep in mind, there are two parties that need to be involved. New York was on board. New Jersey had some understandable hesitations here.

12:57You mean, like, the fact that this was located on the East River? Yeah, so that's the first part. They actually obviously disliked that it was on the East Side and that it was on the West Side, at least facing New Jersey. But more importantly, actually, and really not without reason, they thought that the Port Authority should spend money improving transportation between the states. That's what they're supposed to do. And with one project in particular, which was a set of old rail tunnels underneath the Hudson River, operated by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, connecting Hoboken, New Jersey, with the Lower West Side in Manhattan.

13:39Well, to get New Jersey on board, this train project then was bundled with the Rockefeller idea, right? So they became one project, which is extraordinary.

Moving to the West Side

13:52And in the process, this whole World Trade Center idea then promptly moved to the West Side to be situated on land that was partly occupied by the Hudson Terminal Building, which was the old train building that serviced these tunnels that was eventually demolished. And then those trains that, you know, came in from those tunnels would then terminate beneath this brand new Trade Center project, maintained by Port Authority and then renamed Port Authority Trans-Hudson Rapid Transit System or...

14:29The path, the path train. And interesting that the Port Authority already owned land over here, the old railroad station. So could they just easily move this project over to the West Side? Oh, no. This needed, you know, many more acres. Of course, it was a much larger project. Several city blocks, in fact, would be allotted for this massive multi-building project. Many sections of the streets themselves would be taken off the map.

14:59So areas of Greenwich Street, Washington, and Fulton Street. And there were hundreds of local businesses on this site that had been traditionally nicknamed Radio Row. To quote from the New York Times on April 20th, 1962, quote, The area abounds with flower and plant shops, hardware stores, bookstalls, restaurants, and a hundred other enterprises. But it is mainly known as the East Coast Center for Hi-Fi and ham radio addicts.

15:33Its economic heart is the 400 shops that sell hi-fi and radio components, television and radio sets, and home appliances. Unquote. This plan, then, was going to displace a very vibrant commercial neighborhood. And naturally, then, the store merchants fought back in protest. The owner of a sandwich shop in this area even sued the Port Authority. And in 1963, that case went all the way up to the Supreme Court.

16:06In a rather interestingly named case called Courtesy Sandwich Shop versus the Port of New York Authority. Wow. The owners lost the battle. They lost the war here. And the businesses were closed. The business owners moved away or closed for good, closed permanently. And demolition began in March of 1966. And then, finally, they were ready to build. But obviously, they needed a plan.

Minoru Yamasaki's Master Plan

16:44They needed an architect. Yes. And they did have one. They had a... In fact, they settled on a surprising choice. The modernist architect, Minoru Yamasaki, a Japanese-American architect who was born in Seattle, trained in New York, and was in this time, in the 60s, based in Michigan. But for associate architects on this project. The Port Authority would actually turn to some very familiar names to those in New York real estate.

17:15Emery Roth and Sons, who had, of course, built dozens of apartment towers and office buildings in Manhattan, including, in 1963, the Pan Am building, a.k.a., of course, the MetLife building on Park Avenue. And what Yamasaki was tasked with here, a very challenging idea of creating millions of feet of rentable office space in a complex that was truly modern. Something that provided 12 million square feet, okay, which would make it the largest office complex in the world when it was completed.

17:54This project was so large that it would have its own zip code, 10048. And he would unveil his master plan here, officially, to the public on January 18th, 1964, at an unveiling ceremony in the Midtown Hilton Hotel. And what exactly would those plans entail exactly? Well, let's start from the very bottom, okay? Because there would be, at the very base, a huge, multi-level, underground shopping mall.

18:26There'd be everything down here. Clothing stores, drug stores, bookstores, banks. And as, by the way, a personal aside, it was in this shopping mall that I actually had my first New York meal of my life. Really? Yes. When I was in high school, when I came as a freshman in a diner. Down here, there would also be mass transit stations, the PATH station that you mentioned, and a New York City subway station. So, then what was at the street level? You would emerge onto a five-acre plaza, modeled loosely after the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

19:03Smaller office buildings would line the plaza, including number four, five, and six World Trade Center, and three World Trade Center, which would be a 22-story Marriott Hotel. But the main features here were the Twin Towers, one World Trade Center, or the North Tower, and two World Trade Center, or the South Tower. And then along the plaza, at the ground level, including in the Twin Towers, there was sort of arched metalwork on the building's facades that, again, reflected a bit of the design that you would find in Venice at the Doge's Palace.

19:41It was kind of medieval, early Renaissance, and also kind of futuristic at the same time. But to focus on just the two towers, which is the most recognizable feature of the whole complex, why did he decide on two and not just one massive building? Actually, early on in his plans, he did toy around with the idea of a 150-story-tall building, which was an idea that he abandoned and is, you know, simply too tall.

20:14So he did have his limits. But remember, I mean, he had this mandate from the Port Authority to create 10 or 12 million square feet of office space. So he needed really, really big structures. And so he decided on twin office towers. Each of them would rise 110 stories or about 1,350 feet. But he had a lot of acreage here to work with. Couldn't he have just have created multiple smaller buildings that would have done the trick?

20:47As it turns out, he was actually afraid that a bunch of smaller office towers, quote, would have looked like a housing project. Okay. And that is a quote, a direct quote from Yamasaki, from a glowing review written of his proposal in 1964 by The New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable. That review was published the day after his plans were unveiled at the Hilton. But, you know, these weren't just any old glassy towers.

21:21I mean, you could go up to Midtown and find all those glass curtain type buildings. And that's not what he chose for this. No. And that's what makes it actually more interesting. These, as opposed to that glass curtain quality in Midtown, these had a shiny metallic quality to them. It was an effect that was created on its facade by the inclusion of a vertical aluminum alloy finish. These were vertical lines or bars that were spaced 22 inches apart with narrow windows that were set back from them.

21:55So then from the street, these towers didn't look glassy at all. You know, they look like shiny sort of tight aluminum stripes or lines. And I should note, though, that spacing would widen at the very top of the structures where they had an observation deck or a restaurant later or at the base for the lobby. So once they got these plans approved, how did they start getting this vision realized?

22:27I mean, where do you begin with constructing something like this? Well, you know, you take it in steps and why say you take it in steps, but I mean, the architects, the engineers, the structural engineers, the general contractors, the thousands of construction workers. I mean, there were 4000 construction workers a day during much of its construction who were reporting to the Trade Center site. It was like an army of people. But this wasn't just like, you know, any other construction project that you would see in Manhattan.

22:59And they had some very specific issues that they had to overcome with this site.

Engineering the Bathtub and Slurry Wall

23:04Well, starting with the messy issue of the Hudson River, this project was being constructed before Battery Park existed. OK, when you see photos of the time, look over there. It's all piers on the other side of West Street. Part of the western section of the Trade Center site itself was actually built upon landfill. So the question that they were dealing with here was, how did you keep the river from entering the construction site and flooding it? You know, and for this, they developed something called the slurry wall.

23:37Mm, slurry wall. What is a slurry wall? Actually, I even slurred while saying it. The slurry wall actually essentially guaranteed that the 16 acre construction site would remain dry. You know, they called it the bathtub, but in a way it's kind of the reverse of a bathtub because the wall's purpose was to keep water out, not keep water in. So it was basically this three foot thick concrete wall that stretched 70 feet below ground where it's fastened.

24:11I say it's fastened because it still is fastened today directly into the bedrock. And then it wraps a thousand feet around the site, basically just sealing the whole thing off from the river. And you can still see a very sizable portion of this wall today at the September 11th Museum. And, you know, it is really dramatic. It's it's breathtaking. Yeah. And it was key to moving forward with construction, because once they had that in place, then they could really start excavating the land and disposing of all of that debris.

24:49I mean, they had more than a million cubic feet of earth to dig up to get down all the way down to the bedrock. Just imagine the amount of debris that they actually dug up here. I mean, how did they get rid of all of this? Well, fortunately, they didn't have very far to go because they simply dumped it on the other side of West Street into the water. OK, and we'll get to that and the landfill that it created a little bit later in the show. So finally, starting here, then on the towers, how did he manage to maximize the space in the building so that he could create the maximum amount of office space?

25:29He and his engineers developed some pretty cool innovations here, starting with the prickly issue of elevators and elevator space, because in a very tall office tower, elevators take up an enormous amount of floor space because you need so many of them. I mean, think of going to any large office tower, think of those banks of elevators that you always see. It's like, oh, floors one through 20, then 21 through 40, 41 through 60. I mean, those take up so much space in the very center of a building.

26:03But for the Twin Towers, Yamasaki employed an innovative local and express system of elevators that were kind of like the New York City subway system, because he divided the towers into three sections with express elevators, lifting you to one of two sky lobbies that were located either a third of the way up or two thirds of the way up. And from where you would then transfer to a local elevator to take you to your floor. And this was beneficial because then those local elevators didn't need to stretch all the way down in the same shaft, all the way down to the ground floor, which saved a lot of space, which is not to say that they were popular with people who work there, because many workers complained, you know, about how that would slow down your journey to your floor because you had to hop an express and then take a local.

26:56I mean, that would call then for taking two elevators every time you had to go up or down, which could be kind of a pain. But they also did something unique with the actual structural support of the building, right? There's something about the outside of the building that was helping to support the structure, right? Yes, that was another major innovation. They were designed with load bearing steel exteriors that were supporting them. The core of the buildings didn't provide most of the support as in a typical building.

27:27The exteriors did. So this plan allowed the towers then to go up almost like hollow tubes, right? That were supported by steel beams, which were placed closely around the exteriors. And those steel beams, you can actually still see where steel beams were placed into the foundations in the museum today. So when were these buildings finally ready for tenants?

Opening the First Tower

27:55Well, the first tenants moved into the North Tower on December 16th, 1970, while it was still under construction. The building would actually top out a week later on December 23rd. The Daily News reported the next day on December 17th, The World Trade Center, a 110-story castle of commerce sheathed in armor and glass, opened for business yesterday as the world's tallest skyscraper. The event formally ended the Empire State Building's 40-year reign

28:27and ushered in a spectacular new addition to the city, an office complex that will eventually total six enormous buildings, cost $650 million, and house 130,000 persons on a given day. The article continues, Virtually without ceremony, 25 employees of two import-export firms, the building's first tenants, reported to work in the North Tower. Up on the 11th floor, Margaret Sliss of Astoria and Alina Kaminas of Sunnyside,

29:00both 22 and both attractive, were hurriedly snapping lights on a mini-sized Christmas tree. And there's a very sweet photo of the two women who are both trimming the office Christmas tree. Well, that's some real Mad Men-era reporting of the opening of the Trade Center, let's just say. And when did the South Tower open? The South Tower would top out on July 19th, 1971, and its first tenants would move in the following January of 72.

29:33When they would be finished, the North Tower would rise 1,368 feet, or 417 meters, without its antenna, which would be added later, and the South Tower would rise 1,362 feet. Making them the tallest buildings in the world. But now that they were open, how would these glorious new pieces of architecture on the New York City skyline, how would they be received by New Yorkers and by the world?

30:04We'll get to the World Trade Center in the 1970s, after this.

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The 1973 Ribbon Cutting

30:41So almost 15 years after David Rockefeller had his dream of revitalizing Lower Manhattan, the Twin Towers and the World Trade Center Complex was officially opened in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 4th, on April 4th, 1973. The mood was dampened enthusiasm. Literally damp, because it was raining, but a lot of enthusiasm for the project's completion had been underscored by bitterness and criticism from all sides.

31:18But it's interesting because people were already, by that point, working there, and New Yorkers had been living with those structures in the skyline for several years. When it opened, as you mentioned, the North Tower was the tallest building in the world, meaning it was also the tallest construction site in the world, times two. Now, unfortunately for the marketing department of the World Trade Center, it actually very quickly lost the title of world's tallest

31:49just a month after this ribbon-cutting, when the Sears Tower in Chicago topped out at 1,450 feet in May of 1973. But I need to take a step back here and talk about the context in which the building is actually opening, meaning New York, which was a very different place in 1973 than when the project was first conceived back in 1961.

32:21A lot of things were different. That's true. I mean, the 60s happened. You know, there was a social revolution. New York now had a landmarks law intended to protect historic structures. And Robert Moses, master builder, was no longer by this time in power. It was a new day. Then, of course, you also have to look at the Trade Center from the perspective of the 1970s financial crisis in the city.

32:52In fact, it stands as an exception because New York was actually flailing financially by this point. And, you know, its infrastructure was deteriorating. In fact, in one very dramatic example, just months after the opening here in 1973, the Miller Elevated Highway, which was that highway that ran down along the west side of Manhattan. Remember our earlier turning on Barry White, that image?

33:23Okay, so that would have been a road you would have taken to get to work if you drove down from Westchester. A precursor to the West Side Highway. Well, anyway, a portion of that road actually crumbled. So then the whole road was closed for traffic and eventually torn down. Talk about a city in contrast, right? You have this like futuristic, a new gleamy structure that has been set down literally next to a crumbling highway. It's almost like this new development just landed from outer space right here in the city that's falling apart.

34:02And it would get worse throughout the decade here. You know, as the trade center began filling up with tenants, the rest of the city was facing a severe fiscal crisis, which peaked in 1975 with the city facing bankruptcy. The city would not get out of the red for many, many years. But did New Yorkers look at their new Twin Towers with hope and optimism, like a beacon of better things to come, a way out of this financial mess?

34:33They did down in, you know, Wall Street and Port Authority certainly saw this as a beacon of the future, which would represent a newly empowered downtown in a city, you know, that could certainly use the juice. They were more than successful in creating a center of gravity away from Midtown, away from Times Square, right? They didn't want Times Square to represent New York, let's just say, in the 1970s. But on the flip side,

35:04what was New York doing building this thing when there were so many other problems? The author Angus Cress Gillespie sums it up best in his book called The Twin Towers, quote, The Trade Center was so big and so grandiose that it acted as a lightning rod to attract criticism. It was one thing for the Port Authority to labor in obscurity as a transportation agency. It was something else to be constructing the world's tallest building. The public believed, right or wrong,

35:34that the agency with its unlimited resources was all powerful. So why, they asked, didn't the agency just step in and fix things? How did critics respond to its architecture, to that which was actually built? Because they had seen the plans, but now, once it was a reality, was it appreciated? Because there was plenty of building happening in Midtown that are, quite frankly, less interesting than these two towers were. Were the Twin Towers appreciated?

36:07As you had mentioned, yeah, early on, the critics championed the design, but they seemed to turn on it almost en masse, you know, like bitterness had set in over the years. And so by the time it opened, it was very critically received. In fact, our old friend Ada Louise Huxtable, who you mentioned earlier, was probably the biggest critical proponent of the towers back in the 60s. But here in the 1970s, she famously wrote, quote, But what about everyday New Yorkers?

36:51I mean, didn't they kind of appreciate, you know, the grander, the scale of these things? Well, do you know that the movie 2001 Space Odyssey came out in 1968? Well, you know, it featured this imposing, sinister monolith. And here in New York, we had two monoliths that were blasting themselves really, basically, into every visual angle in the city. But I'd say that opinions were actually quite complicated,

37:22because people, you know, moan and complain about new architecture all the time today. And there were many people who saw this as just another regrettable mistake. But as people got to work in the building, and more and more of the building, you know, became filled, it did bring some enthusiasm to the lower Manhattan scene. And one group of people loved it quite a bit, actually. And those were the commuters from New Jersey. Of course, the commuters arriving on the PATH train from New Jersey,

37:56who were not getting out at an old decrepit station, but now in a shiny new underground station that was part of a multi-level shopping center, an arcade and grand escalators up to the buildings. And I'm sure it was even more pleasant to get out of the station once all the construction on the Twin Towers had been completed in 1973. Yes, but construction was not done overall. There was still a lot to be worked on, because just west of the Trade Center, right,

38:30on the other side of West Street, was another construction site. Now, you had mentioned earlier all of that landfill that had been excavated from the ground and then basically planted, you know, along the piers into the water, right? More than a million cubic square feet, yes. It was here that the city prepared to develop an entirely new neighborhood, and one that would replace those sinking old pier structures. And you could see some extraordinary photos

39:02from the 70s of people, like, on a beach next to the World Trade Center, right? Didn't I even see photos of somebody that looked like they were in a wheat field or something? There was, like, a farm next to the Trade Center? Yeah, I mean, so that's a little bit later, but it was from an art installation in 1982. The artist Agnes Dennis planted two acres of wheat on this landfill, but the space here that was completed would be a partial foundation for Battery Park City,

39:35which wouldn't really be fully developed, you know, until the 1980s, 1990s. But, you know, so here in the 1970s, there was this big, flat, barren area of land right across from the Trade Center. It's extraordinary putting all that debris to good use. So then, what did the world think of the Trade Center and of these Twin Towers? If New Yorkers and critics were initially less than thrilled with all of this, people outside of New York looked upon the towers

40:07more positively. They very quickly became a totem of a new New York City, a new icon that people from far away could fantasize about a new way of thinking about New York, which was very key here when New York was, you know, doing very badly due to the fiscal crisis. And given the tower's prominence on the skyline, really, I mean, you couldn't escape them. It was undeniably present in anything that was New York related.

40:38So if you had TV shows that were set in New York or television commercials, but it was actually the movies that really boosted the profile of the Twin Towers. I think for many people, movies were able to use the Twin Towers very effectively. They were, after all, like larger than life buildings. Perhaps the most famous appearance of the World Trade Center was in the 1976 remake of King Kong starring Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges.

41:11And in that movie, Kong climbs the South Tower. Which is a perfect parallel to the original 1930s King Kong where Kong climbs the Empire State Building. So you see a kind of passing of the baton, of the torch, right, from Empire State down to the Trade Center.

Philippe Petit's High Wire Walk

41:31And so King Kong, yeah, just gets added to the list of daredevils who approached the towers as something to be sort of physically conquered. It started out as another routine morning for a New York helicopter traffic reporter, but he had more to tell his radio listeners than how the traffic was on the West Side Highway. I'll tell you what, I have a very queasy feeling in my stomach right now because I'm at, let's see, 1,500 feet. And up here at 1,500 feet or in that area,

42:03there is somebody out there in a tightrope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center, right at the tippy top. And now we get to the part of the story where my palms get a little sweaty thinking of a certain French acrobat, I believe, who's about to appear into the story. Oh, he might be. Yes, this is the incredible and shocking and surprisingly, well, surprisingly uplifting story of Philippe Petit, a French unicyclist, juggler, and a high wire walker,

42:35and just general daredevil who had been dreaming for years of walking between the two towers and who felt this need, this desire to conquer that challenge, that fear of walking between the towers. And yes, and naturally in the case of Philippe Petit, this would have to be done guerrilla style because, you know. Like King Kong?

43:00No, like guerrilla marketing, guerrilla stunts. But this would have to be done without permits because obviously the Port Authority was not about to give a French tightrope walker a permit to walk between the two of them. Petit had already done this a few times, stunts like this a few times, clandestine tightrope strolls, if you will, between the towers of Notre Dame back in Paris. He had walked across the Harbor Bridge in Sydney.

43:31But here, these towers seemed so impossible, right? So challenging for a tightrope walker. So totally insurmountable that he just felt that he had to devise a way to string a wire between them and to make it work, okay? So he visited the towers in 1973. He took measurements and photos. He studied the area. He studied how to gain access to the buildings. And then he returned to France,

44:01where he stretched a wire that same 131-foot distance, working with a team of like-minded tightrope enthusiasts to solve many of the most vexing issues. But probably the most pressing was how to rig the wire, right? How could you possibly string a high wire between these two roofs? Forget the fact that he didn't even have permission, and he'd have to do it in the dead of night. Like, how would you even get the wire

44:33from one tower to the other? So for that, they devised an ingenious solution that involved shooting fishing wire across that span from one roof to the other with a bow and arrow, and then passing a rope over that fishing wire, and then finally the line itself, the wire over that. And this wire installation would essentially have to be done in the dead of night. Meaning that they would have to get into the buildings in the first place the previous day,

45:05which would require both teams, because remember, you needed a team at the top of each tower, to sneak in disguised in different ways, disguised as delivery workers, as construction people. The rigging and the planning is actually really an amazing story unto itself, and it is told in perfect detail in the 2008 documentary, Man on Wire. But needless to say, and as you can see in the film, he manages, unbelievably,

45:36to mount that wire and to successfully walk across it. Yes, in August of 1974. From the following day's Daily News, published on Thursday, August 8th, page 2. Headline, Topps Towers on Tiptoes. Tourist is Town's Top Attraction. A 25-year-old French daredevil did a tightrope walk across the top of New York yesterday on a 131-foot cable strung between the 110-story Twin Towers

46:08of the World Trade Center. Tolerant authorities said they would drop criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct charges if he would stage a similar performance for the public, possibly in Central Park, and at a less dizzying height within a week. He agreed. And it goes on to describe in detail how thousands of people watched from below as he didn't just go back and forth. He went back and forth eight times. He mugged for the crowd. He bowed to the crowd. He knelt down on a knee on the rope.

46:40He laid on his back on the wire over the plaza. I mean, it's just, it's so extraordinary. Tom, we must move on. This is giving me such anxiety. I can't even tell you right now. Your palms are sweating, aren't they? Oh, my whole face is sweaty. But actually, this extraordinary, successful stunt would inspire others. Other daredevils, yes. But if you ask me, they lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. But they're still quite notable.

47:11There was Bronx-born Owen Quinn, who the next year, on July 22nd of 1975, parachuted off the west side of the North Tower. And you can also scale them. That was accomplished on May 26th, 1977, by the mountain climber and toy maker, a man named George Willig, who, again, without permission, scaled the corner of one of the towers, this time the South Tower.

47:41Thousands of people watched as Willig, who just looked like a tiny little speck, climbed higher and higher along the South Tower's window washer tracks until he finally reached the top of the South Tower in a very respectable three and a half hours. He was greeted by the police. They actually helped him get over the top because it turned out he didn't have an easy way to get from the window washing track to the roof. So they helped him get up there

48:12and then promptly arrested him. And Mayor Beam ended up fining him just $1.10, one penny for each floor that he climbed. You know, I think you can look at all these wacky stunts and I guess in a certain way, it kind of humanizes the Twin Towers or, well, it certainly made the towers into topic of conversation pretty much every other day. Like what's going on down at the tower? And New Yorkers were increasingly

48:43visiting the towers as well because it's during the same period here in the mid-70s when two defining features of the Twin Towers opened that would draw in visitors to the towers and to the top of the towers to take in the incredible views for themselves.

Observation Decks and Restaurants

49:01The South Tower opened the top of the world observation deck on its 107th floor. Visitors were treated to panoramic views of Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor onto New Jersey, Long Island, up the Hudson River. Extraordinary views. And obviously, I mean, the view, it's exceptional. It's also, you know, it's very different than those views that Rocket Force Center or the Empire State Building can obviously provide. Yeah, and some people obviously cracked

49:31that the view was even better because in this view, you didn't have to see the Twin Towers.

49:38But it was extraordinary. And actually, we should note that you can still take in this view from One World Observatory at the top of the new One World Trade Center. And by the way, from there, from this observatory in the South Tower, you could also then take an escalator up to an outdoor deck. Talk about sweaty palms because it offered the same view, but with just enough fresh air, you know, up there to really kind of scare the socks off of you. And so, what if you wanted to take in the view

50:08from the North Tower? Well, we would have booked a table well in advance at Windows on the World, which was an upscale restaurant that opened in April of 1976 on that tower's 106th and 107th floors. Critics would largely give its cuisine thumbs up, you know, but it was really clear that its main dish, if you will, was actually the view of New York, you know, that was offered from every table in the restaurant.

50:39You literally felt as if you were dining on top of the world. And was the North Tower, that was the, that's the same building that had the antenna, right? That's the North Tower, right? Yes, exactly. The 362-foot telecommunications tower would be added in 1978. And by the way, when they would add the antenna, the North Tower, then the total height would climb higher than the Sears Tower in Chicago. And I'm sure many

51:10of our listeners have memories of having an exclusive, glamorous meal up at Windows on the World. Tom, you even ate there. Don't you have a memory from that place? Not for a full meal, but I did go for cocktails in the late 90s with some friends. I think it was 98 or 99. And we, we probably sat in their bar, which at the time was called the greatest bar on earth. Something kind of Barnum-esque about that. But I definitely recall the walk

51:40through the lobby downstairs after hours to get there. And then that speedy ride up in the elevator. And the way that everybody at my table was simply just gobsmacked by the view the entire time that we were there. There's really no other way to put it. You felt like you were on top of the world. Bill Harris wrote in his 2001 book The World Trade Center a tribute, quote, More than any other single thing,

52:11Windows on the World altered the average New Yorker's opinion of the World Trade Center, transforming indifference and even outright hatred to benign respect at the very least. All it took was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center

52:41was a little glamour. The World Trade Center was a little glamour. The World Trade Center

Tragedies and the Memorial Museum

52:45was a little glamour. The World Trade Center The World Trade Center and the Twin Towers would flourish throughout the 80s and 1990s and come to really define the skyline of New York City. They would also experience a number of tragedies in their last decade of existence. On February 26, 1993, terrorists set off a car bomb in the underground parking garage,

53:23killing six people and closing both towers for weeks. And on the morning of September 11, 2001, two airplanes hijacked by members of Al-Qaeda crashed into the towers, first the North Tower and then the South Tower. By 10.30 in the morning, both towers had collapsed. In addition, seven World Trade Center collapsed, and three World Trade Center would be destroyed, and the three other Trade Center office buildings would also be demolished due to damage.

53:53It would take nearly nine months to remove all the debris, and ultimately 2,753 people perished in the tragedy. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum opened in stages, beginning on the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2011, and the museum opened in 2014, the same year that the new One World Trade Center would open on November 3, 2014, standing 1,776 feet tall.

54:27We wanted to know how the memorial and museum managed to tell the story not just of the tragedy and of the immense human loss that it incurred, but also of the impressive structures that once stood there. So we reached out to Kate Monaghan Connolly, Senior Vice President of Communications at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, to hear about how they balance these two stories in the museum. I began the interview by asking Kate to kind of give a general description of the memorial and museum

55:03to illustrate how the whole site was organized. The museum rests on half of the World Trade Center plaza, so eight acres of the 16-acre site. I mean, I'm part of the reason that I love working there and love being there so much. I think, you know, you're in New York City and you have all this hubbub, and to me, you go to this oasis that's sort of in the midst of all of that hubbub. It's two large pools that are in the footprint of the Twin Towers.

55:36And then the pools, as many people know, are surrounded by the names of the 2,983 people killed in 2001 and in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. So these names are arranged in what's called meaningful adjacencies. So when the memorial was being built before it was opened on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, the museum and memorial team took thousands of requests to make sure that each name was situated next to someone, a friend, a loved one sometimes, even a colleague.

56:08So they were able to take a lot of those requests. And it's just that, I think, profoundness just speaks immediately, even when you walk onto the plaza. And then, as you know, there are a few hundred, I think it's 413 trees that also dot the plaza. So a very unique place in New York City as a large metropolitan area. And then, of course, on the site is located the museum. And the museum, especially if you're not familiar with the area, can almost be deceiving.

56:39There's a large, beautiful glass pavilion, and it might look small. And many people who haven't been to it before are astounded. They're going to walk into about 110,000 square feet of museum that's in the artifact remnants of the World Trade Center. So it's many large-scale artifacts within an artifact itself. You go in and you go down escalators. It almost feels like you're descending into some kind of archaeological dig or something, which I guess you are in a way, right? I mean, you're visiting the footprints.

57:09You even see the slurry wall. We talked about the slurry wall in the show, and it's such a massive part of the exhibit. How important was it to the museum to preserve those aspects and those parts of the original structure? Fundamentally important, I think, to the whole project. One phrase that we use, I'm sure other museums use it too, is that we like to have the artifacts speak for themselves. And you refer to the slurry wall. And it's obviously on its own right, this wall that was built to keep the Hudson where we want it to be.

57:44It's interesting in that architectural sense and the history of New York City. But then in this particular story, it came to have this deep symbolism of withstanding this terrible attack. There had been a point that it looked like that slurry wall might not hold. And obviously, that would have been even worse. And it did hold. And so when you come into Foundation Hall, where the slurry wall is, in the same area, there's what's called the last column. And it's a steel column that has many, you know, notations and memorabilia attached to it that came there during the nine-month cleanup.

58:20And it is the last piece that was removed from the site ceremonially at the end of the cleanup. But those two pieces really speak to each other, you know, of this endurance and this resilience that was such a beautiful side to that terrible story. I have a question just about the role of footprints, you know, the footprints of the towers. Because as you pointed out, on the plaza level, those footprints, there are fountains, right? The famous fountains were the footprints of the North and South Tower were. What role do these footprints play in the museum?

58:52So, you know, on the outside, as I said before, you have the fountains up top. And then below them, as you know, there's the memorial exhibition and the historical exhibition in those same footprints. So those decisions were made for a variety of reasons. One of them being, when you go through the historical exhibition, there are, of course, parts of the story that are really difficult. You know, they might be difficult for a very young visitor. And also, they might be difficult for a family member who might be visiting. And I was so impressed in the planning process.

59:23I wasn't there for it. But to learn just how sensitive the planners were about that fact. And so one of the reasons for them, the historical exhibition being in that footprint, was to sort of be like, you know, you can come to the memorial and pay tribute to your loved one. But you don't have to have those aspects of the story that other people who, you know, have never even heard of this or weren't even born when it happened will need to know about the story. So that was something really important and one of the reasons there. And then on the memorial exhibition, I'm sure, as you saw when you walked in, it's lined with the pictures of each of the 2,983 people from both attacks.

59:59And that, again, has this beautiful quality of helping you see that here's all of these different people from different walks of life and around the world. And they each have a face and a name and a very important story that, you know, was long before this ever happened to them at the end of their lives. How does the museum and how does the memorial sort of illustrate this tragic event for people who didn't live through it? Are there, how does the museum handle children going through the museum? Some of those, the story is delicately told and then more very expansively told in the historical exhibition.

1:00:35I think that is an important point for children to know that they can accompany their parent through this museum. And, you know, a parent could stay outside the historical exhibition with a child if need be. So that's one on a very practical level. On a different level, if you go into the educational center, that's where we do have more programming geared towards children. One of the stories that we tell in there now is about the rescue dogs after 9-11, because that's a really easy point of entry to the story for a child, for them to know. I can say even in my own life, telling my nephews about these dogs, they just were, you know, fascinated.

1:01:08Their faces lit up and the pictures are at a child's eye level, you know, so lots of detail and thought into those points. And then when you're going throughout the rest of the museum, there's, of course, these really large-scale artifacts. You mentioned the steel tridents and the pavilion. And then, of course, there's the fire truck. And obviously, it's heavily damaged, the elevator motor. So these different stories, again, they're very dramatic. And so I think that's also an additional, easier point of entry for a child to come to know.

1:01:39Now, it's interesting because I have to admit, full disclosure, that I had been several times to the memorial and to the fountains, excuse me, outside in the plaza. But I had never actually gone down to the exhibit. And I think that part of that was a sort of sense of dread that I had, you know. It was still, it's so visceral still. How do you deal with that? Is that an unusual response from New Yorkers? Are you dealing with this every day?

1:02:09Yeah, I would say that's very typical. I mean, I will say that, and I hope this was the same experience that you had, that when people express that, of course, everyone on our staff is very sensitive to that and understanding of it. And they understand that it's easier to come to the memorial. But I will say that when people do find the ability to overcome that and come inside the museum, I think, in a way, it becomes a cathartic experience. At least that's what the feedback has been that we've received. You know, we had some dread, reservations, and we came, and it does become this kind of beautifully moving, cathartic experience.

1:02:46And that's not surprising to me because I believe we do the job of memorialization and honor so well. So I think that's often a result. Well, Kate Monaghan-Connolly, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me. For more information on visiting hours, how to get there, go to 911memorial.org.

Credits and Further Information

1:03:08In addition to see that grand view of the New York City and the surrounding area, just go on up to the observation deck at One World Observatory. You can visit their website, OneWorldObservatory.com. And, of course, visit BoweryBoysHistory.com for many images of the World Trade Center from the 1970s, even maybe a couple of deer-departed radio row also, and just pictures of things that we've talked about on the show.

1:03:39That is, again, BoweryBoysHistory.com, and you can find the link in the show notes. A huge thank you to our patrons who support us at Patreon.com slash BoweryBoys, because you, Greg, and I are able to produce the Bowery Boys full-time. So thank you so much for your support. Head over to Patreon, that's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash BoweryBoys, to learn how you can join this group and also access the special patron-only audio extras. And thank you for joining us on the epic tale of the World Trade Center in the 1970s.

1:04:16Thank you very much for listening. Have a great New York week, whether you live here or not. See you real soon.