WTC Facts

World Trade Center Fact Sheet

• Each of the Twin Towers was 110 stories high. That's ¼ of a mile!

• Each floor was a full acre in size!

• Minoru Yamasaki, the designer of the Twin Towers, was afraid of heights. That was why the buildings had narrow windows.

• The towers' foundations were made using the "slurry-trench" method. This was the first time it had been used in this country.

• 40% of the towers' weight was supported on the exterior columns, 59 per side.

• Each of the columns had tracks running down its length to accommodate automatic window washers.

• Shortly after the towers' completion, a French daredevil named Philippe Petit walked across a wire stretched between them. Now THAT'S crazy! One wrong move, and it would've been a 10-second fall to oblivion.

• Despite the use of prefabricated sections, the towers took 10 YEARS to complete.

• In all, both towers weighed a hefty 200,000 TONS!

• Upon their completion, the Twin Towers were the tallest skyscrapers in the world!

• On February 26, 1993, terrorists planted a bomb under the Twin Towers, hoping to bring them down. Their plan failed. The blast created a hole 4 stories deep!

• The towers were constructed using "kangaroo cranes" imported from Australia.

• The late Frank DeMartini ominously pointed out that the towers could withstand a blow from a fully-loaded Boeing 707!

• Each tower had a helipad on top; on the north one, it was in a corner, and on the south one, it was in the middle.

• The south tower boasted the world's highest outdoor observation deck.