#350 The World Trade Center in the 1970s

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2021

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The World Trade Center opened its distinctive towers during one of New York City's most difficult decades, a beacon of modernity in a city beleaguered by debt and urban decay. Welcome to the 1970s. This year, believe it or not, marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Today there’s an entire generation that only knows the World Trade Center as an emblem of tragedy. But people sometimes forget that the World Trade Center, designed by Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, was a very complicated addition to the New York skyline when it officially opened in 1973. While it might be fun to think of New York City in the 1970s through the lens of places like Studio 54 or CBGB, it was really the Twin Towers that redefined New York. The journey to build the world's tallest building and its expansive complex of office towers and underground shops began in an effort by David Rockefeller to stimulate development in Manhattan's fading Financial District. By the time Port Authority got onboard to fund the project, the Twin Towers were bonded together with another vital project -- a commuter train from New Jersey. The World Trade Center inspired strong opinions from critics and the public alike, but eventually many grew to admire the strange towers which marked the skyline. And some, the Twin Towers became objects of obsession. FEATURING: The insane, completely outlandish and ultimately successful feat of acrobatics by a very bold French tightrope walker. PLUS: An interview with with Kate Monaghan Connolly of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum about how that institution memorializes those lost in the tragedy while still celebrating the technological marvels that once stood there. boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	There is another symbol of international understanding.
0:03.0	The World Trade Center in New York City.
0:06.0	It will become the world's tallest building, rising over 1,300 feet into the sky.
0:11.0	From a helicopter we see the New York skyline as it will appear from the top of the Trade Center.
0:16.0	Even New York's tallest building seemed to shrink and comparison.
0:23.0	A steel worker, John LeKieber, looked at this United Nations of Commerce, which he's helping to build.
0:28.0	That kind of grew up there when I'm working on it right now.
0:31.0	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 how we built here.
0:40.0	The toll is building in the world.
0:43.0	The Bowry Boys episode 350, the World Trade Center in the 1970s.
0:49.0	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:51.0	Support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners. Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
1:05.0	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Yarn.
1:08.0	And this is Tom Myers, Greg with our 350th episode of the Bowry Boys.
1:15.0	349 episodes about a wide range of subjects from the world of New York City history.
1:24.0	And not one of those episodes has been about the World Trade Center until now.
1:31.0	Why 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.
1:44.0	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.
1:58.0	Now when we started this podcast back in 2007, that was less than six years after 9-11.
2:08.0	And it always felt inconceivable to us back then. And for many years that we would ever even do an episode about that event.
2:17.0	Like many of you, Tom and I have very specific experiences that are related to September 11th.
2:26.0	I think you would agree with me, Tom, that we just don't know what we would be able to add to that discussion.
	...

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