World Trade Center - Life and Events

Life and Events

On a typical weekday 50,000 people worked in the towers with another 200,000 passing through as visitors. The complex was so large that it had its own zip code: 10048. The towers offered expansive views from the observation deck atop the South Tower and the Windows on the World restaurant on top of the North Tower. The Twin Towers became known worldwide, appearing in numerous movies and television shows as well as on postcards and other merchandise, and became seen as a New York icon, in the same league as the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty.

French high wire acrobatic performer Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a tightrope in 1974, as shown in the documentary film Man on Wire.

Brooklyn toymaker George Willig scaled the exterior of the south tower in 1977. In 1983, on Memorial Day, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin successfully climbed the outside of the WTC's North Tower. His stunt was meant to call attention to the inability to rescue people potentially trapped in the upper floors of skyscrapers.

The 1995 PCA world chess championship was played on the 107th floor of the South Tower.

Read more about this topic:  World Trade Center

Famous quotes containing the words life and, life and/or events:

    It is the responsibility of every adult—especially parents, educators and religious leaders—to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and they are not alone.
    Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)

    While each child is born with his or her own distinct genetic potential for physical, social, emotional and cognitive development, the possibilities for reaching that potential remain tied to early life experiences and the parent-child relationship within the family.
    Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)

    The system was breaking down. The one who had wandered alone past so many happenings and events began to feel, backing up along the primal vein that led to his center, the beginning of hiccup that would, if left to gather, explode the center to the extremities of life, the suburbs through which one makes one’s way to where the country is.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)