I watched the 9/11 video provided on this thread and can't help but laugh at the Mike Moore's one line about Bush's thoughts at the school. "..you know what? I need one big black marker.."
Black marker? more like one of those MIB pens that you can flash from the sky at NYC to erase peoples memories of the fact the buildings ever existed.
I lived in New York for 22 years and frequented the towers many times for both business and pleasure. I am an architect enthusiast and understood it's construction and the brilliant mind that went behind it's design Minoru Yamasaki.
The towers symbolized "delight, serenity, and surprise". An oasis from the depths of the "cold, formidable, and powerful" city. A dainty yet lofting structure that superceded the almost religious dogma of gray and faceless rectangles. It was to be a symbol of individuality and human potential. For those readers who never patroned the towers, they were indeed truly larger than life in my day. I would gaze at it's catherdral windows and often wondered if the towers were intended as a modern cathedral (similar to Notre Dame) whose god was the all mighty dollar. It was difficult to see it otherwise when you entered it's lobby area on your way to the elevator bays. All it needed were Absolutely breathtaking and mindnumbing.
I remember taking many dates to the restaurant "Windows of the World" on the 107th floor to take in the city skyline at night while partaking wine. On occassion you could feel the subtle vibration of the towers as it gave way to the gusts of wind. Still, felt very very safe. I remember working as a contractor the day a van was detonated in the parking garage.
Windows of the world restuarantIn the same resiliant nature of NY not all of the buildings were evacuated and work resumed as normal almost immediately after. Not much was mentioned or carried over from the 1993 bombing. I would imagine the mastermind at play thinking... Hmm that's not going to work on a tower that is structurally sound and self reinforcing despite the heat from the load bearing beams far below.
1993 bombing.. The old take it out from the basement trick don't work on a building with a massive support column fanned by numerous self reinforcing structuresYears later in a move that was purely financial and politically motivated, I would have the image of the modern day teleporter into the future, a symbol of human engineering violently labotimized from me. The rest of this metaphysical rape requires no belaboring.
Detonation patterns during the event