Ted Hammond - What Were the Twin Towers?

More than any other city in the United States, New York has always been a center of business. In America in the 1600s and 1700s, many colonies were founded by groups seeking religious freedom. But not New York. It began as a Dutch trading post called New Amsterdam. Its purpose was to make money.

The Dutch took advantage of the large natural harbor that stayed ice-free all winter. This meant that ships with cargo could come and go all year. And the Hudson River, to the west of New Amsterdam, offered a route to fur trading posts farther inland.

The British forced the Dutch out of New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York. They stayed over a hundred years, until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. After that, New York City became the trading center of a new, young country: the United States of America.

Manhattan, where New York City began, is an island. Because of that, over time six bridges as well as four tunnelstwo under the East River and two under the Hudsonwere constructed to connect Manhattan to mainland areas.

Many of these transportation routes are overseen by an agency called the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. It has control over the port, covering a twenty-five-mile circle, with the Statue of Liberty at the center. Tolls from bridges and tunnels provide the money for more new projects. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Port Authority headed the biggest building project in New Yorks historythe construction of two skyscrapers, each 110 stories. They were the tallest buildings on the planetat least for a while.

The idea for the World Trade Center was hatched in the brain of a very rich banker. His name was David Rockefeller. He was the president of Chase Manhattan Bank, one of the largest banks in the world.

In 1960, Rockefeller built a new headquarters for the bank. It was a sixty-story, glass-and-steel skyscraper in Lower Manhattan near Wall Street. This area was often called the dullest part of Manhattan. It was full of older office buildings for law firms and accounting companies. At night, it was a ghost town.

David Rockefeller wanted Lower Manhattan to attract all kinds of businesses and become a lively neighborhood. He couldnt afford to build more big skyscrapers by himself, so he approached the Port Authority to help with the project.