see, my thought process here is that what if the pandemic never happened because the world trade center never fell. Like, think about it. If they didn't fall, we probably wouldn't have gone THAT hard into our military ( at least not any harder than we already were). Debt wouldn't have been as bad, may the 08 recession would have never happened, the world is generally more peaceful, yata yatta yatta. What if it all somehow came back to one hell of a butterfly event. Unlikely, but its a non-zero possibility, since it could be an infinite number of them.
@@ThatweirduncleAlternative timeline is hard to predict in general. Maybe it’s possible in some timeline far away from our…we live in one of the worse timeline,but not literally the worst timeline ever. That would be a timeline where the White House was attacked in that very same day (that’s still not the worst case scenario but that’s just an example)
IMO the worst part of 9/11 is NOBODY should've died in the South Tower. They said they didn't want people outside with the falling debris from the North Tower. But they could've evacuated at the underground transit level. Still a huge mistake not to get people out of there.
@@benmangrum8626 This gets me so angry, because despite the bombing in '93, there was still no plan in place for anything like this. Those buildings have always been a target. So much better to have been safe and evacuate everyone out.
Even if they had fully evacuated the South Tower immediately after the North Tower was hit, it would have taken some time to get people out. Would they all have been below the impact site in time?
People didn't like the towers in the 70s when they were finished, but by the mid to late 80s, the buildings had grown on most people (at least from what I've been told). They just became one with the city and people did end up appreciating them. I mean they were the tallest buildings in the world when they were completed and even when they were surpassed in the 80s, they were still an engineering marvel and were among the first of their kind
@lucah1824 people started to love the twin towers in the late 70s because they created jobs.. back then jobs were hard to come by.. much like today.. I cried my heart out to all the people who lost their lives that awful day in 2001.. i prayed for the loved ones who were grieving... even though I live in the UK it so touched my heart and still does to this day.. I will never forget.
They were very beautiful buildings. Ive always been very interested in them, although i never got to see them bc i was born afew months later. I didnt know they were the tallest buildings in the world at one point. They were the tallest buildings until 1973 or 74 when the sears tower was completed. The Empire state building was the tallest building in the world for about 40 years or so before the twin towers were built.
If the towers never collapsed, hundreds would have still died. The victims on the planes would still have died, the people in the immediate impact zones. The people trapped above would likely have died from the smoke long before firefighters would have reached them. If they reached them. If anyone on the top floors of the north tower didn't die from smoke, they may have been trapped for days without water. Even if the buildings didn't collapse, they would very likely have to be demolished because of the damage.
People who died from smoke were actually the lucky ones. According to one survivor who barely made it, people when on the floor trying to get below the smoke.....and they just got sleepy and went to sleep. He was on the verge of sleep himself when he heard a kind voice telling him to come over here. Listening to that voice, he survived after going through the literal fire. The trapped at the top. They could have either dropped food etc on the roof.....or bottom a military helicopter that could have hovered with a ramp like that one famous picture. A helicopter pilot who so happened to have a video camera on him, film from the air. He said it has always upset him because there were people there waving for help, but he couldn't get them because he didn't have the right helicopter. He said all he could do was pray for them and hope that the right one would get there.
@@glorygracek.1841Even worse is when you do the actual research into what happen and realize that 100 story tower should leave atleast 30-40 stories of rubble and yet it left only 3 stories at most the question begs where did the towers even go? They literally turned to dust. All the people jumping were crawling out there skins from heat and a popular theory is it was hit with a Direct Energy Weapon which means the people in that tower were burning from the inside out which is why so many were just jumping out the building, even ones who were nowhere near the smoke or fire.
Along with this, you still have to remember that the pentagon was a part of the attack, and another theory is what if the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania had made it to its destination people are still divided on where it was going, whether it was the White House or the I don’t think it would’ve been the White House if the terrorist knew that the president wasn’t there but I doubt they would have that information so I am still kind of stuck on which one it could be but another thing that somebody has already commented is if that South tower had been evacuated through the underground tunnels that would’ve saved thousands of lives.
Those buildings were heavily damaged all the way to the ground floor. What you don't see during any of the 9/11 footage is that the buildings swayed to the point where people just below impact, thought that the building was going to fall over. There would be no way they could be repaired or kept in place as some sort of memorial.
@alexcortez3357 except the video from the crew following a group of firefighters into tower 1. The glass to the lobby was all blown out, and the marble walls were mangled. Don't forget the stories from the people that were in the buildings when they were hit.
@@scottg9855 blown out glass doesnt prove the overall structure was compromised. You realize just the decibels of screaming jet engines can break glass from flying too low. again people have STORIES but the evidence left behind to back those claims up is non existant
Yea I was gunna say the survivors have all said the building swayed and leaned over. Also there are some videos where you can slightly see the second tower move
@@scottg9855Yes but that's only the interior...that's easy to put back. Replace the broken glass put the marble back, fix the power and water, a good clean up and you are good to go.
I've lived on Long Island my whole life. The sentiment of the towers being an eye sore, or useless was more in the late 60's to early 80's. By the time of the economic boom of the late 80's into the 90's the Twin Towers became an iconic part of NYC, symbolizing the strength of capitalism. If you look at NY sports merch from that era the WTC is featured heavily. The 2000 World Series had them featured, the Met's old score bord still has them on there. If people did not like them, they would not be symbolized as much.
i think with the adding of the WFC in the late 80s and the vista/marrott hotel kinda really helped the towers become less of an eye sore and more of an iconic symbol
THEY SHOULD HAVE REBUILT THEM RIGHT FROM THE START AND STILL SHOULD WITH THE FREEDOM TOWER RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE I NEVER LIKED THE FREEDOM TOWER I AGREE WITH U
I remember eating fish and fried oysters with my cousins at the windows of the world restaurant on the 107th floor of the north tower, when I was 6 and a half years old, my oldest cousin was 21 and interning at a tech company back home in Omaha, Nebraska but got to visit there for a couple days and a lot of us family went. November 17, 2000. The view I thought was amazing and then we did the view on the 110th floor sky observation deck in the south building later that afternoon. One of my best childhood memories
Your comment actually gave me an idea for what they could have done if they had rebuilt the Twin Towers, though they would have had to employ the same reinforcements they used for building the Freedom Tower to better resist a hypothetical repeat of 9/11. They could have built a sky bridge as an escalator from the Windows on the World on the 107th floor of the North Tower to the observation deck on the roof of the South Tower like they did with the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, Japan, alongside two level sky bridges at the two sky lobbies on the 44th and 78th floors for tenant use. Though, I think being on a transparent escalator 1,300 feet above street level would be horrifying, especially going back downstairs and being that much more able to see just how high up you really are. As a 9/11 memorial, being able to see just how high up they are would also force the passenger to viscerally appreciate how long of a fall the victims who decided to jump faced, knowing full well that they were going to die on impact at close to terminal velocity.
I went to New York in June 2000 for my 10th birthday, and I was with my mom, my best friend, and his mom. We went inside the lobby of one of the towers, but for reasons I can't remember, we decided not to go up, thinking there's always next time or something like that. I'll always regret not going up the towers, but at least I've been in one (plus I did go up the Empire State so there's that).
My dad had an office in Manhattan at the time, thought not in the Twin Towers. We had gone up to the observation deck with the family a few month before 9/11. I was 4 years old at the time and do not remember much of it.
@@DB-kl9bpThey kinda do though, as someone who never got to see the towers in person, I'd only ever really seen the towers from footage of that day, or as part of the skyline and I thought they just looked like two big gray boxes too. All of the pretty cool looking architectural features of the towers are sort of lost at that level. It was only when I saw like pictures of what the entrance to the buildings looked like before the disaster that I was like "oh that actually looks nice". I like the look of them at night time too, with lights on in the building. But it's totally an understandable joke, as most people would be seeing the towers from some distance with the bottom portion obscured. They would just see two big gray boxes.
There's video with a translation on the subtitle that states that Bin Laden had thought it was likely that the floors that were hit by the planes could collapse, but he didn't expect the whole building to collapse.
By the time the towers fell, most New Yorkers had grown to love them. They also served as landmarks. You could often tell where you were in lower Manhattan simply by looking up at the giant twin sentinels. One stood 1,368 ft tall and the other 1,362 ft. They briefly held the title of the world’s tallest buildings until Chicago’s Sears Tower reached 1,450 ft in height. Originally, Sears was said to be 1,454 ft tall but that measurement was not taken from the building’s main entrance.
Im not even american and for me, the twins were a image of the US economic ita also show the impressive architecture of USA compared to other countries backthen
The towers were designed to fall straight down in case of something horrific happening. The architects were not thinking of planes but more in the line of earthquakes, or hurricane. The thought was if one of them start to lean and fall over it would cause major damage to several city blocks, and killing alot more people.
@@aaronlovell6026 yes, this is true. They weren't built to withstand planes of the 2000s. I also speculate that the design probably still wouldn't have withstood the planes from the 70s.. or at least ones not fully loaded with jet fuel.
@@Jay-gf8tm you may be correct, I don't know. But, I can tell you I'm an architect, and the generation that the towers were built, is alot like this generation of computers. By the time it's planed, drawn out, and built, it's already out of date.
@@aaronlovell6026 interesting, I'm no architect, I am in construction, and can see how that is true, besides for obvious advances in technology, lessons learned from the past, etc. In your opinion, knowing what you know, do you think a 70s era plane would've taken the towers down? I think that because they were fully loaded with fuel, it didn't really matter the type of typical domestic plane (not a Cessna or 747) that went through it. The floor design had a flaw that made it collapse after the steel was weakened.
It's very interesting to consider what would have happened if the towers didn't collapse. Even all these years later it still seems so surreal that all of that happened. So incredibly sad.
Ive never thought about the "what if the towers never fell" scenario. Wow, an interesting thought. Thanks for giving me this to chew on. I wonder, if they had survived, if the top third of each building might have been carefully dismantled and the overall height of each would have topped out at around the 78th floors. I could also imagine some kind of walkways placed between the skydecks of each building to aid in emergency evacuation. And what about insuring those buildings after such an attack. It would have been at a phenomenal cost. Lots to think about here. You're the kind of guy I think I could sit and have long interesting talks with! Thanks for something interesting on YT.
My mom used to work for an american company that held anual conventions for their international employees back in the 90s. She traveled from Mexico City to NYC in 1997 for one of those, and the company held a fancy dinner and ball on the Windows on the World restaurant that was located on the North Tower on the 107th floor. She remembers how impressive the towers were, she says that to reach the restaurant you had to take two elevators that moved super fast. She told me the view and the restaurant was incredible it almost felt like a movie scene. It makes me think about how some of the staff that day probably still worked there on 9/11, RIP to all the victims and their families
fact: in 2002 the world trade center was slated to get a full renovation to The concourse AKA The shopping Mall and subway station located in between both of the Tower's. it was to have a much modern and sleek look with even an expansion to add more shops and restaurants. construction was to begin around November 2001.
If I recall correctly one of the reasons why no one was able to get to the roof of either tower during 9/11 is that access to it was closed for initial repairs relating to this renovation process
i've heard that it was also planned to remove the asbestos in the towers with that project - the asbestos exposure killed the most people in the long run after 9/11
You know, I never thought about what if the towers had not fallen after they fell, like ever until now. BUT, I never thought about them falling before 9/11 or even in that day or the week before having lunch at the foot of the towers in the courtyard area. Would have never thought those buildings would be gone exactly 8 days later. I’m so glad I did get to at least see them in person one last time. 😢
They would still have to be demolished as the structure of both towers were significantly compromised, especially the south tower as it was hit sideways which caused a huge shift in weight to the impacted side. It would be too dangerous for salvage. In fact, the south tower would have collapsed no matter any attempt being made to save it.
No, it would not have collapsed. Not without explosives. Even if the floors above the impact were ready to collapse, they would not cause the far more remaining INTACT floors below to disintegrate instantaneously and burst into dust. Jet fuel or collapsing floors don't cause cement and steel to explode. Use your eyes, use your brains. I'm sorry if it's all too scary for you to believe..... it should be scary.
How would a controlled demolition take place with such a massive structure and a population that dense? It seems like it would have a similar outcome to what happened on 9/11.
Even if the Twins never collapsed, they would have had to be deconstructed due to the damage and then rebuilt. AA 11 and UA 175 did a lot of damage to the Towers internally and obviously externally. The fire also damaged the steel allowing the floor trusses to pull away from the load bearing exterior columns.
I think what did the most damage was the amount of jet fuel each plane, they specifically picked those flights because they were scheduled to fly from New York to Los Angeles so the aircraft would have a lot of fuel on board. And after impact, all the jet fuel would be running down the towers, setting fire to the floors beneath them.
@@damonculbert5853indeed. And the primary plane that was tested, was the famous 707. In later models it was roughly 152 feet long with a wingspan of 145. Earlier models from 1958 were 145 feet long, and about a 130 foot wingspan. Whats worrying is that UA 175 was a boeing 767-200, a 159 foot long plane. So they never figured that a plane of over 150 feet would slam into the towers...
Rest in peace to those who died So sorry to their loved ones My respect goes out to them 🤍🕊 Thank u to those who tried to help another life during this 🤍🕊
This is an interesting take. I have never thought about "what if the towers never fell". A lot more people would've survived. Always interesting to think "what if".
what if they scrambled the jet fighters ? instead of sending them all to do training in Canada ? What if the '' terrorist '' couldnt actually take control of the cabin just with box cutters ?? what if the defense system at the Pentagon worked ? what if we stop believing all the BS they told us ? that make zero sense and just makes you feel more comfortable.....
I think the most likely renovation would be that the space hit by planes would not be occupied any more, it would be the museum and memorial in the sky, load bearing structures are on the outside and the core, it could be repaired in a way that left those floor space without decking, so it could be memorial park up there on the crash sites, imagine those holes having tree and bushes visible from the outside, would be the best compromise of keeping the towers up and respecting the victims. When the lighting condition is right, we would see almost transparent voids on those floors, but overall, it would still retained its silhouette in most time of the day.
What’s what I was thinking, the floors where the planes hit would be turned into museums and not used as office space anymore. That would be fair and righteous. Going up there and pay tribute and respect to the life’s that parished on that horrible day.
*What if the Twin Towers NEVER fell?* You have *NO* idea how much I wish that was the case. In fact, I wish the events of 9/11/2001 had *NEVER* happened at all...that it would just be another day. 😢
Exactly. The date September 11th is always gonna bring those disgusting memories back, even after all these years my mind immediately turns to those thoughts. I had a medical appointment on September 11th just past and both of us started talking about 9/11. That date is forever tainted. Maybe younger generations won't go through this, they don't seem the smartest anyways.
For me personally, I loved the Twin Towers from the beginning (My beginning of when I first acknowledged them. They were built before my time). As a UK Citizen, I've always wanted to travel to the states and the Twin Towers was one of the big reasons why I wanted to visit along with other landmarks in New York and the states in general. But on that awful day when the towers collapsed, my heart sank and this put me off visiting the states for a short while. However my love for the Twin Towers grew even more when they were gone as I always wanted to visit them but didn't have the money to fly to New York at the time (Also I was only 19 on that awful day). Obviously none of us thought the Twin Towers would be gone before September 11th 2001. Recently I've been getting back into subject of The Twin Towers and I love them now more than ever, even though they've been gone for 22 years now. Although we have the One World Trade Center which too is a fascinating building and one day hope to visit, the Twin Towers will always have a special place in my heart. I'd like to thank you for releasing such interesting videos based on the Twin Towers, it's really appreciated. I learn more about them everyday. Rest in peace to all those who died on September 11th 2001 🙏
Personally, one tower instead of two feels like such a "settle for less" decision and serves as a sign that we never fully recovered as a nation. The new tower just doesn't hold a candle to the originals.
@@RadicalEdward2i think if they had doubled up on the current freedom tower by giving it an identical twin like the original WTC 1 and 2 it would've looked nice and also have been symbolic of coming back stronger. The ownership of the properties and planning for the whole WTC area after the collapse of all the buildings was a real mess though and I just don't think they could've managed to set aside space for two freedom towers.
Biggest question is what if the terrorists knew the buildings could collapse? Had that been the case they would’ve focused on hitting the floors in 50s rather than 80s and 90s. The buildings would’ve fell within 25 minutes and the death toll would’ve been over 20,000
They were not skilled enough in flying large passenger jets to be able to pick and choose where they would hit. Al Shehhi very nearly missed the building completely in UA175 and struck the corner. Ironically though his impact caused the building to collapse quicker than Atta’s more central strike. They were basically aiming to hit the buildings full stop rather than pick where. That was outside of their abilities and possibly anyone’s at the speed they were going at.
I worked in the North Tower and was there when it and the South Tower both collapsed. When compared to its next door neighbor the World Financial Center, the WTC felt crude and outdated. At times, I mentioned to my colleagues that I preferred the WFC as my place of employment instead of the WTC. Given the tragedy of 9/11, I would gladly eat my words if it meant saving all those innocent lives.
The WTC was a very futurist, brutalist, internationalist post-war early '60s design whereas the World Financial Center embraced the warmer aesthetic that was budding by the end of the '70s and early '80s. 7WTC tried to adopt this warmer aesthetic which is why it looked so out of place next to the other WTC buildings. Even the WTC interiors got an update to be warmer, first with the Marriott Hotel renovations after the bombing, then Windows on the World, and finally the PATH hall and outdoor plaza itself right before 9/11. Westfield had plans to modify the mall yet further that had to wait until the rebuilding. The new WTC in some ways marks a return to that icy cold aura that the towers had in the '70s, but even colder. The buildings themselves, the new mall concourse, all feel like a perennial winter tundra: all silvers and whites.
@@anastege11 I don't understand what the issue is? People with a history of working at the old world trade center are bound to visit videos like this out of interest.
The buildings would’ve simply been dismantled over the next decade. My question is: what would’ve happened if Flight 175 never hit the South Tower due to a failed hijacking attempt. The South Tower would still be there, but it would’ve still been heavily damaged from the fallen North Tower
Actually more likely Flight 175 would have been shot down by the Air Force just before impact leaving the FDNY to focus on just the tower that was hit by Flight 11. They could have put out the fire and only deconstructed the top portion of the building and maybe rebuilt the top with something better.
United 175 came perilously (if that’s the right word) close to colliding with another Delta aircraft on its way to Manhattan, less than 300ft separation. Your question was very nearly answered in reality. Absolutely infuriating how lucky the hijackers got at every turn, however having said that who’s to say there wouldn’t have been more lives lost if they’d crashed along the way? There wouldn’t have been the heads up that the North Tower was structurally unsound, evacuation could have taken place a lot slower and also trapped people in the South Tower.
@@nickcockayne7880 Yeah, you can listen to the air traffic controllers having a conniption while following 175. I'd agree about the hijackers getting all of the breaks, but at the same time, we weren't prepared for an event like this. Back then a hijacking meant a free ride to I don't know, Cuba or somewhere and you'd eventually be ransomed. Look at how the 1st responders set up their command posts right at the base of the towers. It just didn't occur to anyone how bad shit was about to get.
I'm more curious what if flight 11 didn't. 11 and 93 were supposed to depart at similar times, but 93 got delayed, leading to the passengers learning about the plot and deciding to fight back. I wonder what would have happened had 93 left on time and 11 was delayed
@@redkite121Then 93 would have successfully hit the capitol building or the white house. THAT would have changed everything. The image of the burning capitol building would have been the defining image of the day and the US Government response would have been even more extreme.
The architects actually planned for if a plane hit the towers but back then planes were a lot smaller so nothing much would have happened back then. RIP to all the victims. :(
I think the buildings would have HAD to come down regardless of whether they collapsed or not. The raging fires would have weakened the structure to the point that it was no longer safe.
The main problem here was the fire. When you have a fire that intense at those heights, how do you put it out? They didn't even try to put it out on 9/11. What was the end game going to be if the towers hadn't fallen so quickly? Were they just hoping it would burn itself out?
They really didn't fall quickly. They showed remarkable resistance to an event where strongly damaged structure gets engulfed in a multistorey fire at one point in time. Kerosene burned off in less than ten minutes or so, and office combustibles continued to burn afterwards, heating the thinwalled box columns resisting now increased weight loads. For an evens so terribly outside design parameters, these two buildings performed remarkably well. Some firefighters probably had doubts about the buildings standing, but were under such adrenaline to think it through. They did have to know this is a type of fire so large in surface and so poorly accessible that firefighting was out of the question. Nobody in their right mind thought anything other than letting it burn off would be considered as a plan.
@@lajoswinkler I'm not criticizing the buildings, except for the unusually small number of emergency staircases. This was an unimaginable event for sure. But, if the towers falling like that had been so predictable, why was everyone, including FDNY, caught so off guard?
If the towers hadn't fell, 9/11 basically would've been similar to the '93 bombing event, but with more casualties and the buildings would've been closed longer for repairs, if they wouldn't be torn down. And the Plaza Base would probably be a memorial since there was already a small memorial there for the 6 victims of the '93 bombing.
Look, the firefighters did what they were trained to do and they went to put out a “fire”. They knew they weren’t coming back so rip and my respect to them and family but the towers were built basically with the trusses, like revolutionary 1970’s create more office space with core of building in the center, shitty design for 2001 but in 70’s it was seen as an achievement.
Not at all, the areas below the plane impact were relatively undamaged. Just need full inspection by engineers to determine if they would remain sound. Engineers can figure out how to rebuild, and the towers were insured against terrorism, so the funds would've been available. If they didn't collapse they would still be there.
@Jay-gf… I’m a structural engineer. I’m sorry, but you’re completely wrong. The amount of structural damage that occurred would have been beyond the scope of safety or repair. And the entire area surrounding the buildings would have been unsafe to inhabit for months. The entire core of the building was ripped out on both of them. It’s a miracle they stayed up as long as they did.
As a native New Yorker who isn't old enough to remember the city before the Twin Towers,I found them useful for getting around downtown,south of 14th Street. I used to use them as a compass of sorts to make sure I was heading in the right direction. As for the buildings themselves,they were one of my favorite places to go to in the entire city,and were THE landmark of the city. Sure,we have the Empire State Building,Citicorp,the Flatiron Building,etc,but no buildings said "New York" to me like the Twin Towers. I was even disappointed when I found out they were only building one. I honestly wanted to see two more modern versions as a show of defiance and resilience. As for conspiracy theories, I'm not sure what to believe,but it wouldn't surprise me if Bush LET 9/11 happen to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq. People also talk about seeing explosions on the floors below just before the buildings collapsed. This video has me thinking, maybe charges were put there long before 9/11,in the event that WTC was attacked again,to minimize damage to the surrounding areas if the buildings werent salvageable. Of course,none of that matters now
I really don’t think they would’ve demolished the towers if they survived the attacks. Such an option would be genuinely unpopular with the public, as it would be seen as a victory for the terrorists. To take it down with a controlled demolition would cause damage to neighboring buildings like what we saw in the original timeline. It would’ve been best to have the towers undergo extensive repairs before they can open up again, sometime as early as around the summer of 2003. The Marriott hotel as well as buildings 4, 5, 6, and 7 would still be open to keep the complex functioning, and a memorial would be built in dedication to the victims of the attacks. If the attacks never happened, the WTC would still undergo renovations, with an expansion of the mall in 2002 (renamed Westfield Shopping-Town World Trade Center) and a refurbishment of the Windows on the World restaurant in 2003-04. Indeed, there would still be an attack against America if 9/11 had been foiled, but I feel as though news of the foiled plot would catch the attention of George W. Bush, and airport security would still have to be enforced to ensure no plane hijackings take place, therefore the terrorists would have to resort to the attacking America the old-fashioned way, using bombs. You would’ve seen a series of bombings in many parts of cities across the US, and it would most likely happen on the night of the 2004 Presidential election or the 2006 Midterm election. Over 500 people would die as a result, not as many as 2,977 on 9/11, but it is still a serious event regardless.
They took on Too much damage. If you watch the French brothers documentary the lobby had foundational damage, and survivor accounts recount that the stairwells had massive damage were railings had come off supports and large cracks were running along the walls. At best the towers would have been taken down floor by floor until well below the strike zones and then the buildings would have been stripped to their foundations to look at any unseen damage. At that amount of money, it’s always less expensive to just demolish. I think if they had not fallen over but instead had to be demolished, most people would have been ok to rebuild them (updated of course).
that is the more logical and makes sense to me, had the twin tower stood, the best thing USA can do is to ensure the publicity how the battle-scarred tower survived the terror attack and becomes a rallying point
Not really they would have removed the aluminium exterior to expose the beams so they can add a huge 30 story metal beam for the North and for the south 60 floors and would have removed every column 20 floors of the impact zone and then add new columns new floors and then dismantel the huge beams that were supporting
Unpopular with the public maybe, but if they are in a precarious state and in danger of collapse (or things regularly falling off) then demolish is the only real option. I personally think they would have been demolished.
You are wrong about the Newyorkers' sentiment towards the towers. Negative sentiment back when they were built - yes, but even then it was partial. A lot of people loved to go to the, back then undeveloped, Battery park city which was a big sandy surface next to the buildings. There was a lot of art. Even a wheat field and huge beach with an amazing view. Citizens grew to love the towers quite fast. You are also wrong when you say they would be obsolete. They had open floor plans and lowered ceilings and were extremely customizable. The pandemic did not affect other skyscrapers and it wouldn't affect these, either. That one picture of the interior you found is just one large office with cubicles, not representative of the overall composition in 2001. Also, why on earth would anyone redo the facades? They WERE glass. Steel box columns clad in shiny aluminium, with windows in between. The design is historically important and works wonderfully. They did not look like two concrete blocks. Fully glass clad buildings are never like in renderings. They are always nontransparent for a reason (privacy, sunlight and heat management) and look generic, dull, uninventive. I think you researched the subject matter poorly.
Yes there were extremely customizable however they never reached the 100% occupancy, and were leased because they were doing poorly and the port authorities needed money
People forget that the Empire State Building was also quite unpopular when completed and was mostly empty for quite some time after completion. That’s not the case anymore. The same goes for the twin towers, when they were destroyed these buildings were powerful symbols of capitalism and economic might. A lot of people DID like them when they were destroyed.
I went in the south tower in 1981 86th floor to register my business in the dept of Taxation and Finance and I was never so nervous being that building .i couldn't wait till got to back down the lobby ! RIP FIIRST RESPONDERS Employees , American and foreign visitors ..
I think the towers would have been repaired. While it seems like an impossible task, certainly there's engineering that could make it happen. They can raise large ships from miles below the surface of the ocean...certainly they could have stabilized the buildings and made repairs. I'm sure the federal government would throw any amount of money to see that it happened too. However, if they determined they couldn't be repaired, they either would have torn them down to the site of the impacts and left the buildings shorter, or they would have disassembled them piece by piece with a crane; I don't think a controlled demolition would have been practical given the size of the buildings and the amount of buildings nearby.
The repair process would probably still be going today. The base of the building was even affected from the impact with multiple floors crushed and reduced to rubble sitting at the base. From the impact area all the way down multiple levels were burned and destroyed. The air inside would be unbreathable. The floors wouldn't be safe to step on and roofs you wouldnt know what is safe to walk under because it could collapse at any moment. The roofing, walls, floors, elevators, stairs, and electrical would need to be replaced on every floor. And the whole thing would just be a nightmare to work on a leaning twisted building with floors as stable as thin ice 100s of ft in the air with no windows. I dont think many construction workers would be willing to risk it. Also cant forget that the building would probably be closed for investigation for up to 5 years + before the rebuild process. In the end it'd probably cost 30× the amount of money and 30× the time repair both towers than to just build a new modernized tower from the ground up
I'm fairly certain that even if the fires were put out quickly those building would still collapse. They probably would've stood throughout the day and just collapsed overnight.
I like the twin towers design when it was made in the 70’s it stands out from other cites in other states , now that it’s looks completely different because the twin towers are no longer there, it just looks like any other cities , just plain , unrecognizable to me I don’t know just my opinion!!!!
I thought he said in a video he thought once the plans went in that the buildings would come crashing down. The idea of them standing, burning and then collapsing didn’t even go through their head while planning the attacks.
Osama Bin Laden? Apparently he thought only the floors above the plane would fall off so he was pleasantly surprised when the whole buildings came down.
They would probably take apart the top parts (above impact zone) and rebuild them from just below impact zone to top. They would also probably have a memorial with the names of victims on the observatory deck of tower 2 and the restaurant of tower 1 (if they would ever re-open it)
02:00 Sorry not sorry but this is the dumbest think to even think that so much square feet teritorry would stay jsut like that empty in the most expensive neighbourhood in the world, lol. They'd be jsut repaired or demolished anyway...
@@ssg9offical To me it doesn't matter if they stayed or not, they had to be taken down. If they had been rebuilt and reoccupied, something would've happened again. They had to build a more sturdy tower like the 1 WTC.
@@Bbouy1HD I’m just saying If flight 11 missed the North Tower due to people finding out about the hijacker’s that would’ve changed history and the North Tower would survive but the south tower would be hit regardless.
Never found so many people that agree with me that tower 2 was hit in the worst spot and it was doomed and the other one was hit in a better spot. Sure it still went down but there's was a better chance of saving it
In all likelihood, they would've been demolished anyway. Not only would there have been a stigma around the buildings after 2 attacks, but there's also the damage aspect. The North Tower alone had its central core severed almost completely. All the stairwells were cut off which resulted in it created the highest approximate death toll that day. The South Tower was worse as it was hit at an angle. When you watch playback of it collapsing, you can actually see it topple over sideways at the start. So this really becomes more of a definite reality as it would've cost millions, if not more, just to reinforce and repair both buildings from potentially collapsing. Plus you have to consider the cost of renovating the buildings with updated fire code regulations that would've come post-attack. You have to remember that the buildings were built with asbestos for fire-proofing. Hundreds, if not more, people contracted illnesses after 9/11 because they breathed the dust from the collapse. The overwhelming financial figures just wouldn't come close to being feasible to rebuild the towers as they were or demolish and rebuild identical ones. Unfortunately no matter how you look at it, it's a losing situation.
All I can say is that having lived in NY from 99 to 06 the towers were absolutely landmarks by the 90s in TV, film and just as a general way to orient yourself in the city. They were my reference point from my apartment in the West Village until that fateful day. I worked in Midtown so I watched it unfold from our south facing conference room until the second plane hit and we then evacuated our building 100 Park Ave. I will carry it with me until my dying days. It was a horrible day and I miss the old WTC.
In the year 2023, 25% of Americans never got to see the Towers stand. That's why this feeling of the towers exist today. They were the heart and soul of NY and America overall. The twin towers represented the economic might and the dream of what democracy can achieve. I'm a lifelong Nyer. On 9/11, i mounred for the buildings. I couldn't accept the life lost and the way it ended for many.
I saw them in Aug 2000, went inside, up to the observation floor, walked outside and up higher. Was so cool seeing the other tower right across the way. Regret not taking pictures. Never thought was last time I'd see them
@@chrism3784 I have some great pics of the towers. Some from a circle line cruise past them and the Statue of Liberty. I'm glad you got to experience them. There's nothing to compare them to in this century. The freedom tower is soulesss and the skyline will never be the same. It's sad. I also have pics from ground zero over the years.
When I was watching the coverage on that day, I remember thinking a very similar thing about how this would be resolved. Neither of the towers had fallen yet, so as far as I knew at the time, the fires may well have eventually burned out, and the structures would remain upright. Of course that didn’t happen. But I wondered what WAS going to happen. I wondered if the type of structured demolition of the buildings mentioned in this video would take place. I never saw it as an issue of “letting the terrorists win.” I believed then, and now that it was primarily a safety issue.
In the city they don't demolish buildings with explosions. When they remove a skyscraper in NYC they dismantle the building from the top down. With the level of damage, I'm sure they would have removed the towers.
It is just absolutely stunning that there was anyone even in the South Tower after the North got hit. The WTC had a history of being targeted by terrorists. There were bombs that exploded back in 1993. The fact that many people were told to go back in and get to work is just unforgivable.
4:34 There's a building in the Netherlands called Amare that looks exactly like this, in terms of the columns and height. Look it up, it's unbelievably similar. The architects claim they weren't aware of the similarities and it was all coincidence, but that's clearly a lie if you see the similarity.
Not many remember but,a real estate guy from Queens wanted to build the towers right back but stronger.He had a model built within a month and they looked beautiful . I remember seeing the model in a photo and thought it was a great idea.I wish that would have happened instead of what is currently there.
@@AnthraciteHorrorStories wdym vanilla? the originals are textbook vanilla lol theyre giant cement rectangles with no unique defining characteristics from a distance
As someone who is studying architecture and structural engineering, I’m amazed the building held on for so long. So many critical support members were destroyed, including shear walls.
The twin towers became a landmark before the attack, I also do think New Yorkers had grown to love those 2 towers over time. I wish I had the opportunity to go back into the Twin Towers.
the tower never stood a chance after the fire melted the support beams under the floors, the design of the building itself is flawed, it was believed if a fire of sufficiant enough heat, the floors would collaspe, sandwiching floors after floors and pulling the walls inward, ultimally dragging a whole upper portion of the building down on the rest of the tower.
I remember this day here in Brazil, I arrived home from school and my mother was watching a news channel talking live about this attack and showing the towers and shortly after they collapsed, the strangest thing is that they seem to have exploded, doesn't it seem like that they fell because of the collision of the planes....
I kinda agree with you but not quite on other things. Yeah, some people might of or did hate the buildings just because the way the looked etc, but you left out the part where on the flip side, others loved those structures. What some folks don’t realize the magnificent and marvelous marvels these two structures where. The architecture was unbelievable. Lots of people fail to realize or admire that and they where not ugly. The first time I saw them I thought they looked amazing. Fun fact, I’m not a New Yorker, not from there and never been there and never saw the towers in person. Lol but I can admire there beauty from a far, in pictures etc…. It’s common sense and logical right.. To me, if they where still standing till this day, I think they would be even more admired, probably still in some kind of in service status, not abandoned or demolished or non of that. The whole area just like today would be a historical place, museum and office space etc. maybe some people just like today would be frightened to go back to the site but even if the towers where still standing, others won’t be afraid to go there especially this generation lol because if people where all afraid, they won’t even step foot onto the the memorial site today. That logical in a way but that my take on this.
Exactly, there's adults today in the military that weren't even born on 9/11 so these newer generations wouldn't have any problems going to work in the Twin Towers if they were still standing.
Much as I like the rebuilt area, I think NYC was done a disservice when it didn't just rebuild the same buildings with internal changes. They were iconic, and at least symbolic of strength. I hate that that symbol was allowed to be turned against itself instead of being made even more of how it was supposed to be. That whole political process of redevelopment was dystopian and discouraging.
They could shorten the towers down to where the core is no longer damaged. Would end up with a complex of differing height. 75 floor south tower and 90 floor north tower. The 3rd tower would still be built and would have created a complex of 3 towers each 15 floors taller than the next
Even though I am not from New York City, I am going to try to echo some of the comments made about your sentiment at 0:39. That was much more the sentiment from 1968 when above-ground work began on the Twin Towers through the early 1980s, with many tabloids quoting opinions such as being the Amazon Prime boxes the Empire State and Chrysler Towers were shipped in. And while structurally, there may be some truth to those sentiments, it would be the understatement of the millennium to say that the Twin Towers grew on us; so much so that they will be mourned for centuries if not millennia yet to come. Even 22 years later, we continue to mourn the loss of the Twin Towers and the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives there that fateful Tuesday morning.
I could c the towers being repaired, just like the Empire State Building was back in 1945. Sure it would’ve been more expensive but it would’ve been possible.
That first image is very powerful of what could have been. Unfortunately the structural system relied too much on the outer structure. Once it was punctured, it was only a matter of time.
As someone who worked in an office for 6 years and has been working at home the past 3, I can honesty say that I am so much more productive at home. There are a few reasons: 1. No commute. I can wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower and get dressed for the day, and simply pop open my laptop and start my day at the same time I would be driving to work. 2. Less sick days. If im sick, I can shut my curtains, wrap up in a blanket, and still work. Also, I don't have kids, but all of my coworkers did, and they were always bringing stuff in, that their kids picked up at school. Colds, strep throat, stomach bugs, etc. - it was rough. 3. Like i said, I have no kids, so I have next to zero distractions at home. My dog may need to go out and my cat might cough up a hairball, but that's about it. No loud coworkers or people stopping by my desk to talk (which, i do miss sometimes, but it did eat away at my productivity). 4. If i want coffee or have to go to the bathroom, there is no line that i have to stand in, for who knows how long. Just my experience, i kind of wanted to share. Thank you for this video, because I found myself asking these what ifs, but no one to discuss it with. Seeing this video was very interesting.
I think they would have still pulled them down in respect of victims or the other option would have been to turn those floors where the planes hit into memorials and then the other floors would still be offices
I've thought this a lot. What if only one tower fell? Would they have demolished the other because of damage? Leave it standing alone? Would they have reconstructed the one that was lost? What if the fourth plane had hit Congress or the White House? So many what if scenarios and surprisingly, it could have been much worse. Had they hit the towers 2 hours later, a lot more people would have been there.
Ugh! It’s a very creepy thought. All those people who died and the damage from the impact, the fires and the toxic smoke and fumes would make leaving them standing pretty horrific. A very grim thought indeed.
I’m not looking at this event as a happy thing, but it definitely changed the world and me. I wasn’t alive at the time, but my Dad was out of town for work and got stuck out here because of 9/11. That’s when he met my mom. If 9/11 didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be born. If 9/11 didn’t happen, there wouldn’t be TSA
I find it so strange that I was literally talking about 9/11 in some parallel universe/time travel videos in the comments section (like what if someone went back in time to stop it from happening) and now I see this on my feed. What the heck RU-vid?
I've kind of wondered what would have happened if they missed the buildings. What if the wings brushed the outside of one of the towers and the plane crash landed elsewhere? How much more or less damage would be caused by that?
@@ppolow Probably more to be honest because of other buildings that would’ve gotten hit and possibly a lot of plane debris hitting the ground too. I wonder more about if somehow it could’ve been prevented in time, like what would security measures look like today, would something like 9/11 still happened anyway or even a worse version of it? Not really a way to change the past but with what you mentioned, I think that could’ve been leading to even more buildings possibly collapsing as well because it’s possible some jet fuel might’ve burned more buildings down in the process even pre-collapse of the Twin Towers
@@ppolow maybe the Plaza or the surrounding buildings (One Liberty Plaza, World Financial Center, Verizon Bldg,) or the Lobbies of WTC 1 and 2 would be damaged
that's a good question, what would happen if someone went back in time and warnd about it, but an even bigger question is, if someone grabbed a time machine, went back in time and managed to warn someone(maybe backin it up with somepictures or something regarding the og timeline)else that 911 is about to happen, what of the present would change? would that eff up something else up for all parties involved? would the time traveler risk disappearing or looping? or have personal issues to their life because of changin that piece of the past?would there have still been a 911 and would it still be about new york or another american city or been elsewhere?
@@ravenrey7225 Well, something to keep in mind is that the terrorists actually did have cities like Chicago and Los Angeles to go after and they were trying to hijack up to 10 planes. As far as LA goes, they were plotting on the US Bank Tower. If somebody were to stop them, could there have been smaller yet notable events like the 2013 Boston bombings, 2017 Las Vegas shooting (deadliest mass shooting in US history), or even the 2022 Memphis mass shooting where one guy caused an entire city to be on lockdown? There could be an instance where preventing 9/11 could have prevented those other events from happening too due to the butterfly effect.
yeah. I don't see how anyone would be willing to go back in those twin towers and work there after that, even if they could salvage both towers. Not to mention the structures would be soo heavily damaged that you would have to remove anything above where the planes hit.
I disagree, the attack would've still united the country and the general feel of the population would've been "they can't break us or our spirit." The companies who lost it's employees would sponsor a memorial, and the floors that took the direct hit from the plane turned into memorial/museums in each building. Not to mention that many of the people working there had very high paying jobs. If those buildings were still there today, they would be full of workers just like before.
@@Jay-gf8tm How do you know if they would have or not? You don't. Fact is no one knows what would have happened. all you can do is speculate what might have happened.
exactly.....Very, very unlikely they would have been left standing damaged/reinforced only so they wouldnt collapse. Either controlled demolition or tearing them down from the impact zone up and rebuilding those floors from scratch. Both very hard to do, but most likely they would have tried to take down the damaged floors over time and rebuild them, so you would have had towers that would have been part old, part new. Having them staying there damaged and as constant reminder of the attacks...that was never gonna happen.
sorry but that video makes no sense at all. you cant change the exterior of the wtc because it isnt a curtain wall, its an integral structural part. you cant just go ahead and replace that with glass… besides that if the towers would have survived the attack they would have been reopened, the port authority had agreed a 100 year lease or something like that (can‘t really remember) no one could afford to just spend almost 2bn dollars on the one wtc and just keep the old towers standing without being either scrapped or reused. the twin towers are an iconic piece of 1960‘s design/engineering.
Had they not fallen, they would have been demolished and likely something similar to what we have now would have been built. Silverstein (the lease holder for the WTC site) was paying $1M/month, a fee he was liable for after the attacks as well, even as the site was a smouldering ruin. Given this, the incentive to get something rebuilt as quickly as possible was there. Had they not fallen, I can't help but wonder what horrors we all might have witnessed as the towers continued to burn. All those trapped above impact in the north tower would still have died, only without collapse death would have taken much longer. Conversely, perhaps nearly all those killed in the south tower collapse could have made a successful evacuation if allowed enough time. Basically, I think the north tower would have been a prolonged scene of horror as we all sat helplessly watching ~1000 people either jump or burn alive. [Side note: had they stood, it is likely the voice recorder boxes from the aircraft would have been recovered, which would have been really interesting].
Actually it was 10 million a month. They have the lease agreement on google somewhere. I read it. He made that payment every month even during the reconstruction. Over 11 years that's 1 billion 320 million dollars. He got 4 billion in insurance payout but his group has spent almost 7 Billion in rebuilding. Puts them nearly 4 billion in the hole in 2011. They expect to be in the black by 2030. Larry is 92 now so he won't see it go profitable but he knows he saved his city.
What other buildings? The ones in front are the World Financial Center (pyramid roof, ziggurat roof, sphere roof) were built a decade after the towers and they suffered damage but not structural damage. Most of the building outside of the 7 World Trade Center buildings suffered damage but not enough to demolish them- except for the Deutsche Bank Building. I remember seeing the massive hole ripped right down the front from when the South Tower collapsed. You could see right into the offices.
By the time the 90's rolled around, people liked the look of the twin towers. They were the standout pieces of the NY skyline. Seeing the skyline again after they were no longer there was truly surreal. It truly felt like NY was incomplete.
I think in the event the Twin Towers didn’t collapse by some miracle even after the attack I think the Twin Towers would probably would’ve been saved I would say close down the Towers for at least a year and repair the towers
Honestly I think it would be a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If there hadn't been enormous loss of life, perhaps they could have rebuilt and stood again for something. But the fact that thousands of people perished, it would just be a continuous sad reminder and friends and family of loved ones of the lost would not hold it in a positive light and would probably proposition for them to be brought down and a memorial built. There were a number of models with resembled structures of the tridents and replica facias that looked really cool, but again, the loss of life factor really changed the appearance of them. It's hard to know what the right thing would have been with a remaining structure.
