The World Trade Center - Concept and History

In the aftermath of World War II, as nations met to encourage reconstruction through the expansion of international trade, a real estate developer proposed the concept of a "world trade center."

David Scholtz was a former governor of Florida, and a real estate developer with a vision that was as broad as the world itself. He envisioned a trading center near Wall Street that would revive the declining maritime and port activities in lower Manhattan and proposed a center for world trade on the banks of the East River in Lower Manhattan in 1945.

His vision captured the imagination of the New York legislature, and a year later, they authorized a World Trade Corporation to study the feasibility of Scholtz's concept. Winthrop Aldrich, the uncle of David and Nelson Rockefeller, was appointed to head up the study. By December, the two Rockefeller sons had convinced their father to donate $8.5 million to the United Nations, specifically earmarked to purchase a site on the East River. That site was to serve as the world organization's permanent headquarters.

Over the next decade, the Rockefellers and other financial tycoons rocketed New York City into the world's financial capital. The city's skyline rose higher and higher as corporations and tycoons vied with each other to erect the most impressive monuments to their trading and financial prowess. The Met Life building, the Chrysler building, the Equitable building and the Empire State building were among the buildings that turned the New York skyline into one of the most recognizable in the world.

In 1955, David Rockefeller announced a plan to build the headquarters of the Chase Manhattan Bank in Lower Manhattan. His plan was ambitious - One Chase Manhattan Plaza was meant to be more than just a headquarters for a single bank. It was intended to start the revival of the downtown financial district.

To further that aim, Rockefeller spearheaded the development of the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA), which would take a lead role in the development of the World Trade Center. In October of 1958, the DLMA released an 80 page master plan that detailed the transformation of Lower Manhattan. The plan included changes to traffic patterns, new streets and plazas, housing, office buildings and recreational facilities. The jewel in the crown of the plan was an exhibition and office complex centered around world trade.

Fifteen years after the World Trade Center was first proposed by David Scholtz and approved for study by the New York legislature, the world got its first glimpse of the soaring vision. In 1960, the DLMA released the formal plans for the World Trade Center, a five million square foot complex to be built on the East Side of Manhattan. Once again, a feasibility study was proposed - this time by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Its approval took less than a year. In March of 1961, the Port Authority released its plan for a World Trade Center, which featured several office buildings and a major exhibition hall. The New York and New Jersey legislatures approved the join Port Authority Trans-Hudson/World Trade Center bill later that Spring, and it was signed almost immediately by Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York whose encouragement of the project had originally sparked his father to donate money for the site. New Jersey governor Richard Hughes also signed the bill, and the project had cleared another hurdle.

There was, however, a lingering objection from New Jersey, whose governor and legislature felt that the projected location for the new World Trade Center did little for their state. In response to those concerns, the Port Authority made the decision to relocate the proposed site from the East River to the terminus of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, on a 16 acre parcel of land along the Hudson River.

New Jersey was not the only objector to the project. Lower Manhattan businessmen who would lose their business locations also took issue with the new siting and began a series of legal challenges to the construction that would continue for four years. The LMDA made good use of those years. In October of 1962, Minoru Yamasaki signed on as lead designer for the trade center to work with Emery Roth & Sons, a New York architecture firm that was well-known for speculative building projects.

In January of 1964, nearly twenty years after the project was first proposed, the completed design of the World Trade Center was revealed at the New York Hilton. It was the first time that the world saw the full concept of the soaring Twin Towers with its attendant smaller buildings and the central plaza. Two years later at the start of March, the New State Court of Appeals denied the final legal challenge, clearing the way for the project to proceed. The contractors lost no time in getting started - demolition of existing buildings on the site began on March 21, 1966.

When complete, the World Trade Center would consist of over 15 million square feet of space distributed among seven buildings. The principal buildings were the two towers, anchoring the project and rising 110 stories - nearly a quarter of a mile - into the sky.

By the time the second of the Twin Towers was topped off in 1972, the World Trade Center had already become a symbol of New York's renewed health and status in the field of world finance. The WTCA is a not-for-profit, non-political association that dedicates itself to providing for the expansion of international trade by providing the services needed by its member businesses. The central goal of the World Trade Center Association is to create a central focal point for the financial and trade activities in a region, facilitating international trade and bringing renewed financial life to the areas that it services.

Yamasaki, the lead architect for the original World Trade Center, expressed that concept in his own words when describing his vision for the project he designed:

"The World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness." - Minoru Yamasaki