WORLD TRADE CENTER

complex of six buildings around a central plaza in New York City. The World Trade Center stands at the southwestern tip of Manhattan, near the shore of the Hudson River and a few blocks northwest of Wall Street. It was built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a central facility for businesses and government agencies involved in international trade. The complex is notable for its huge twin towers, each of which has 110 stories. The roof of One World Trade Center reaches to 1,368 feet (417 metres), and Two World Trade Center is 1,362 feet (415 metres) tall. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki and officially opened in 1972, the towers were the world's tallest buildings until surpassed in 1973 by the Sears Tower in Chicago. (See Researcher's Note: Heights of Buildings.) Each tower has 104 passenger elevators, 21,800 windows, and roughly an acre (0.4 hectare) of rentable space per floor. An observation deck is situated on the 107th floor of the north tower (Two World Trade Center). A massive bomb planted by terrorists exploded in the underground garage of Two World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, killing several persons.