What The Twin Towers Meant To America

The Twin Towers were only part of the World Trade Center, consisting of 7 buildings total. Yet due to their incredible size, they became one of the most influential and culturally significant buildings in US history. This video goes over the Twin Towers' role in the World Trade Centers, it's development history, and how these factors worked together to give America a whole new meaning.

What comes to your mind when you think of America? The answer to this question will vary from generation to generation. For the Silent Generation, it was probably hot apple pie and rock and roll. For the baby boomers, it was experimentation and nonconformity. And for the adventurous and ambitiously growing yuppies of the early 1980s, it was the iconic New York towers. Known officially as the World Trade Centers, the Twin Towers were part of seven buildings within a complex located in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. If you hadn’t already known, it may come as a surprise to you that these towers were only part of the World Trade Centers, as five other buildings were also working along with them, one of these a hotel. But due to their colossal size and being the original buildings, this term “World Trade Centers” was used interchangeably to describe these two mammoth structures, a clear indicator that their size alone was a huge component in making them so culturally significant. Built in 1973, they were the largest buildings in the world, and subsequently for the next two decades became a symbol for opportunity, a manifestation of the American Dream. Overseeing nearly all of New York city, The Twin Towers became something you almost could not escape from. They followed you everywhere, a rather optimistic metaphor for how prosperity in the United States was just inevitable. But why did the Twin Towers even exist in the first place? How did the World Trade Centers help shape America, and what was the magnitude of their presence?
This video will focus on not what the Twin Towers became, but instead will focus on what they were. For a lot of the younger people watching, they might not even know what the World Trade Centers did, and that’s okay. With the passage of time comes the depreciation of knowledge for things that are now unfortunately only a part of the past, and the only way to keep their legacy living is to preserve their memory through artifact, historical record, and education. So, what did the World Trade Centers do? What where they used for? Well, they were the centers for trading across the entire world. Duh. Yes, that’s essentially what the Twin Towers were. They were office buildings. But what does that entail? I mean, that answer’s kind of boring, and apathetically leaves out a lot of important information.
To really understand the magnitude of the World Trade Center’s cultural impact requires diving into its development history.

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[laney]

My Dad worked on Wall Street and was so proud of the Word Trade Center. He took us there in 1973 when they were finishing the construction on “Windows of the World”. During construction it was simply referred to as “the restaurant”. A construction worker escorted our family on the elevator that took us to the “restaurant.” When we reached the top the construction workers were super friendly and gave us Cokes because the restaurant was under construction. I watched the workers sawing, drilling and painting. As a little girl I was witness to the biggest construction project in the world. Thanks Dad. What a wonderful memory.

[jeffamunoz]

*Thank you for not shaming the younger generation on not remembering this day. Learning is respecting what someone simply DOES NOT KNOW yet, educating - and telling the story truthfully. I was only 6 when 9/11 happened and I just can't remember that day as a I was homeschooler. My heart goes out to all the families and those who are now lost.*

[misled]

They were never called World Trade CenterS, the "center" was never plural, since the complex was considered as a whole and not as the amount of buildings from the complex (7 in this case)

[StreamSonic]

This is so sad in the end.
_The fall of Twin Towers marked the end of pursuing for prosperity and initiate America's pursuit for retaliation and sinisterism._

[lenglain]

I feel like the 90s died on september 11 2001 not just because it marked the end of the "good times" that marked the 90s, but because for that decade, New York, and America generally, was symbolized by those towers. To see them fall apart so suddenly was pretty shocking. I remember watching the footage on TV as a kid in high school and bursting into tears out of pure shock - it felt like I had just watched a person being torn apart.

[Manbarrican]

It's crazy that this event is used to symbolize the start and the end of a generation without considering that maybe some of us who were alive back then were too young to understand what the world was like before it.

[Tamaki]

I'm not from the US, and my first memory of the towers was when I was 6. My parents' friends were visiting and one of them suddenly said to turn on the TV. The towers were falling. I didn't even know what the twin towers were beforehand. While I didn't exactly get the full significance of the event, I could still tell that something changed from then on.

[margui]

On the Twin Towers design: Less is more. They were beautiful in their own way. Just ask Philippe Petit, the French artist who crossed between them using a wire. He was in love with them.
And then everyone felt the same about them. They were amazing and much more than office buildings, they became famous around the world. Never had the opportunity to visit them. Thank you for showing this video. I only “knew” them through the many movies were featured.

[georgesolomon]

One of my dad’s friends went into 9/11 to help save people and I may not have known him, but when I learned this I had all respect for him. May those who were injured or killed in this awful incident, be remembered and loved

[yoabyse]

I love these buildings. I’ve never been to NYC but the skyline just isn’t the same without them. Part of me wishes they just rebuilt them, maybe in glass or something, but rebuild them the same height and shape to show that if you knock us down we’ll get right back up.

[craftthemoon]

Thanks for making this video, man. I know it was almost last in that community poll you posted, but I feel as if this topic has special importance. Really glad to see you cover it. More should learn about the history of WTC.

[kevinloveshistory]

As someone who didn’t grow up when the towers were around, this video was very valuable to me because it offered a perspective of the twins towers that I’ll never be able to authentically experience. I can understand them but I’ll never be able to feel the significance they held.

[MrTwister]

I think the towers were absolutely beautiful! They had an unique, minimalistic look we don't see in modern architecture. This simple design made them look massive, which they were!

[LoveSickWorld]

I actually really needed this video because I never understood what the importance of these buildings were or what they served to function as

[rolo]

I was in my 4th grade music class in the center of the united states in Kansas. Music teach came out of her office crying her eyes out. She had us go to the hallway and stand in a single file line. We then waited for our parents to take us all home. My dad came and got me and my sister from school. My father cried a lot on the way home and we'll into the night. My mother came home from work and she was unconsolable. The thing is, only a month before in August 2001 my father and mother were in NYC and had actually stood on top of the towers and even had dinner at windows on the world. There is even video footage of my parents on top of the towers only weeks beforehand. Pretty crazy stuff and my parents were really shook up at the time as they had basically just been there.

This is a very informative and touching tribute. Well done, NationSquid.

[Hotaru-jp]

Watching 9/11 gets me depressive/nostalgic and sad, i see people going on their day and that tragedy just happen, changing history and a whole country and the world on what seems to be an instant but for those who experienced this sad day seemed like an eternity.
Despite not being american or live in america i respect those who died and those who survive and those who lost their lives saving others.
This is my third time watching this video.
The technology, turn of the century, windows 2000/xp era, when bill gates was the CEO and more famous /prominent, steve jobs was back at apple and as CEO again, the competition.
This world is so much complex than we thought it was.

[TheHVACkid]

It’s not called the “world trade centers” it is the World Trade Center, and the towers are World Trade Center towers one and two.

[MrGamer-ltum]

I never got to see the towers in person, but man I wish they were still around in the NY skyline.

[flightstreamer]

RIP to all that lost there lives that day.