SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 THE WORLD CHANGES

• Atop the World Trade Center

• Windows on the World

• served perfect views

• with cocktail dreams

• On a clear day it seemed

• you could actually see London, Paris

• even Rome through those windows on the world

• from the poem, Windows on the World,

• by Keenan Pendergrass

REMEMBERING THINGS PAST

"Welcome to Windows on the World, the highest restaurant on Earth," said the uniformed attendant as the elevator doors opened on the 107th floor of One World Trade Center in New York City.

The 110-story, 1362 foot (417 meter) structure was also known as "Building One", "1 WTC" or simply "the North Tower." Together with its slightly taller (1,368 foot) twin tower a few hundred feet to the south, the World Trade Center buildings became the world's tallest upon the opening of One World Trade center in December 1970 ironic, when one considers the fact that their architect, Minoru Yamasaki, is afraid of heights. The second tower was finished in April of 1973, but just a month later construction on the slightly taller (1454-foot) Sears Tower in Chicago reached the point where it now could wear the skyscraper celebrity crown. Still, the twin towers had become New York's most recognizable icon. While not an architectural masterpiece, the Twin Towers were the first supertall buildings to forego the use of masonry, and their innovations included elevator "sky lobbies" that freed up additional space for offices. Certainly the towers captured the public's imagination. In the 1976 remake of King...