Posted on 09/12/2001 7:18:35 AM PDT by gieriscm
New York (CNSNews.com) - As New Yorkers try to recover from the attack on the World Trade Center, financial markets have yet to feel the full impact of the terrorist action.
Far beneath the shattered buildings, screaming ambulances and dazed New Yorkers on the streets of Manhattan are two of the world's largest gold depositories.
One belongs to the US Federal Reserve Bank; another to a group of financial institutions.
The Fed's gold reserve is housed 100 ft. beneath its headquarters, only blocks from the World Trade Center, whose twin towers collapsed into mammoth heaps of rubble after two hijacked jetliners were crashed into the buildings.
The Fed boasts that its gold depository spans the length of two football fields and contains more gold than any other vault on earth.
Its deposits are believed to surpass the value of the legendary Fort Knox gold reserves in the mid-1980s.
While the Fed declines to release the total value of gold on deposit, it is unofficially estimated at more than $25 billion. But the gold stored in that facility does not belong to the U.S.; it's owned by foreign nations, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
At the World Trade Center itself is another, smaller gold storage facility owned by a group of commercial banks.
When Islamic radicals bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, the New York Police Department and FBI at one point thought that the attack might have been a raid on the gold depository.
The explosion eight years ago was close to the vault, which withstood the explosion. It's not known how much gold was kept in the World Trade Center vaults in 1993, but it's believed as much as $1 billion in Kuwaiti gold eight years ago.
It's also believed that the amount gold currently buried beneath the debris of the World Trade Center today far exceeds the 1993 levels. Kuwaiti officials in New York declined to discuss the matter.
First of all, the gold vaults are NOT that big. There's a lot of gold there, but the room is no bigger than half the VERY small block it sits underneath.
I would wager all of the gold there that the door to the vault was sealed within seconds of the first collision.
It's important to remember that 1993 was a dress rehearsal for these security people in the same way that it was a dress rehearsal for the terrorists.
The NY Fed does NOT screw around with security. ALL of their guards are continuously trained expert marksmen. Even if a 747 impacted the NY Fed building itself, the gold would still be safe.
However, I would inquire as to the basis of your statement.
I thank God I got layed off in May and had to find a new job. Sometimes he works in mysterious ways...
The Fed boasts that its gold depository spans the length of two football fields and contains more gold than any other vault on earth.
So this is heart and soul of the Private Corporation that plots our lives in percentage points as it thrives on our being always indebted somehow?
Guess I'd be boastful too.
Thanks for the clarifications to the story.
People always look at you like you're nuts when you tell them this.
The only thing about the building I would change is the block on which it sits. It messed up the basketball court on the 14th floor. I once split my chin up there keeping a ball in bounds so that my 6'7" colleague could have an easy layup.
There's an ER pretty close by up toward Canal, but it's not all that large.
Anyway, you're the third person I've heard since the blast who had moved his office or moved jobs within the last year.
As we say to my 3-year-old, "Lucky Duck!"
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