Posted on 09/13/2001 2:18:58 AM PDT by 2Trievers
AMERICANS WILL rebound stronger than before. That must be the message we send to terrorists; we hope our military does so in the coming days. But perhaps the most effective way civilians can demonstrate this resolve to the entire world, in a language everyone will understand, is by rebuilding the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Some might take offense to this exhortation. It may seem premature in this climate of death. But we think it is key to the psychological health of our nation. While rescue efforts are still under way, it is not the time to worry about losses to architecture, tourism or financial portfolios. It is never too early, however, to worry about loss of spirit. The World Trade Center filled New Yorkers and visitors alike with a sense of national pride and we need that pride now more than ever. The twin towers reminded foreigners that America is the richest, most confident country in the world. Foreigners need to know we are still a country of leaders. If the enemy destroys your house in war, you will never recover until you rebuild it. The World Trade Center was not a house, but a national monument. The absence of this monument on the New York skyline is a monument in itself; a monument to the victims. By refilling that gaping hole in New York’s skyline, we might begin to fill that gaping hole in our national confidence.
As much as I would like to see those towers in the NY skyline again,
I too wonder who would want to work 100+ stories up for 40+ hours a week after this incident.
Newer buildings would have to have some sort of effecient evacuation
method built into them (if there is such a thing)
Including two in Saudi Arabia. We should point this out.
Among the things I think they should lose first are the right to sell oil and buy western goods. Along with the right to send students to western schools.
Rebuilding the towers, albeit with modern safety technology, would be a huge triumph over terrorism.
Which brings me to say that if the NJ/NY Ports Authority rebuilds the WTC on the same scale as the one now spread over much of Manhattan, the new design should incorporate large BULLSEYES on the sides.
I’ve spent my career designing steel structures and told my son before the SECOND plane hit the second tower that the FIRST building was “toast.” There was NO WAY those heat weakened columns would hold. And when the second plane hit the second tower, taking out the columns on one side, I knew IT was history. I cried as the second tower struck crumpled in the direction of the sliced columns and, shortly after, the upper 20 floors of the first tower pan-caked into the lower 90 after THOSE columns buckled.
I’m not some anti-techno Luddite: Even BEFORE the events of 9/11, I was growing weary of watching bodies fall from burning high-rise buildings as rescue workers stood helplessly in the street below, poised to clean up the carnage. I wonder how many high-rise dwellers are today looking for farms in Kansas?
The evidence is growing that we need to seriously rethink our compulsion to concentrate populations in taller and taller, easy-to-hit targets which are also built to be efficient chimneys.
The loss of life in the WTC will be staggering. Compare that number to the final body count at the Pentagon. Then think about the differences in those two buildings.
I rest my case!
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