The World Trade Center in the 1970s (Rewind)

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Greg Young (0:56)

We have a batch of newly recorded Bowery Boys podcasts arriving next week. But for now, it has been 25 years since September 11, 2001 We're marking this occasion today by presenting our show recorded for the 20th anniversary, looking at the planning and construction of the World Trade Center and how it transformed lower Manhattan in the 1970s.

This show also features information about the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

SPEAKER_4 (1:29)

There is another symbol of international understanding, the World Trade Center in New York City. It will become the world's tallest building, rising over 1,300 feet into the sky. From a helicopter, we see the New York skyline as it will appear from the top of the Trade Center. Even New York's tallest building seemed to shrink in comparison.

A steel worker, John McKeever, looked at this United Nations of Commerce, which he's helping to build. That kangaroo up there is the one I'm working on right now, and the impetus job is over. Maybe 15 years from now, I'll bring my children back here, my three sons, and I'll show them what we built here, the tallest building in the world.

Greg Young (2:11)

The Bowery Boys, episode 350, The World Trade Center in the 1970s. Hey, it's The Bowery Boys. Hi there, welcome to The Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young.

Tom Meyers (2:36)

And this is Tom Meyers, Greg with our 350th episode of The Bowery Boys.

Greg Young (2:43)

349 episodes about a wide range of subjects from the world of New York City history. And not one of those episodes has been about The World Trade Center until now.

Tom Meyers (2:59)

Why now, exactly? Well, this year, believe it or not, marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001, which caused the Twin Towers to collapse. It damaged and destroyed other buildings in the area and killed 2,606 people in and around the buildings, along with 157 passengers who were aboard the two flights.

Greg Young (3:26)

Now, when we started this podcast back in 2007, that was less than six years after 9-11.

It always felt inconceivable to us back then, and for many years, that we would ever even do an episode about that event. Like many of you, Tom and I have very specific experiences that are related to September 11th. I think you would agree with me, Tom, that we just don't know what we would be able to add to that discussion.

Tom Meyers (4:00)

But today, there's an entire generation that only knows the World Trade Center as a sort of emblem of tragedy. Most of its story, its creation, its life actually gets sidelined, and that's for understandable reasons, of course.

But people sometimes forget that the World Trade Center was a very complicated and dramatic addition to the New York skyline when it officially opened in 1973

Greg Young (4:31)

So today, we'd like to reintroduce the World Trade Center to you by looking at its first decade of operation, the 1970s. Because, you know, while it might be fun to think of New York City in the 1970s through the lens of places like Studio 54 or CBGBs, it was really the Twin Towers that redefined New York during this period.

In a city beleaguered with the financial crisis and a rising crime rate, the shining New World Trade Center embodied the future.

Tom Meyers (5:06)

And it was during a period when it was really up for debate if New York City even had much of a bright future.

So today, we're going to focus on details of the Trade Center's history that often get overlooked in discussions. For while our memories of the Twin Towers today are filled with reverence and sadness, those were not the emotions that were felt by New Yorkers in the mid-1970s.