Amazon.com description: Product Description: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of both World Trade Centers For 30 years, the Twin Towers were the most dramatic features of the New York skyline, and for a short while one of the towers could boast of being the tallest building in the world. People came from around the world to visit them for both business and pleasure, and while most days were busy but uneventful, there were exceptions. A stunt seemingly featuring a man dancing in the sky humanized and popularized the buildings, and they began to prosper, just as the nation itself would rise again out of the mire of the 1970s. Almost as quickly, a fire threatened the North Tower in 1975. In 1977, a man decided to scale the side of the South Tower, and in 1983, a fireman completed a stunt designed to warn people about the impossibility of evacuating everyone in case of emergency. Fatefully, the fireman’s efforts fell on largely deaf ears, as no one could conceive of the need for such efforts. As everyone now knows, the World Trade Center could have stood for a century or more but didn’t last half that long, because what they symbolically represented made them a physical target. The Twin Towers survived the first violent attack in 1993, but less than a decade later they were gone, the initial victims of a war still raging. It should come as no surprise that in the dark days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, New York City began searching for some way to demonstrate its recovery and resolve. The obvious way to do just that was to rebuild what had been destroyed. Since there was no way to bring back the lives of those lost, the most straightforward path was to rebuild the Twin Towers that had fallen, but there was more to be done than to just rebuild the lost Twin Towers; the new building was to be bigger, taller, and better than before, as everyone hoped the country would somehow be. In the decade that followed, the first of a new millennium, the Freedom Tower experienced many of the same ups and downs that the nation did. Plans to rebuild it were met with the same level of controversy as those to fight the war on terror. Likewise, its popularity ebbed and flowed with the fickle hearts of a people grown weary with fighting an enemy overseas and a poor economy at home. Political parties rose into and fell out of power, changing again and again the environment in which the builders were trying to work. At some points, it seemed that the project would never end. Fortunately, the building itself finally knew victory and opened to the public, much as it seems the United States has made some inroads in the war against terror. At the same time, there is much left to do on both fronts, as the owners of One World Trade Center continue to try to rent out the space they have created, and those fighting terrorism at home and abroad continue to try to weed out the last vestiges of those who wish the nation ill. Ultimately, the final outcome on both fronts remains unknown, though much of the same spirit of patriotism and determination drives the leaders of the nation and the Center on to a much hoped for victory. Those who continue to wait wish them Godspeed, as they look on from a distance and close up at the flag flying at the top of the trade center and over the hills of Afghanistan. The World Trade Center: The History of the Construction, Destruction, and Rebirth of a New York City Landmark looks at the construction history of the Twin Towers and their replacement. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the World Trade Center like never before.