An Icon of Capitalism: 'Now It's All Gone'

World's 5th-Tallest Buildings Housed Offices, Retail Shops

For three decades the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center stood as the symbol of American economic might, as powerful an icon for capitalism as the Statue of Liberty is for freedom.

The two 110-story buildings defined the Manhattan skyline at the turn of the millennium the way the Empire State Building did in an earlier era. But their presence was more than symbolic.

The complex was a city within a city, with 50,000 workers and 150,000 others passing through on a typical workday. It represented one-tenth of all office space in Lower Manhattan.

Scores of corporations had offices there, including financial services giant Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., the biggest single tenant, with one-eighth of the space in the south tower.

The complex was a major home to the insurance companies Empire HealthChoice Inc. and Marsh USA Inc., the law offices of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, and Cantor Fitzgerald Securities. It was also a top tourist draw, with observation decks, a simulated helicopter tour of Manhattan and a famous restaurant, Windows on the World.

"The twin towers stood for America in the same way that Big Ben stands for England," said Angus Kress Gillespie, author of the 1999 book "Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center."

"If you're trying to poke America in the eye, this is the way to do it."

When terrorists tried to bring the buildings down in 1993 by planting bombs in a parking garage beneath them, the business world reeled at the notion that it could be the target of a new kind of war. That bombing killed six people and injured more than 1,000, but after extensive renovations -- and with greatly increased security -- the towers reopened.

"Some people I know never went back again, or they couldn't get back into an elevator again," said Neil Lagala, who survived the 1993 bombing and continued working there for six years as an engineer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"I did have a feeling way back in my mind that we were still a target -- these guys didn't finish the job, and I felt they would make an example of the trade center . . . but everybody felt that they shouldn't give in to the terrorists."

Just two months ago, two real estate companies, Silverstein Properties of New York and Westfield America of Los Angeles, won a bidding contest to lease the towers and their underground mall from the Port Authority for 99 years at a price of $3.25 billion. The authority had rejected earlier overtures from would-be buyers.

The World Trade Center was more than an American phenomenon; it was also what its name suggested -- a concentration of commercial forces from around the world. It housed banks from Germany, Japan, Chile and Taiwan; investment companies from Asia, Europe, South America; and even the China Chamber of Commerce.