World Trade Center History

The Twin Towers dominated the Manhattan skyline for three decades before their destruction in 2001. Although initially criticized for their audacious height and severe architectural style, the buildings—designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki—took on iconic status in the public imagination, becoming emblematic of New York City and America as a whole.

But their fame and symbolism also made the Twin Towers the targets of two terrorist attacks. The first took place on February 26, 1993. That day, a van loaded with approximately 1,200 pounds of explosives was driven into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center. The blast from the bomb created a crater several stories deep in the belowground levels of the complex and killed six people.

Though carried out by a different group of extremists than the 9/11 attacks, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred within the broader context of an emerging radical Islamist ideology and foreshadowed the much larger assault eight years later.