The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing: 20 Years Later

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The buildings at 2, 3 and 4 World Trade Center will also feature a number of design characteristics and safety precautions that stretch behind that which is required by NYC Building Codes, according to a separate statement provided by Silverstein Properties, which will own the three buildings once complete, in addition to 7 World Trade Center.

The buildings will use redundancy of steel and reinforced concrete walls; exit stairs will be 20 percent wider than required by NYC Building Codes; and fireproofing materials are 50 percent more fire resistant than required, among other precautions.  The firm declined further comment.

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The 1993 bombing knocked out police command and operations centers in the towers, rendering evacuation plans useless.  In response, a sophisticated system was put in its place, but “when the towers came down [in 2001], there was no information available outside,” Mr. Brown said.

A duplicate data center allows firms like Datawatch Systems, which is not involved with security at the World Trade Center, to monitor threats off-site, he said.  But, he added, there’s only so much that he and building owners can do.  An attack from the air, for example, falls beyond the responsibility of the local building owner, and into the realm of government and military intervention.

“Back in 2001 there were stories about these air traffic controller seeing an anomaly –funny things in the sky,” he said.  “Today there will never be a question if there’s a funny thing.  They’ll scramble a jet up there very quickly.”