Americans: did you know what the World Trade Center was before Sept. 11, 2001?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Just curious. I did not know: I think I knew that there were two big skyscrapers at one end of Manhattan, but when people said “The World Trade Center has been hit!” I a) had no idea that they were referring to those buildings, and b) had no clear idea what the “World Trade Center” was - ie, was it some government trade organization? An economic branch of the UN? What?

I don’t think I’m that unusual in that. Now that they’re so famous I think people assume that everyone always knew what they were - but I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

(People who lived in the New York Metropolitan area either during or before the attacks don’t need to reply unless they somehow didn’t know what the WTC was.)

2

You would be incorrect.

3

Yes, I knew what they were.

4

Of course I knew what the World Trade Center was. Born and raised in southeastern Ohio and was living in Seattle on 9/11/01, for what that’s worth.

5

Yes, of course I knew what they were. They had been targeted in a high profile terrorist attack in 1993.

FTR, I grew up in California and have only visited New York once, in 2002.

6

I had passed up a visit to the top in '99 in favour of a trip to The Statue of Liberty. I was there with a friend taking photos and had very limited time. Absolutely knew what it was and I’m pretty sad now about that long ago decision.

7

Of course I knew - I visited the top when I was 7 years old… more than 30 years ago.

8

Actually, I think you made the right choice, as the Twin Towers were really ugly buildings. Impressively big, yes, but ugly.

As for the question in the OP, yes I knew what they were, but I’m from the tri-state area.

9

Yes, I knew about the WTC. I visited the Towers back in 1985…had my birthday dinner at Windows on The World and ran into Billy Crystal on the observation deck.

10

I’m Canadian and I knew what the WTC was when I visited NY in March 2001. I wanted to go up to the top but nooo… we were going to do it next time.

11

Yes. We had just taken a class trip to NY at the end of 8th grade and went up to the top of the WTC in May 2001. I remember there being fairly stringent security inside.

12

I knew what they were. Hell, I was in New York just a few months before 9/11 and was supposed to visit them. I even bitched about it when the tour guide for our trip (I was in high school then) cancelled it at the last second.

I still remember my friend Kevin telling me “Don’t worry, they’ll still be there when you come back.”

Well, I did go back to New York and did go to the WTC, but by 2005 it was just a large hole in the ground.

13

Yes. Definitely. I was highly interested in big buildings as a child, so I imagine I knew what the WTC was by the time I was five or six.

14

There was a major documentary on PBS about building the towers. Impressive, and hard to forget, so I didn’t.

15

Absolutely. I was a little kid when they were completed, and was aware of this, though I was living in the Midwest. I’ve never lived in or near NYC, though I’ve been there a number of times as an adult (business trips).

In the 1976 remake of King Kong, in the final sequence, rather than climbing up the Empire State Building (as in the original), Kong climbs up the Twin Towers (somewhat of a big deal was made over that change, at the time).

16

Yes. I think I was only 13 when they fell, but I’d been up to the top years earlier, so I was aware of that.

They’re a part of the culture, as the dominant centerpiece of the New York skyline, you know? For so many movies, a shot of the Twin Towers was the way to set a movie in New York, the same way that a shot of the Space Needle sets a movie in Seattle or the Golden Gate sets a movie in San Francisco.

17

Me, too, though I’m probably a year or two older than you.

18

Yes, but only since 1995 when we went there during our senior class trip to NY - they told us it was “an international banking building” at the time. The view from the observation area in the south tower was spectacular.

19

I was up in one of them a couple weeks before 9/11* but until then, I hadn’t heard of them. I don’t think at that point I knew what they were, though, other than tall buildings. That is, it was mostly random offices. To the extent I’d thought about it, I think I thought it was a part of the U.N. or some other government building.

*At the top of one of the towers, they had a green screen for tourists. I’d actually gotten my picture taken to look like I was falling off of one of them. It freaked me out a little when I remembered that a couple weeks later and there were people jumping out of windows and what not.

20

Hmm. I expected responses to be about 50/50 or 60/40 - not like 90/10. Maybe some others will come in yet and vindicate my ignorance! Maybe it’s a factor of my age - not born when they were built, so missed the hype surrounding that; too young to follow current events much when they were bombed in '93; no memorable school trips to NYC after that. (I’d been to New York before 2001, but the WTC was not on my itinerary.)

I have to say, though, I still can’t quite believe that they really had the same instant visual/name recognition as other iconic sites - like the Empire State Building or (to a slightly lesser extent) the Chrysler Building, much less the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Sydney Opera House, St. Louis Arch, Golden Gate Bridge, Brandenburg Gate, etc. Definitely recognizable in pictures as “those two tall buildings in New York”, but did everyone really automatically know what was being talked about when someone said “World Trade Center”? Really??