Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 22:14:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein 
Subject: We Must Rebuild the WTC Towers!


I've done a googlesearch of newsgroups and found
about three dozen of you who appear to have valid
addresses and to share my strong conviction that
the World Trade Center towers MUST necessarily be
rebuilt,at LEAST as tall and at LEAST as strong as
before.

You come from many different places and many different
newsgroups,but as long as we share this conviction I
hope we can cooperate toward raising consciousness
regarding this goal.

To retreat in any way from the size of the former
towers hands a monumental victory to the terrorists:
in this war of symbols their destruction of our symbols
will stand as an accomplished fact,they will have "cut
us down to size",and their kind will forever be able to
point to a success,the place where the towers USED to
be,until they put a stop to it and we were "terrorized"
into not rebuilding them.

It is of vital importance that what they did be
UNdone,utterly and vigorously.That we be able to
point to the evidence of their FAILURE to destroy
our symbols or our spirits...or our freedom from
fear of them.It is that fear that is most often
cited as a reason for retreating from the former
towers..."Who would want to work there?",etc.

If we have been terrorized,the terrorists have WON.

Certainly the new towers can be improved.
The bearing-wall construction provided wind
and earthquake resistance,and the attraction
of undivided interior space when desired...but
I think the latter has to be compromised for
strength,and the outer walls can also be improved.
The exterior skin was combustible aluminum,
which fed the airplane fires.Welded(not merely
pinned,remember the lessons of the Citicorp
Center) cross-braces might also be used to
good effect.

The bearing-wall/elevator-core structure of the WTC
was like this in cross-section...

	-----------------
	|		|
	|     ____	|
	|     |	 |	|
	|     |__|	|
	|     		|
	|		|
	-----------------

If there were an interior layer of structural support...

	-----------------
	|   ________	|
	|  |  ____  |	|
	|  |  |	 |  |	|
	|  |  |__|  |	|
	|  |________|   |
	|		|
	-----------------

the buildings would likely have withstood the impact long
enough for complete evacuation and the presence of fire
equipment in time to save them from collapse.

This interior structural layer has the potential to become
the outer wall of a subsequent set-back,which could be the
part that rises above the former towers' shape and height.
I see,potentially,a glass-roofed 111th floor(the roof level
of the old towers) that would be a memorial garden,and in
the center a section rising higher still.I realize that
every foot would be a harder sell than the last,but
perhaps 1455 feet (one foot taller than the Sears Tower,
thus tallest in the USA) would get backing...this would
make the buildings perhaps 119 stories.

Going after Petronas or the various Asiatic projects
scheduled to be even taller might be a harder sell.
But perhaps the "patriotic" height of 1776 feet would
be attained(if only by a broadcast tower or flagpole),
or the 1792 feet (the New York Stock Exchange was
founded in 1792) that Donald Trump once proposed for
a new NYSE tower.I see little chance that the "twice
as tall" some of you mentioned would be feasible.

However,we need to keep up the sentiment and let the
politicians and businessmen know that the symbolism
of failing to aspire as high as before the terror
amounts to surrender to terrorism.The master lessee
Larry Silverstein told the Wall Street Journal Friday
that new towers would "not necessarily" be as tall as
the old,and people who have never liked skyscrapers
have been piling onto the terrorists' bandwagon with
insistences that the skyscraper is,as the terrorists
want,a thing of the past.

Ideas for who to contact are welcome,I've emailed
my elected representatives,the Trump Organization
(in case they want to pile in),the Port Authority
(still the owners),and others.

Keep the word spreading.
Keep the hopes rising.
The Towers MUST RISE AGAIN!