New York City has been home to hundreds of well-known skyscrapers for decades, the earliest examples dating back to the late 19th century. The likes of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower and Woolworth Building were among the earliest in the city, with the latter topping out at 792 feet (187 m) in height and comprising fifty-five stories.
In modern times, tall buildings have boomed all around the world, although New York was at the forefront of high-rise construction in earlier years. The renowned Art Deco-styled Chrysler Building and Empire State Building, both completed in the midst of the Great Depression, established an illusive prospect among architects and engineers: for their project to be the next economical, visually appealing and tallest that mankind had ever envisaged. By 1970, there were seventeen high-rise buildings surpassing a height of 650 feet (198 m) located in the city, five of which had held the title as the world's tallest when completed.
Although I've admired and appreciated a number of old and new skyscrapers around the world, none have captivated me as much as the 110-story North and South Towers of the original World Trade Center complex. They rose nearly 1,400 feet above the streets of Lower Manhattan for almost thirty years, gradually becoming symbols of not only New York itself, but of the United States as a whole. They were initially heavily criticised for their boxy characteristic initially, particularly when compared with the flamboyancy of the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building, but citizens and tourists alike grew fond of them in time.