Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/03/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]When she looked at the picture of Manhattan harbor showing the World Trade Center in the background, my wife reminded me of an incident that occured nearly 35 years ago. Wes Hurley, our neighbor, was Chief Engineer of the Port Authority. Early in 1967 while the buildings were going up, he came to our house, very agitated, looking for someone to talk to. He confided that tests run by his department showed that some of the concrete being used to construct the twin towers had failed strength tests and clearly was of substandard quality. He felt that the buildings would not be able to meet their objectives of withstanding a 200 year storm. He had a moral dilemma since he was near retirement and any complaint would cause a firestorm of criticism because his boss, Austin Tobin, then Director of the Port Authority was anxious to get the buildings erected as soon as possible. Anyway, Wes kept quiet and retired as soon as he was eligible. I had lunch with him a few times in the Port Authority executive dining room before he left and he said that he always felt uneasy going to his office in bad weather and called in sick when violent storms were expected to strike the city. The sudden buckling of both towers shows he may have been right. - - - - - >From the Wayback machine. Manhattan harbor small boat anchorage. Taken 1990 with a Leica IIIc, 5 cm. Elmar. I don't know what film was used but it is quite grainy. Certainly not Kodachrome. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Manhattan+harbor_+1990.jpg.html Larry Z