AHA Decades Project - Historical section

The 1993 World Trade Center attack

• The World Trade Center bombing in February 26, 1993, has long since been overshadowed by the attack that brought the twin towers down on September 11, 2001.
• An explosion rocked the second level of the parking basement beneath Trade Tower One.
• The blast ripped open a crater 150 feet in diameter and five floors deep, rupturing sewer and water mains and cutting off electricity. Over the hours that followed, more than 50,000 people were evacuated from the Trade Center complex. A stunned nation soon grasped a fact larger than the incident itself, foreign-sponsored terrorism—which had long plagued Western Europe and parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—had come to the United States.
• New York Police Department collecting and studying residue from the blast area. In the course of this work, investigators found a key piece of evidence: a 300-pound fragment of a vehicle that, based on the damage it had sustained, must have been at the very epic center of the blast. Sewage contamination had rendered it unusable for residue analysis, but it bore something much better a vehicle identification number. This was not to be the first fortunate break for investigators. Authorities traced the vehicle to a Ryder truck rental facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, from which it had been reported stolen
• After the September 2001 attack, it was the opinion of many investigators and analysts inside President George W. Bush's administration, that the perpetrators of that attack had a state sponsor which was Iraq.
• The effects of the 1993 world trade center attack affected many people because it was one of the largest commercial complex, home to many businesses, government agencies, and international trade organizations.
  The notion of terrorism on U.S. soil was so distant in 1993 that authorities first assumed the explosion was an accident. But testing detected nitrates at the crater - the first sign that a crude bomb was the real cause.
• I think this event was so significant because it was the first attempt to the world trade center, and even though it was attempted to destroy the WTC in 1993, nobody assumed it was ever going to try and attempt it once again.In my opinion it should of been considered that someone could want to reattempt the event but this time get it right since the first time was sort of like a test attempt.