They were one of the most impressive landmarks of New York City and
definitely my favorite skyscrapers in the Big Apple - the Twin Towers of the WTC.

View some pictures that I took on my visit to N.Y. in August, 2001,
only one month before the disaster of September 11.
It's still very hard to believe that these fantastic buildings are gone and that
thousands of lives were lost when they collapsed after two terrorist plane attacks...!
 

For more than 25 years the Twin Towers coined the skyline of Manhattan.
In the 1980s a variety of buildings forming the World Financial Center in
the so-called Battery Park City was placed in front of the towers.
They survived the collapse but were severely damaged as well.
 

One of the best ways to capture the incredible magnitude of the WTC was a
helicopter flight covering the southernmost tip of Manhattan.
This shot, taken on August 5, 2001 from a chopper, shows the World Trade and
the World Financial Center with Battery Park and Castle Clinton.
 

A beautiful view of Downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights,
one of the fancy addresses in New York City. It's obvious that the WTC
ruled the skyline, no matter from which angle one took the photograph.
 

The North Tower and the South Tower, each of them more than
400 meters tall, were visible from basically everywhere in Lower
Manhattan. The World Trade Center was a city within a city.
 

Here you can see all three major buildings of the WTC that vanished
on September 11: 1 World Trade Center, 2 World Trade Center
and 7 World Trade Center (next to the right tower).
 

Erected in front of the South Tower, the huge Marriott Hotel
(formerly called "Vista Hotel") used to house a great number of
international guests. It was also destroyed by falling debris.

A meanwhile rare snapshot of the entrance to the World Trade Center Command
of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD).
This pic dates back to 1998. The PAPD lost 37 officers and a canine on 9-11-2001.
 

This patch was made for the Joint Anti-Terrorist Task Force formed after the first WTC attack
on February 26, 1993 and has become highly collectible and historical at the same time!
The trade tower in flames appears shockingly "prophetic."

PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO SHARE IN MOURNING ALL THOSE
WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN AROUND THE HORRIBLE ATTACKS
HITTING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AND THE PENTAGON, AS WELL
AS THE PLANE CRASH IN SHANKSVILLE, PA. ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001.
MANY OF THE VICTIMS WERE POLICE OFFICERS, FIREFIGHTERS, AND
EMERGENCY PERSONNEL WHO WERE KILLED WHILE RESCUING OTHERS...