Marriott World Trade Center
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- 3 World Trade Center redirects here. For World Trade Center, second version, Tower 3, see 175 Greenwich Street.
The Marriott World Trade Center Hotel was a 22-story[1] steel-framed building with 825 rooms. It opened in 1981 as the Vista Hotel and was located at 3 World Trade Center in New York City. The Vista Hotel was the first hotel to open in Lower Manhattan since 1836.[2] Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the building, and was originally owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and was sold in 1995 to Host Marriott Corporation after Governor George Pataki of New York and then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey pressured Port Authority officials to sell its less profitable assets.
The hotel was connected to the North and South tower, and many went through the hotel to get to the Twin Towers. The hotel had a few establishments including Greenhouse Cafe, Tall Ships Bar & Grill, a store called Times Square Gifts, The Russia House Restaurant and a Grayline New York Tours Bus ticket counter and a hair salon called Olga's. The hotel also had 26,000 square feet of meeting space, and was considered a four-diamond hotel by AAA. [3]
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[edit] 1993 World Trade Center bombing
On February 26, 1993, the hotel was seriously damaged as a result of the World Trade Center bombing. Terrorists took a Ryder truck loaded with 1,500 pounds (682 kilograms) of explosives and parked it in the One World Trade Center parking garage. At 12:18pm (Eastern Time), an explosion destroyed or seriously damaged the lower and sub levels of the World Trade Center complex. After extensive repairs, the hotel reopened in November 1994.
[edit] September 11, 2001 attacks
On September 11, 2001, the hotel was at full capacity, and had over 1000 registered guests. In addition, the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) was holding its yearly conference at the hotel.
When the first plane crashed into the North Tower (1 WTC), the landing gear fell into the roof of the Marriott hotel. There were many eyewitness accounts from firefighters who went up the stairs in the Marriott Hotel to the second floor. Firefighters used the lobby as the staging area, and were also in the hotel to evacuate guests that may have still been in the hotel. Firefighters also reported bodies on the roof from the people that had jumped or leaped from the burning towers. The South Tower's collapse split the hotel in half (such damage can briefly be seen in the film documentary 9/11).
As a result of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the hotel was destroyed. Two hotel employees were killed and about two dozen hotel guests were unaccounted for. Many firefighters who used the hotel as a staging ground and evacuated hotel guests also died in the hotel.
This hotel is not to be confused with another Marriott hotel, located one block south on West Street. The New York Marriott Financial Center Hotel was only slightly damaged on September 11, 2001, and it remains open for business today. In addition, this hotel is not to be confused with the Millenium Hilton Hotel which is across from the World Trade Center, on the east side. The Millennium Hilton was also damaged, but is still open for business today.
[edit] References
- ^ Lew, H. S., Richard W. Bukowski, and Nicholas J. Carino. Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Structural and Life Safety Systems (pdf). National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
- ^ Eisner, Harvey. "Terrorist Attack At New York World Trade Center", Firehouse Magazine, April 2002.
- ^ New York Marriott World Trade Center (archived website). Retrieved on March 2, 2001.
