Friday, August 5 — On this day in 1966, a groundbreaking ceremony was held near the southern tip of Manhattan. On the site of a recently cleared neighborhood of low-rise buildings called Radio Row, work began on what would become the World Trade Center. The iconic twin towers, the landmark feature of the seven-building development, were briefly the tallest in the world after their completion in the early 1970s. The cost of the World Trade Center complex was around $1.5-billion. In 1966, the value of all new construction put in place totaled $76.4-billion. That’s over $560-billion today. Currently, the annual value of new construction, both public and private, is on a pace to exceed $1.1-trillion, or nearly double the figure from 50 years ago.
Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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