I'm fascinated with Twin Tower photos. They were really impressive sort of brutalist structures in person. Some shots are just amazing. Like this one, taken during construction showing the elevator shafts and the skeleton of the buildings. It's like something out of Blade Runner.
At least for a time, after construction, the buildings were visible top to bottom from the river view, which was just spectacular. Seeing the entire structures made them even more majestic and almost surreal. See here:
This shot is also just gorgeous. The towers were great canvases for light. So many different moods to be had, nearly endless possibilities.
In an earlier tweet I discussed seeing them for the first time as a kid from a cab window, how it was surprising and overwhelming. The close-up wide-angle view was really something for photos. The twin aspect really played uniquely for the camera at these close ranges.
Here's another good one top to bottom:
While they were majestic in an imposing, awe-inspiring way during the day, at night they took on a whole other vibe. Their structures receded into the darkness. Very futuristic seeing absolutely huge twin twinkling monoliths all lit up like that on the skyline.
While the view from a distance gets all the attention, close up the New Formalism style details really made the buildings special. There was more going on than just the big gray rectangles most have come to know in stock images.
Sadly, I never went inside. I wish I did. It was a Modern/New Formalism/International style design dream:
Finally, back to where it began. The towers being constructed in the late 1960s/early 1970s, you can see just how massively they had already changed the Manhattan skyline:
Anyways, thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with me.
Never Forget.
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They were really a sight to behold, weren't they? As a kid, I remember seeing them for the first time. Things are dense around there, when we drove into the area my dad was like look up, and I leaned out of the cab window and I was RIGHT next to them... 1/X
It was overwhelming. The cladding on the outside really made you lose a sense of scale.
20 years ago today waking up on that morning seeing the one burning. I told my parents before #2 hit that they were probably going to learn a lot about a man named Osama Bin Laden...
Sadly, I was right. The second would hit minutes later. We all knew what the deal was the second that horrific act was burned into our eyes.
The F-22 will not save Taiwan. It can't even have a major impact on an invasion of the island. Sorry, this is reality not the military fantasy in common circulation. I know this spiel of mine isn't new to many of you, but it has never been more relevant after today's viral junk
There are roughly just 125 combat coded F-22s. The fleet runs 50% mission capable rate, a bit higher for the upgraded combat capable aircraft. Assuming you can deploy all of them to the Pacific fast enough in a crisis (good luck with that), you are flying them from Guam or...
dispersed airfields if a shooting war starts. Huge tanker bridge gobbling up flight hours, and the tankers are vulnerable as F-22 has a lousy combat radius and China is fighting in its own back yard...
I guess they didn’t get the same damning intel that the Taliban would take the country in a matter of weeks once the US air and contractor support ended. Oh wait! Neither did the WH according to the WH.
Point being it should have been handled differently with a hard stated time for each to leave over the months prior to departure but it was played loose because they blew it on planning and projecting, or seemingly even considering, what seemed pretty obvious to many.
Remarkably low end spin from biden about his ‘hugely successful op.’
You are seeing CIA operatives flying into Afghanistan with boxes full of cash to buy off tribal warlords before the war fully kicked off and General Donohue—the last man out—leaving on the last C-17 out of Kabul today. In the time between the two photos, there were incredible...
examples of kindness and super-human bravery, as well as inhuman cruelty and evil. 2461 American troops lost their lives in this far away place, and even more contractors. Far more Afghans died, on both sides. Massive amounts of treasure was spent, as well...
Ok let's talk AGM-114R9X and this strike against ISIS-K. I have gotten a ton of mail on this with people asking if it was used. We were the very first to suggest the existence of this weapon and have been reporting on it ever since. I see no indication that it was used...
in this operation. I must stress, R9X is not the only low lethality munition out there. A GBU-12/49 kit with a concrete Mk82 form can also achieve this and there are multiple other weapons that are being developed to do this in different ways. JSOC would be first to get them...
So not every targeted assassination is an R9X that doesn't leave a huge scorch mark on the earth. Also, there are aspects of the employment of that weapon that do not match up here at all. We do not believe it is as simple as a Hellfire with "swords."