[Leica] Manhattan Harbor

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Jayanand,
The Mafia was heavily involved in the construction companies that built the
World Trade Center. The WTC was rushed so that if would be completed before
the then director of the Port Authority, Austin Tobin, retired. It was all a
matter of ego. There were similar concerns about the Shoreham nuclear power
plant in Long Island. Fortunately the Shoreham plant never went into full
operation. Shoddy construction is a world wide problem whenever large sums
of money are being spent on a project with insufficient oversight. There are
no regional limits to human cupidity.
Larry Z
- - - - -

That is some story! I thought using substandard material is a third world

problem.

Cheers

Jayanand


On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 4:01 AM, Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at gmail.com
>wrote:


When she looked at the picture of Manhattan harbor showing the World Trade

Center in the background, my wife reminded me of an incident that occured

nearly 35 years ago. Wes Hurley, our neighbor, was Chief Engineer of the

Port Authority. Early in 1967 while the buildings were going up, he came to

our house, very agitated, looking for someone to talk to. He confided that

tests run by his department showed that some of the concrete being used to

construct the twin towers had failed strength tests and clearly was of

substandard quality. He felt that the buildings would not be able to meet

their objectives of withstanding a 200 year storm. He had a moral dilemma

since he was near retirement and any complaint would cause a firestorm of

criticism because his boss, Austin Tobin, then Director of the Port

Authority was anxious to get the buildings erected as soon as possible.

Anyway, Wes kept quiet and retired as soon as he was eligible. I had lunch

with him a few times in the Port Authority executive dining room before he

left and he said that he always felt uneasy going to his office in bad

weather and called in sick when violent storms were expected to strike the

city. The sudden buckling of both towers shows he may have been right.

- - - - -


>From the Wayback machine. Manhattan harbor small boat anchorage. Taken

1990

with a Leica IIIc, 5 cm. Elmar. I don't know what film was used but it is

quite grainy. Certainly not Kodachrome.


http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Manhattan+harbor_+1990.jpg.html


Larry Z