Fifteen years after 9/11, I still have vivid memories of the fear that laced the air in cities across the United States. The attacks temporarily subverted the prestige and sense of security traditionally associated with height. To be high in a tower was not to feel like a master of the universe but to feel vulnerable. In Chicago, Jersey barriers formed a cordon around the tallest skyscrapers to keep potential truck bombs at bay. Rents in the Sears (now Willis) Tower dropped. Even Donald Trump declined to add a record-setting spire to his Chicago hotel-condominium tower lest it become a target.
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