Twin Towers engineer blamed himself after 9/11
By Hana R. Alberts
October 13, 2018 | 7:58pm
In 1945, a military plane accidentally crashed into the Empire State Building. There were 14 casualties and $1 million in damage, but the 1,250-foot-tall structure stayed upright. So when structural engineer Leslie Robertson was working on the World Trade Center, which would trump the Empire State by 100-plus feet, he considered jet impact.
“The towers were designed [to withstand a] 707,†the largest commercial airliner that existed in the 1970s, Robertson, 90, told The Post. “A low-flying, slow-flying 707 heading for Idlewild.†But on 9/11, two fully-fueled 767s sparked fires that weakened the Twin Towers’ support systems beyond anticipation.
The World Trade Center was destroyed, and so was Robertson.
“He lost a lot of his joy and spirit. He had to defend himself, because he was attacked, criticized and pressed by other engineers, by architects, by clients,†says architect A. Eugene Kohn in a documentary about his colleague Robertson, “Leaning Out,†premiering Tuesday at the Architecture and Design Film Festival.
A high school dropout from California, Robertson joined the Navy and studied engineering at Berkeley on the GI bill, then moved to Seattle, Wash., to work for Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, the firm tapped to help Seattle-born architect Minoru Yamasaki design the Twin Towers.
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https://nypost.com/2018/10/13/twin-towers-engineer-blamed-himself-after-9-11/
