🤢 From Twin Towers riddled with asbestos to one very ‘lucky’ post-9/11 landlord

📌 After signing a 99-year, $3.2B lease on the World Trade Center complex in July 2001, NYC real estate tycoon Larry Silverstein ran into a BIG problem – carcinogenic asbestos-riddled fireproofing material on the girders and floor decking of WTC1, and more in floor tiles, thermal insulation, caulking and adhesives across the entire complex.

👉 In 1993, after a truck bomb blew up in WTC1’s parking garage, it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up just those damaged sub-grade levels of asbestos. In 1999, the Port Authority estimated removing the rest would cost $750M more ($1.5B today), not counting the rest of the complex.

☣️ Toxic terror

🌏 The Twin Towers’ collapse contaminated the air of much of lower Manhattan with asbestos, fiberglass, crystalline silica and heavy metals for months after 9/11.

🌏 Tens of thousands of people fell ill. 6,700+ succumbed to cancers, respiratory illnesses and digestive disorders linked to the toxic asbestos dust they inhaled that day.

🤨 And Silverstein?

🌏 The 94-year-old is alive and well, having skipped his usual breakfast on WTC1’s 106th floor for a doctor’s appointment that fateful September day.

🌏 Not only did he avoid having to spend hundreds of millions if not billions removing the asbestos from WTC – he got a $4.5B insurance payout after arguing the 9/11 attacks were two separate incidents.

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