n Friday, October 17, 1999, Rudolph Giuliani, mayor of New York, ordered schools to close, advised people not to go to work and limited subway service as hurricane-force winds and rain bombarded the city. Tez Termulo, 24, who works at Windows on the World, the bar at the top of the World Trade Center, was still at her job. When she looked south out the windows, she could see the opposite tower, World Trade Center 2, swaying with the gale force winds, and had to hold onto a railing momentarily for support.

"You could hear the wind whipping," she recalls, "especially between the two buildings. You could hear a high pitched whistle. The building was moaning because every girder creaked and the wind was shooting up the elevator shafts. It felt like the building was alive."

The Twin Towers (part of The World Trade Center) each sway a total of 6 feet. Usually the motion is so slow and slight that people don't feel it. But during windy days the buildings swing dramatically, often in opposite directions-one tower will lean right while the other leans left-and people inside who notice the motion can become unsteady. "You see people grab onto a table or the bar when they first notice it," says Termulo. "Then they calm down again."

Looking north from the World Trade Center's Windows on the World Restaurant toward the Empire State Building. PHOTO: Marla Lehner

s the tallest buildings in New York, the Twin Towers are perhaps the city's most distinguishable landmark. They are each just over 1,350 feet high. Their sleek silvery façade towers above the financial district of lower Manhattan and offers panoramic (and sometimes nauseating) views of the area from New Jersey to Central Park to Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn.

Christian Meyer, professor of engineering at Columbia University, says, "In tall structures, you don't usually notice the movement. But if you watch the curtains you can see it." Windows on the World and Wild Blue, the restaurant at the top or World Trade Center 1(One), have wisely forgone curtains. However, some people still get sick when they come to the vertigo-inducing bar.

According to Termulo, one guest came up to the bar, which is on the 107th floor, walked to the window and passed out. "His body just couldn't handle the altitude," she says.

The height and motion of the World Trade Center seems to be more of a draw than a deterrent. The two observation decks, one on the 107th floor and one on the 110th floor are visited by approximately 80,000 people a day. And Windows on the World is a popular after-work destination. On weekend nights it often features live music, the most popular of which is, you guessed it—swing.