Friday / Weekend Open Lines


Friday, August 5th.  On this day in 1966, a groundbreaking ceremony was held near the southern tip of Manhattan.  On the site of a recently cleared neighborhood of low-rise buildings called Radio Row, work began on what would become the World Trade Center.  The iconic twin towers, the landmark feature of the seven-building development, were briefly the tallest in the world after their completion in the early 1970s.  The cost of the World Trade Center complex was around $1.5-billion.  In 1966, the value of all new construction put in place totaled $76.4-billion.  That’s over $560-billion today.  Currently, the annual value of new construction, both public and private, is on a pace to exceed $1.1-trillion, or nearly double the figure from 50 years ago.  Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Saturday, August 6th.  One of the engines of business and personal life in the 21st century is just 25 years old today — the World Wide Web. The 1991 development of global internet access and linking was announced by two innovators at the Cern Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.  At 25, the Web is quite a bit younger than the U.S. median age of 37.6, but in its brief life has come to shape our daily lives. It took some time to get going, though: In 1994, there were just over 2,700 sites on the Web, and it reached 1 million in 1997.  Now it exceeds 1 billion. Nearly 75 percent of the 116 million households in the U.S. have Internet access at home.   You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.

Sunday, August 7th. Yesterday was one of America’s more obscure and unusual commemorations.  Every August 6th is National Fresh Breath Day, even if it is not recognized by the greeting card industry. Sometimes, chronic bad breath can be a symptom of a serious illness. Mostly, it’s simply a personal problem, and has an impact on social and workplace relationships. National Fresh Breath Day points out that having fresh breath is part of overall health and well-being, and that overcoming bad breath can be relatively simple. Solutions are offered in advertising for a profusion of dental hygiene products.  And Americans spend a lot of money to freshen their breath. Mouthwashes, for example, are part of the nearly $3.5 billion a year industry making various rinses and gargles. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.