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Manhattan College graduates have played a major role throughout the entire history of the World Trade Center. A significant part of this role is described in an article by William Langewiesche published as a three-part series in the Atlantic Monthly. An excerpt from part two of that series is reproduced below to further recognize the contributions of the Manhattan College Engineering graduates.

"...Lopez just naturally thought big. At one point, as he supervised the punching of a "mouse hole" through a ruined slab, I mentioned that his "mouse" was about the size of a truck. He said, "Bro'! This is New York! So it's a rat hole!" He was thirty-eight years old. Sometimes he wore a moustache, sometimes the scrub of a beard. He'd had two wives and two children, and he lived where he had grown up, in a tough part of Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan. His father had been a teamster, his mother a test tube cleaner in a lab. He attended Catholic schools, and was an altar boy, but lost interest in religion. When he was in high school, he wanted to get a part-time job. His mother, who was the strong one in the family, said, "You stick to your studies. The minute you get a taste of money, you're going to want to buy a car. After that there is no end." Lopez eventually learned to drive, but he never did see the need to buy a car. He was such a city boy that when he rode the subway to college in the Bronx, he thought it was like taking a train to the country. The destination was Manhattan College, the same institution attended by Peter Rinaldi, Mike Burton, Bill Cote, Richard Tomasetti, George Tamaro, and, for that matter, Rudolph Giuliani. There were so many Manhattan College graduates at the Trade Center site that people referred to the work there as a school project, and someone posted an alumni sign-in sheet outside one of the kindergarten rooms at PS 89, which rapidly filled up. Pablo Lopez studied at Manhattan College on a full scholarship. He told me he was given the scholarship because he had applied to study engineering and the admissions people figured they wouldn't have to pay out much money, because no Ecuadorian from Washington Heights would be able to maintain the required grades. Eventually he earned a master's degree, and taught there, too. ..."

What is shown here is an excerpt from an article written by William Langewiesche and published in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly, pages 46 - 89. This excerpt appears on page 73.