As the World Trade Center started to rise in 1970, camera shutters began clicking. Among the people drawn to document the building were two accomplished photographers -- Donald Lokuta and Camilo José Vergara.

Lokuta's work has been collected by institutions including the Skyscraper Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Smithsonian Institution. Vergara, trained as a sociologist, has photographed neighborhoods in major cities across America. Princeton Architectural Press published Vergara's book, Twin Towers Remembered, in 2001.

Browse this gallery of World Trade Center photographs by Donald Lokuta and Camilo José Vergara, taken over the decades from the project's construction to its destruction.