You’ve probably spent hours driving around Liberty City. It feels like New York. It smells like New York—well, as much as a TV screen can smell like hot trash and diesel fumes. But if you look at the skyline where the Twin Towers should be, there’s a gap. A big one.
The GTA 4 World Trade Center situation is one of those things that players still argue about on forums like GTAForums and Reddit over fifteen years after the game launched. Some people swear there are "ghost" remnants. Others think Rockstar Games was being disrespectful by leaving it out. Most just want to know why the "Freedom Tower" (One World Trade Center) isn't there either.
It’s complicated.
Rockstar Games had a massive task in 2008. They weren't just making a sequel; they were reinventing the most iconic digital city in gaming history. But they were doing it in a post-9/11 world. That changed everything about how Liberty City was built.
Why the Twin Towers aren't in Liberty City
Let's be real: GTA 4 is a parody, but it’s a dark one. The game is bleak. It’s gray. It’s cynical. But even for a company that loves to push buttons, putting the Twin Towers back into a 2008 version of New York City was a line they weren't going to cross.
In the game’s universe, the site is called "Happiness Island" nearby, but the actual WTC location is replaced by "Pier 69" and the "Rotterdam Tower" (the Empire State Building equivalent) dominates the skyline. The area where the towers would have stood is essentially a massive construction site or park-like area in Lower Algonquin.
There’s a common misconception that Rockstar "deleted" the towers last minute. That’s not really how it happened. Unlike the original GTA 3, which had to be edited after the September 11 attacks (changing the flight path of the Dodo plane and the color of police cars), GTA 4 was built from the ground up to reflect a contemporary, 2000s-era New York.
By the time development on the RAGE engine version of Liberty City started in earnest around 2004 or 2005, the "Ground Zero" reality was already part of the city's fabric. Rockstar North, led by Sam and Dan Houser, wanted "realism." In 2008, the Twin Towers weren't part of the reality of New York.
So they weren't part of Liberty City.
The "Happiness Island" Irony
If you fly a chopper over to the Statue of Happiness—the game’s version of the Statue of Liberty—you’ll see the joke. Instead of a torch, she’s holding a coffee cup. Instead of a tablet, she has a plaque. And inside her chest? A giant, beating heart chained to the walls.
It’s weird. It’s creepy.
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But it’s also a commentary. The GTA 4 World Trade Center absence is part of this same satirical lens. Rockstar replaced the vacuum left by the towers with a city that is obsessed with security and fear. If you listen to the in-game radio stations like WKTT or read the "Internet" at the Tw@ cafes, the NPCs are constantly talking about "the events" or "the tragedy."
They never explicitly name 9/11. They don't have to.
The game reflects a city that has moved on but is still scarred. You see it in the security checkpoints at the bridges during the first act of the game. You see it in the way the police react. The absence of the towers is a louder statement than including them would have been.
What about the mods?
This is where things get interesting for the PC community. Because the game didn't include the towers, modders took it upon themselves to "fix" the skyline.
The "World Trade Center Mod" for GTA 4 is one of the most downloaded assets on sites like GTA5-Mods or the old GTAGarage. These aren't just simple boxes. Some creators spent years modeling the specific architecture of the North and South towers, the Marriott Hotel (WTC 3), and the surrounding plaza.
Honestly, seeing them in the game is jarring. The lighting engine in GTA 4 is actually quite beautiful at sunset, and seeing the sun reflect off the glass of a 1:1 scale Twin Tower model changes the entire "vibe" of Algonquin. It stops feeling like a parody and starts feeling like a time capsule.
The "Getafix" and the Beta Maps
There is a persistent rumor that early beta maps of GTA 4 showed a different Lower Algonquin layout. Some "hunters" look through the game's internal files—specifically the .wtd and .wdr files—searching for textures that might have belonged to a pre-9/11 concept.
The truth? There isn't much there.
Rockstar is notoriously good at scrubbing their retail releases. While GTA San Andreas was full of "Hot Coffee" leftovers, GTA 4 was much cleaner. Any "evidence" of the towers usually turns out to be low-resolution LOD (Level of Detail) textures that are actually just the generic skyscraper silhouettes used for the distant horizon.
The Missing One World Trade Center
People often ask: "Okay, if the Twin Towers are gone because of history, why isn't the new Freedom Tower in the game?"
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Timing.
GTA 4 came out in April 2008. At that point, the real-life One World Trade Center was barely a stump of steel and concrete. It didn't reach its full height until 2012. Rockstar was building a version of New York as it existed between 2006 and 2007.
In the game, the area is mostly represented by the "Civic Center" and industrial space. It’s a hole in the map. Literally.
If you look at the skyline from the Broker Bridge, there is a clear "dip" in the buildings. It’s one of the few places where the game feels dated. Today’s New York skyline is dominated by the new WTC and the super-tall "pencil towers" on Billionaire’s Row. GTA 4’s Liberty City is a snapshot of a very specific, transitionary moment in American history.
Mapping the Differences
If you’re trying to find where the GTA 4 World Trade Center would have been located in the game’s geography, you have to look at the neighborhood of Lower Algonquin.
In real life, the WTC site is bounded by West Street, Vesey Street, Liberty Street, and Church Street. In Liberty City, this translates roughly to the area south of Hematite Street.
If you walk around that area in-game, you’ll notice:
- A lot of construction barriers.
- Smaller commercial buildings that don't quite match the scale of the rest of the city.
- A feeling of "emptiness" compared to the density of Middle Algonquin (Midtown).
It’s almost as if the map designers left the space open as a sign of respect, or perhaps they just didn't want to commit to a building design that was still being debated in the real world.
Does it actually matter for the gameplay?
Probably not. Niko Bellic is too busy dealing with the "American Dream" lie to worry about urban planning. But for the player, the absence of the GTA 4 World Trade Center creates a specific mood.
It makes the city feel "heavy."
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When you fly a Maverick over the city at night, the lights are brilliant, but the void in the south is noticeable. It grounds the game. It reminds you that this isn't a cartoon like San Andreas or a sun-drenched playground like Los Santos in GTA 5. This is a city with a past.
Some players have used the absence to fuel "creepypasta" stories. You’ve probably seen the YouTube videos: "GHOSTS AT THE WTC SITE IN GTA 4." They usually feature grainy footage of a glitchy NPC or a weird texture. It’s all fake, obviously. There are no ghosts. There is no hidden memorial.
There is just a city trying to be real.
How to experience the "original" skyline today
If you really want to see what the towers look like in the GTA engine, you have two real options.
First, you can mod the PC version. It’s a bit of a pain because Rockstar’s recent updates to the "Complete Edition" on Steam broke a lot of the old ASI loaders. You’ll need to downgrade your game to version 1.0.7.0 or 1.0.8.0 to get the best mod stability.
Second, you can go back to the 3D era. GTA 3 (the original, not the "Defective Edition" remaster) is the closest we ever got to a Rockstar-designed WTC. Even then, they were represented by the "Love Media" building and other stand-ins.
Moving forward with Liberty City
Whenever Rockstar returns to Liberty City—and they probably will eventually—the skyline will look completely different. The GTA 4 World Trade Center "void" will likely be replaced by a parody of the current World Trade Center complex.
But for now, the 2008 version of the game remains a fascinating cultural artifact. It captures a city in mourning, a city in transition, and a city that was still figuring out its new identity.
If you’re looking to explore this yourself, grab a bike and head to the southern tip of Algonquin. Turn off the HUD. Just look at the buildings. The way Rockstar handled the WTC isn't about what they put in the game; it's about the space they left behind.
To get the most out of your "Skyline Tour" in GTA 4:
- Download the "Liberty Visual" or "DayGE" graphics mods to improve draw distance so you can see the skyline gaps more clearly.
- Use a helicopter to hover at the height of the Rotterdam Tower to get a sense of the scale the Twin Towers would have occupied.
- Compare the in-game map of Algonquin with a 2007 map of Manhattan to see exactly which blocks were compressed or removed.
- Check out the "South Algonquin" area at 3:00 AM in-game time; the lighting engine creates a somber atmosphere that really highlights the architectural choices made by the developers.