A New World Trade Center Building Rises On The Site Of The Old Ones

With the tenth anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center rapidly approaching, even in the wake of that tragedy there was not a question in people's minds that rebuilding was going to happen on that site   The contentious question was how and what shape it would take.

A memorial and museum was already in the planning stages and is now under construction with a completion date scheduled for September 11, 2011. 

There is also a new office tower called 1 World Trade Center in the works as well.  It was known until 2009 as the Freedom Tower but the name was changed by the New York and New Jersey Port Authority.

Since then 1 World Trade Center has been steadily rising in the New York City skyline since ground was broken for it in April 2006.  

It is a building cloaked in symbolism.  It will have a roof that is 1368 feet (417 m) high, the same height as the old World Trade Tower One.  It will have an indoor observation deck at the same level as the old building and with the television tower that will top it off, it will be 1776 feet (541 m) high.   1776 was the year the US Declaration of Independence was signed, hence the original name of Freedom Tower.

It wlll not only be a green building, it will be the tallest all office building structure in the world when it is completed in 2013.  1 World Trade Center will also reclaim for New York the title of the tallest building in the United States despite the fact that its roof is 83 feet (25 m) shorter than Chicago's Willis (Sears) Tower.

It will also have some differences due to what happened there in 2001 . It will have biological and chemical filters in its ventilation systems, a extra wide emergency stairs and a staircase exclusively reserved for firefighters and emergency personnel.along with reinforced concrete in stairwells and other critical areas.

To defeat car bombs, the windows on the West Street side will be blast resistant plastic and a 185 foot (56 m) windowless concrete base was added to the original design of the building    The new tower also sits 65 feet (20 m) from the West Street side as opposed to the 25 feet (8 m) ethe old building did. .

So when the memorial ceremonies happen, you'll note that there has been a lot of construction activity going on.  While we'll never forget what happened there and the monument will ensure we don't, the new 1 World Trade Center building rising from the destruction that was visited upon that site on that chaotic and terrifying morning signifies to the world that we got up from the symbolic blow that was struck that day.