One World Trade Center already is New York’s tallest building.
And when the last pieces of its spire rise to the roof – weather permitting – the 104-floor skyscraper that replaces the fallen twin towers will be just feet from becoming the highest in the Western Hemisphere.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the spire pieces plus a steel beacon will then be lifted at a later date from the rooftop to cap the building at 1,776 feet.
Installation of the 800-ton, 408-foot spire began in December, after 18 pieces were shipped from Canada and New Jersey.
The spire will serve as a world-class broadcast antenna.
With the beacon at its peak to ward off aircraft, the spire will provide public transmission services for television and radio broadcast channels that were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, along with the trade center towers.
Overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the high-rise is scheduled to open for business in 2014.
The tower is at the northwest corner of the site, which is well on its way to reconstruction with the 72-story 4 World Trade Center and other buildings.
Monday’s celebration of the reconstructed trade center comes days after a grisly reminder of the terror attack that took nearly 3,000 lives: the discovery of a rusted piece of airplane landing gear wedged between a nearby mosque and an apartment building – believed to be from one of the hijacked planes that ravaged lower Manhattan.
As officials prepared to erect the spire, the office of the city’s chief medical examiner was working in the hidden alley where debris may still contain human remains.
The new tower’s crowning spire is a joint venture between the ADF Group Inc. engineering firm in Terrebonne, Quebec, and New York-based DCM Erectors Inc., a steel contractor.
The world’s tallest building, topping 2,700 feet, is in Dubai.
(AP)
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There is actually an issue as to whether the 408 foot antenna on One World Trade Center, formerly the Freedom Tower, is properly considered as part of the building’s 1776 foot height, now that the architectural shell around the mast has been stripped from the design as a cost saving measure, or whether it is merely an antenna. This issue has precedence in the Talmud. Tractate Middos states that the height of the Sanctuary of the Heichal was one hundred amos. It presents a calculation of the height of each level of the building from its base to its top, stating that the last of the 100 amos was the kalya oreiv, the crow chaser. This was the needles placed on the roof and the fence surrounding it to deter crows and other birds from alighting there and sullying the building or dropping tumah which they may have carried in their beaks. The Talmud records, however, that Rabbi Yehudah contended that these needles were not considered to be part of the building structure, lacked significance and did not count as part of the measurement. He argued that the fence was one amah more than recorded in the Mishnah, bringing the total height to 100 amah without the needles.
Thus, the issue of whether One World Trade Center will be New York’s tallest building is the subject of a 2,000 year old dispute. Incidentally, Rambam ruled that the needles do count.
Joseph H. Weiss
New York, NY