One World Trade Center

Today marks the 13^th anniversary of the tragic September 11^th attacks, when hijackers brought down the Twin Towers in New York City in addition to crashing into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Another plane was brought down by passengers in Shanksville, Penn. While nothing can ever replace the lives lost that day, One World Trade Center now stands proudly in New York, a testament to the spirit of the American people.

Dubbed the Freedom Tower during its initial basework, 1 WTC began construction in 2006. By 2013, the steel structure finished, its spire was finally erected, making it the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the world. The spire reached an altitude of 1,776 feet, a symbolic height referencing the year of America’s Declaration of Independence. At 104 stories, it is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The master architect of One World Trade Center is Daniel Libeskind, who won the original 2002 competition to design the new building. Many of his original concepts were scrapped, instead opting for a more traditional and symmetrical design, drawing influences from the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the original North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center complex also houses the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the principal memorial for the 9/11 attacks and 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Michael Arad of Handel Architects designed the site, which contains two pools where the Twin Towers once stood. The “Survivor Tree”, a callery pear tree found in the rubble after the attacks has been replanted on the complex. More than 20,000 pictures, 10,000 artifacts and 2,000 oral histories are housed in the museum.

Tenants are set to move into the new One World Trade Center though the end of 2014 and the observation deck will be ready next summer. To learn more, visit http://www.wtc.com/about/freedom-tower.