Spire Installed on World Trade Center Tower

10 May, 2013

NEW YORK– A tall, heavy spire was fully installed atop One World Trade Center on Friday, bringing the New York City structure to its symbolic height of 1,776 feet.

Loud applause and cries of joy erupted from construction workers assembled below as the huge, silver spire was gently lowered and secured into place.

Installation of the 408-foot, 758-ton spire was completed after pieces of it had been transported to the roof of the building last week. It will serve as a world-class broadcast antenna and also as a beacon to ward off aircraft.

The building is at the northwest corner of the site where the twin World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 72-story 4 World Trade Center is under construction at the southeast corner of the site.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, said the LED-powered light would be activated in the next few months.

“It’s going to have a light that you can see from tens of miles away,” said Port Authority Vice Chairman Scott Rechler. “And that light will change colors and in the next few months we are going to be activating that light, and it will be a beacon of hope just like the Statue of Liberty.”

The addition of the spire, and its raising of the building’s height to 1,776 feet, makes One World Trade Center the tallest structure in the U.S. and third-tallest in the world, although building experts dispute whether the spire is actually an antenna – a crucial distinction in measuring the building’s height.

If it didn’t have the spire, One World Trade Center would be shorter than the Willis Tower in Chicago, which stands at 1,451 feet and currently has the title of tallest building in the U.S., not including its own antennas.

The tower is slated to open for business in 2014.

AP

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