ABC2 tours Ground Zero, Freedom Tower
72 floors up, an eerie, somber reminder
1 World Trade Center, also known as the "Freedom Tower" is more than 80 floors tall. Construction will end in late 2013.
Photographer: Dan Taylor
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Posted: 09/01/2011
NEW YORK - ABC2 News has received an exclusive tour of the 1 World Trade Center or the "Freedom Tower" and spoke exclusively with the head engineer who spent seven years in Baltimore, before moving back to her native New York.
The "Freedom Tower" is expected to be completed in late 2013, but it already stands almost 80 stories. ABC2 was given access to the building and was taken to the 72nd floor to view construction.
Head engineer of the project, Lynda Tollner, who is the head of the World Trade Center Construction Department, and lived and worked at RTKL in Baltimore for seven years, and says the construction of the tower is currently the largest construction site in America and will stand some 1,776 feet when it is finished. The 2.6-million-square-foot building will include a number of offices, an observation deck, restaurants, and broadcast offices.
The tower is only part of what visitors will experience when it opens to the public. There are two square pools that rest where the old Twin Towers use to sit. Dark granite surrounds the pools and on the top, the names of nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11 and the 1993 World Trade Center attack, are etched in stone.
Hundreds of trees have been planted around the plaza and there is also the lone "Survivor Tree" that was found in the rubble and was saved.
Hundreds of construction workers have been working on the tower and are united in the effort to build something that has become more than just a job but a tower that will become a symbol for millions of Americans.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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