Twelve years later, on May 10th 2013, the last piece of the Freedom Tower was set into place atop a structure so innovative and beautiful that I couldn’t help but feel a little caught up in the emotion of the moment. I made sure to snap a picture so that I could tell people, “I was there.”
In late 2005, I was working for Jones Lang LaSalle. It was through them that I became involved with the Port Authority’s effort to plan the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. During my 4 years on that project, I was part of a brain trust and I helped developers and engineers analyze how the day-to-day operations could run smoothly and efficiently while still keeping safety and security a top priority. We discussed how vehicles transporting goods & people into the underground network would need to pass through a highly advanced system of scanners that would search for explosive components, weapons and other potentially dangerous materials, yet still get to their destinations quickly.
With the new antenna rig in place, the Freedom Tower reaches a staggering height – 1,776 feet tall. Not only is that a number for the record books as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, it is also a familiar number from our history books. The designers and engineers chose to raise the tower to that specific height for a very good reason. In the year 1776, a group of men gathered together in Philadelphia and signed The Declaration of Independence; a single piece of paper that would forever shape the lives and ideals of an entire nation. Even before we became a country, the American spirit was alive, steadily growing and spreading throughout the hearts and minds of the colonial people.
The new Freedom Tower is a modern marvel of concrete, steel, engineering genius and a lot of heart. I witnessed, with my own eyes, the World Trade Center towers disappear from the Manhattan skyline; they crumbled to heaving piles of ruin in a cloak of ash and smoke. On May 10th, I witnessed the resilience and pride of the American people who dared to build a monument, 1,776 feet tall, as a statement of mankind’s ability to triumph over adversity by fanning the flames of freedom and rising from the rubble. It was a challenge, but I am proud of the results.
As we approach the 12th anniversary of that fateful day, what are your reflections of how far we have come?
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