The Freedom Tower

The old Deutsche Bank building downtown near Ground Zero is finally coming down. The 40-plus story building holds bone fragments of human remains and toxic dust from the fallen Twin Towers. It has been sitting idle like a tomb since the 9/11 attacks. It was slated to be torn down and that work was supposed to get underway last Friday. It is expected to take a year to bring the building down. Workers will start by removing glass windows and the façade of the top four floors of the building. After the façade is down, workers will then tackle the steel and concrete frame of the top four floors. Workers have found human bone fragments on and around the bank building.

From the blog of the Jutia Group:

“It was recently reported that the new Freedom Tower in New York would be joined by a spiral of new set of buildings that would not shy away from the Freedom Tower. These new designs mark an ambitious move to reclaim New York’s skyline as one of, if not THE most admired in the world. There have been many changes to the overall picture and if you have not had the chance to see them take a look for yourself in the many pictures available online. You will notice that the Freedom Tower and its surrounding buildings have changed over the past few years.”

Thousands of people came. It was an unusual occasion, the signing of steel beams that will eventually be the support beams for the base of the Freedom Tower. Despite cold temperatures, thousands of people came to City Stadium in Lynchburg, Va. Where people came to sign a 30-ton steel column fabricated by Banker Steel. The governor of New York was in Virginia yesterday to sign the beam. Today, an estimated 13,000 people came to sign the beam.

New York Gov. George Pataki added his name to history when he joined others yesterday who signed steel beams heading for New York and the World Trade Center.
The beams will be a part of the foundation of the Freedom Tower. The beams are in Lynchburg, Va. Pataki joined steel workers, policemen and firefighters who came to this city to sign the beams. “Today we take another step forward in rising from the ashes of the aftermath of the horrible attacks of Sept. 11,” the governor said. The beams, some weighing 35 tons, were forged in Luxembourg and then shipped to Virginia where they were fitted with reinforced steel plates to strengthen them. Three of the beams were painted so the public could write messages on them. The public will be allowed to write on the beams tomorrow.

A public signing of steel columns to be used in construction of the Freedom Tower begins Saturday at the City Stadium in Lynchburg, Va.
The beams were made by Banker Steel in Lynchburg where they were fabricated. The beams weigh about 1,500 pounds per foot. The public can come to the stadium and sign the beams between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Crews at the steel company have been working on the beams for more than a month, adding strength to the “wide-flange” beams by welding heavy steel plates to them. The columns will be a part of the subgrade structure of the 1,776 feet building.

The promises are Gargantuan. The developer of the new World Trade Center unveiled plans last fall to change the skyline of the world’s greatest city. The headliner in these plans of course is the Freedom Tower. Rising 1,776 feet tall, the Tower is just one of a magnificent array of new buildings that will rise at the 16-acre site of the old World Trade Center. Construction is continuing, slowly, but steadily. Scores of trucks come and go from the site, some pouring concrete for the base structure of the Tower, others hauling away yards of debris to be shifted through for more remains. Out with the old, in with the new. It’s a balancing act that measures the need for closure at the site of the worse disaster in American history and the reconstruction of a memorial and monument to the very same disaster that created the 16-acre site more than five years ago.