The Freedom Tower

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports, steel columns will be erected in the northeast corner of the footprint where the North Tower of the World Trade Center once stood. These pieces of steel mark the start of the creation of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Each column — standing approximately 25 feet tall and weighing nearly four tons — is a reason to be hopeful that the Memorial can finally progress with a real sense of urgency.

Back in June of this year, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released an assessment of all the construction projects planned for the World Trade Center site, and every construction timetable was thrown out the window. The Port Authority promised to take the next few months to tackle the challenges of rebuilding the site and to issue “realistic” schedules on the projects by the end of September.