World Trade Center Memorial

Truly replacing the World Trade Center would be impossible, but New York City is working on plans to build a single tower on the site the twin towers occupied until September 11, 2001. The original Freedom Tower and Memory Foundations complex plan has been abandoned, and new plans are in the works. It is expected that a single tower will be built at the site, and that it will be the tallest building in the world when it is completed.

The tower and mast are expected to reach an astonishing 1776 feet (541 meters) into the sky. The height of 1776 feet was chosen as a reference to the year of American independence. The decision of how to rebuild the World Trade Center has been a difficult one in light of political and security concerns. Visitors to New York City can tour the World Trade Center site and see the early preparations being made for this monumental project. Your New York Party Shuttle tour guide will walk you over to the site and will show you artist renderings of the proposed tower.

Each of the original WTC towers had 110 stories. The heights of the towers were 1368 feet (417 meters) (tower one, the North Tower with a broadcast antenna on top) and 1362 feet (415 meters) (tower two, the South Tower with the observation deck). When the towers were completed in 1972 (tower one) and 1973 (tower two) they were the tallest buildings on earth, 100 feet (30 meters) taller than the Empire State Building.

The World Trade Center was the tallest building in the world for only a brief time, however. Before the second tower was completed in 1973, work had already begun on the Sears Tower in Chicago, which would ultimately climb to 1,450 feet (442 meters). Now that the World Trade Center is gone, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York. Before September 11, the World Trade Center towers were the fourth and fifth tallest buildings on Earth, and they remain the sixth tallest buildings ever built by man.