Free Republic

When it is completed, it will be the tallest building in Manhattan and one of incredible poignancy for New York City. One World Trade Center reached its 90th floor this week - with just 14 more floors to go until the top. The structure can now be seen from all five boroughs of the city. Stunning pictures showed how the area has been reborn since the 9/11 attacks more than a decade ago where almost 3,000 people lost their lives in the worst ever terrorist attack on American soil. Towering symbol: The fog rolls out across downtown Manhattan, captured from the...

These are the first pictures showing the progress being made on the construction at Ground Zero in New York. Structural steel for the 1,776ft tower, which will be known as 1 World Trade Centre, has reached 200ft above street level, redevelopment officials said. Workers are now installing 16 steel nodes on the 20th-floor of the tower which will serve as joints between the steel framing for the building's podium and the steel for the rest of the tower. Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - which owns the 16-acre trade centre site,...

The new World Trade Center, now under construction, is often considered a symbol of American enterprise. But to some union members and U.S. businesses, it represents what's wrong with the nation's economy. The contract to manufacture the blast-resistant glass wrapping the main tower's first 20 stories was awarded earlier this year to a Chinese firm that underbid U.S. competitors. Now the trade tensions between the United States and China that have arisen recently over tires, steel and paper are spreading to glass. "This new tower is going to be made out of subsidized Chinese glass, putting factory workers out of...

Here is video of Glenn Beck remembering 9/11 and asking why Ground Zero is "still just a whole in the ground" after 8 years and "is this the best we can do?" Beck points out the the Empire State Building took only 400 days to build in the 1930s. (Watch Video)

The design for One World Trade Center has attracted substantial criticism, which is to be expected with a project of such public importance. Some of the gripes have merit. Overall, the finished site will be less impressive than the twin towers it is replacing. Nicolai Ouroussoff of the New York Times called the design "somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project suggests a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness." Not to mention any notion of collective courage in the face of the terrorist threat. The building's most objectionable feature is the...

It used to be called the "Freedom Tower," built by Americans in memory of 9/11, but the building planned to be constructed at Ground Zero has had its name changed to One World Trade Center, and according to a Pennsylvania newspaper's editorial, should now be stamped "Made in China." The editorial board at Harrisburg's Patriot-News made the charge after learning that the tower's first 20 stories, designed to be clad in blast-resistant glass in case of future terrorist ambitions, will now be shielded by glass manufactured … in Beijing. "Despite the fact that three American glass manufacturers, including Pittsburgh-headquartered PPG...

Score one for the taxpayers and owners of ground zero. No longer will the construction delayed tower be referred to as The Freedom Tower, it is going back to its legal name, One World Trade Center. “The fact is, more than 3 billion dollars of public money is invested in that building and, as a public agency, we have the responsibility to make sure it is completed and that we utilize the best strategy to make certain it is fully occupied,” the Port Authority said at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090328/ap_on_re_us/attacks_freedom_tower.

The tower — still under construction with a projected completion date of 2013 — no longer has the same architect, design or footprint on the 16-acre site. And this week, the owners of ground zero publicly parted ways with the Freedom Tower name, saying it would be more practical to market the tallest building in New York as the former north tower's name, One World Trade Center.

Critics are calling it unpatriotic to abandon the "Freedom Tower" name for an iconic skyscraper rising at ground zero. Former Gov. George Pataki gave the 1,776-foot tower its name in a speech two years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He says the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is "outrageous" for deciding to call the tower One World Trade Center.

It took three years of stop-and-start negotiations, but a Chinese real estate company is finally signing a lease for space in a 102-story skyscraper under construction at ground zero, becoming the first commercial tenant for the rebuilt World Trade Center. The Beijing Vantone Industrial Company has agreed to a 23-year lease for floors 64 through 69 in what will be known as 1 World Trade Center, at the southeast corner of West and Vesey Streets. The $3.1 billion office building, once called the Freedom Tower, is scheduled to be completed in 2013. Vantone plans to build a cultural and business...

It took three years of stop-and-start negotiations, but a Chinese real estate company is finally signing a lease for space in a 102-story skyscraper under construction at ground zero, becoming the first commercial tenant for the rebuilt World Trade Center. The Beijing Vantone Industrial Company has agreed to a 23-year lease for floors 64 through 69 in what will be known as 1 World Trade Center, at the southeast corner of West and Vesey Streets. The $3.1 billion office building, once called the Freedom Tower, is scheduled to be completed in 2013. Vantone plans to build a cultural and business...

It looks like we can wake Green Day up: "September" has ended. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced Thursday that the 1,776-foot edifice that was to replace the World Trade Center will no longer be called the "Freedom Tower." Instead, it will have the less ornate appellation, "1 World Trade Center." Nice. The timing couldn't have been better. It follows on the heels of the Pentagon's ending the War on Terror. You didn't hear? You must have missed the memo. No, seriously. In a memo, following a request from the Office of Management and Budget, the...

Freedom is out of fashion at Ground Zero. Once hailed as a beacon of rebirth in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Freedom Tower has been stripped of its patriotic name -- which has been swapped out for the more marketable "One World Trade Center," Port Authority officials conceded yesterday. More than seven years after the terror attacks and amid an effort to market the tower to international tenants, sentiment gave way to practicality. "As we market the building we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way," said PA Chairman Anthony Coscia. "One World Trade...

NEW YORK – The Freedom Tower is out. One World Trade Center is in. The agency that owns ground zero confirmed Thursday that the signature skyscraper replacing the towers destroyed on Sept. 11 will be more commonly known as One World Trade Center. The building under construction at the site was named the Freedom Tower in the first ground zero master plan. Officials at the time said the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism.