The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 118

These photos were taken October 28, 2010 from around Ground Zero.

The first shows crews working on spraying insulation on steel more than 100 feet in the air:

 

This is the new Fiterman Hall with 7WTC on the left. The building will eventually reach nine stories and they are just a few weeks away from topping out and beginning to clad the exterior.

 

This shot of the Freedom Tower (1WTC) from Church street shows that the tower is quickly approaching the height of the World Financial Center and continues climbing at a rate of more than 30 feet a week. They are assembling the steel in three story increments, and then build out the individual floors by pouring the concrete and then linking those structures with the inner core which remains mostly hidden from view.

 

This is the remains of the former Deutsche Bank building, which shows that there are just about five stories remaining before it is at ground level. This demolition cannot happen soon enough and stands in the way of building a new vehicle security center and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed by the falling Twin Towers.

 

Just beyond the security fence, you can see the fall colors of the memorial grove that has been installed at the 9/11 memorial plaza. When completed, there will be more than 400 trees in the plaza. They're just about 10% done thus far.

 

As part of the 9/11 memorial and museum, organizers included parts of the original Twin Towers. Directly underneath one of the many tower cranes that dot Ground Zero are two tridents that formed the outer skin and structure of the Twin Towers. They were recovered from Ground Zero and stored at JFK airport until the site was ready to reincorporate them. The tridents had to be installed before the rest of the museum because of their sheer size and bulk that made it all but impossible to relocate them to the site at any other point during construction.