This kind of snuck up on me. It seemed like, all of a sudden, this building that was in the works, and had been talked about, for so many years, was suddenly complete!
I happened to be watching The Today show on NBC, and they kept showing the new tower, which was to be topped off with the antenna put in place. Matt Lauer himself was to blow the horn that would signal for the antanna to be lifted and finally bolted into place.
It seemed like only a few weeks ago, the building was making news for overtaking the Empire State Building as the tallest skyscraper in New York, a title that it had held for nearly four decades, before the construction of the Twin Towers of the old World Trade Center.
When those were destroyed on September 11th, the Empire State Building once again was the tallest skyscraper in the Big Apple for well over a decade, until this newest, latest tower overtook it just recently.
It is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, topping off at a symbolic 1,776 feet (in recognition of 1776, the year that the United States of America gained it's independence from the Great Britain).
I watched it as my night shift was basically ending, and thought that I would get a view from a span of a bridge on a stretch of the Garden State Parkway that I'd traverse, which give out on a view of the city skyline, particularly the new tower.
But when I drove by, the image was a bit hazy, and I could not really see it all that well.
No problem. I figured, since I had to go up north. My car is in a shop up in northern Jersey right now, and it will be plenty costly, believe me. But that is a discussion for another time.
I managed to discipline myself to go up one of the foothills that I knew gave out a view of the city. Still, it was hazy. You could make it out, but in no great detail, or anything.
So be it. It was a beautiful day, and there was still plenty that I had to do. The tower would be there to observe some time in the future.
Yet, it is a special day in many respects, for New York City. For many, it is a cause for celebration, and it brings closure on the World Trade Center following the September 11th attacks. Since that day, all that existed were questions and uncertainty. Perhaps these is still lingering uncertainty about the museum. I understand that there was some controversy that there was going to be an admission charge of over $20 per ticket for entry, and that seems not just a little steep, but far from the spirit of the original idea for the memorial/museum. It seems a bit wrng to profit on something like that. But hey, this is New York City, and a stone's throw from Wall Street, the capital of capitalism, right?
So be it. Whatever.
The tower itself is....well, I'm not sure. It different than what I expected it to be. I know that many are celebrating this occassion, but it is not really what I had thought they were aiming for. It does not look quite the same as the pictures, although then again, it is supposedly going to be spectacular at night, with brilliant lights and all of that. At the time of my writing this, it is still very much daytime on May 10th, the date the antenna went up. Not sure if it will be lit up tonight (probably not, I'm guessing), but it will be soon enough. maybe it will indeed be as spectacular as they are suggesting.
We can hope.
I do look forward to seeing it in greater detail sometime in the near future.
Here are some related articles that elaborate on the final piece of the puzzle for the completion of the newly completed centerpiece tower of the revamped World Trade Center of New York. Most of these have the benefit of color photographs, so you can see how it looks for yourself. The first ("Final piece of spire placed atop World Trade Center") is from Shawn Boburg of The Record, from earlier today, May 10, 2013:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/206882401_World_Trade_Center_set_for_placing_of_final_piece.html
The next one (" One World Trade Center now stands 1,776 feet tall") is from Karen Freeman of the Daily Freeman, published May 10, 2013:
http://dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/05/10/news/doc518cfb3e52902680586355.txt
Finally, this last one ("New York's One World Trade Center is topped off with spire") was published by the Christian Science Monitor, and written by Ted Shaffrey & Ula Ilnytzkyof the Associated Press on May 10, 2013:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0510/New-York-s-One-World-Trade-Center-is-topped-off-with-spire
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