NEW YORK — The silhouette of Manhattan’s tallest building is expected to be made whole Friday with the installation of the final piece of a 40-story spire atop One World Trade Center. NEW YORK — The silhouette of Manhattan’s tallest
NEW YORK — The silhouette of Manhattan’s tallest building is expected to be made whole Friday with the installation of the final piece of a 40-story spire atop One World Trade Center.
And in the coming weeks, a beacon at the pinnacle of the spire, 1,776 feet high, will be switched on and the 288,000 lumens of light emitted from it will be visible from 50 miles away, serving as a new visual marker for millions looking east from New Jersey, officials say.
What won’t be visible from those distances is the extensive security measures that make one of the world’s tallest buildings one of the world’s safest, according to officials, and at $3.9 billion, one of the most expensive.
So expensive that it could not have been built without public money, said David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bi-state agency in charge of the project.
“A private developer would have never done this building this way because of the additional costs required for security aspects,” he said on a tour of the skyscraper this week in advance of the anticipated topping out. “We were building this for reasons other than just a return on investment.”
The inner core of the building, what officials called “a building within a building,” encases elevator shafts with concrete that can withstand 14,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. And the base of the building, supported by 70-ton steel beams, is wrapped in glass that has been tested for how well it could withstand a nearby blast.
After stepping off an elevator that ascended at 1,800 feet per minute, delivering a group to the 64th floor within seconds, Samson said the building “has redefined the skyscraper.” It also serves as a symbol of the country’s resilience and a tribute to the nearly 3,000 who died at the site on Sept. 11, 2001, he said.
The construction has already made its impact on the public in several other ways: It has placed a strain on the finances at the Port Authority, which increased tolls on tunnels and bridges that carry traffic across the Hudson River. The partial payoff will come when the 17th and 18th sections of the spire are installed sometime Friday — weather permitting. The two final sections, weighing a combined 22.1 tons (40 tons after bolts, ladders, lighting and platforms are added), will house the beacon light. It will contain 288 50-watt LED modules.
By comparison, the Tribute in Light, the soaring beams that have risen from the World Trade Center site to mark the anniversary of the attacks, were visible about 60 miles away, or about 10 miles more than the beacon will be.
“So it sends a tremendous message to the region,” said Steven Plate, the Port Authority’s lead engineer overseeing World Trade Center construction.
“It’s something much more profound than just the height of the tower and the Guinness Book of World Records aspect of it,” Samson said. “It’s one step closer to concluding our commitment to the country’s resilience and how we are going to continue our lives.”
The building is scheduled to be completed next year. Just over half of the office space has been leased.
