At Ground Zero, a chill is building, but the wounds from September 11 will not easily fade away

New York - Currently, there is the most vibrant construction activity at New York's Ground Zero since the terrorist attack that destroyed the two towers of the World Trade Center here on September 11, 2001. The scars from that event are still visible at the site even ten years later and will not fade away anytime soon. When the ambitious reconstruction will be completed, which will see six new towers of the World Trade Center rise in Lower Manhattan, is something even the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, dares not estimate.
    "It's still too early for that. To a large extent, it depends on the economy," he told foreign journalists on Wednesday. He added, however, that despite the current recession, he believes it will not take long and that the new buildings will find tenants. He highlighted the publisher Condé Nast as the first swallow, which has already announced plans to move from Times Square to the One World Trade Center, expected to be completed next year.
    Currently, it already has 80 of the final 104 floors, and according to Bloomberg, one new floor is being added each week. The building, located at the northwest corner of the massive construction site, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, will be the tallest building in New York. It is expected to be completed next year. The Four World Trade Center, located in the opposite southeast corner of the construction site, already has fifty of the planned 72 floors. It is expected to open next fall.
    The only building from the new center that is already standing is Seven World Trade Center, which is located outside the actual site where construction is taking place. It opened in May 2006 and is now almost fully leased. The biggest question mark, on the other hand, still hangs over Tower Number Two. The date of its completion will be known only once a tenant is secured there.
    The restoration of the site had long stagnated. This was due to disputes and uncertainties between the landowner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the investor Larry Silverstein, who has leased the land. Much of the construction work so far has also been hidden underground. In addition to engineering networks, a massive transportation hub is being built here, where 11 subway lines and a high-speed rail line from New Jersey will intersect.
    Chris Ward, the director of the Port Authority, who is one of the key driving forces of the current construction activity, therefore compares the happenings on the construction site to a giant game of pick-up sticks, where "you touch one thing and in doing so you also touch something else." "I have to say that over the last few years we have gotten a lot better at this game," notes Ward. According to Silverstein, construction is now taking place on all parts of the new World Trade Center for the first time since September 11, 2001.
    The layout of the complex is the work of architect Daniel Libeskind. According to him, the redevelopment of the site is a manifestation of optimism that the future will be good, even though it is threatened by many dangers. "When I thought about this place, I thought of the symbols that will remind us every day of what happened here, because every day is in a way an anniversary," he told journalists.
    The new World Trade Center should symbolize the same thing that the United States represented for thousands of immigrants arriving in New York - freedom. The layout of the new towers is therefore inspired by the flames of the torch held by the Statue of Liberty. The One World Trade Center is also 1,776 feet (about 541 meters) tall, reminding us of the year of America's declaration of independence.
    At the site, alongside the new buildings, history will also be present. On the foundations of the original Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, destroyed by the impacts of two planes hijacked by terrorists, a memorial to the tragic event will open on the tenth anniversary of the attack on Sunday. It takes the form of two large pools that mirror the foundations of the "twins." Water will cascade down the roughly nine-meter-high walls into a square hole at the bottom. Between the pools stands a museum dedicated to the attacks, which will open in September next year.
    In the buildings of the World Trade Center in 2001, 2,752 people lost their lives. The perpetrators hijacked a total of four airplanes belonging to American companies. The first two planes crashed into the World Trade Center skyscrapers in New York, the third into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed near Pittsburgh. In total, 2,982 people lost their lives, including 19 hijackers.