CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT: Renderings show what to expect from the new World Trade Center’s panoramic observation deck, set to open in 2015. (
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It will soon be New York City’s highest point — and a fitting tribute to the Big Apple.
The Port Authority yesterday unveiled the state-of-the-art observation deck at the top of the new 1 World Trade Center, 1,250 feet above Ground Zero.
The three-story indoor deck, to be called “One World Observatory,’’ will offer visitors breath-taking, panoramic, floor-to-ceiling views of the five boroughs, New Jersey and Westchester.
The deck will occupy the still-under-construction skyscraper’s 100th, 101st and 102nd floors.
Officials are set to sign a 15-year deal with Legends Hospitality Management to run the area.
Gov. Cuomo hailed the pact as a milestone in “the continued rebirth of lower Manhattan.”
Staten Island native Jennifer Watson, 34, visiting Ground Zero yesterday, hailed the news.
“You’re still going to think about [9/11] whether you’re up there or down here, but if you’re up there, you can have a feeling of power over what happened,” she said.
Others were more reticent.
“Just walking by [the site] every day is hard for me,” said Andrea Peart, 46, of The Bronx, who has worked across the street from Ground Zero since before 9/11 and admitted that she wouldn’t go up to the observation deck. “The trauma is very real.”
“I was actually outside before the second plane hit. I saw people running, on the ground, bleeding.”
The projected $62 million deck is due to open in 2015, a year after tenants start moving into 1 WTC.
Unlike the Twin Towers’ observatory, which topped the WTC’s Tower 2 before 9/11, the new attraction will not include an outdoor deck because of infrastructure needed to support the antennas being installed above it.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Hagen