If the weather holds, today will witness a landmark event in New York City life: the capping of the 408-foot spire atop One World Trade Center.
The spire’s completion will be the finishing touch on the 1,776-foot-tall structure, formerly called the Freedom Tower, which will become the tallest building in the Western hemisphere.
Certainly it’s been a slow and torturous path to this moment, coming almost a dozen years since the 9/11 attacks. The delays and poor planning (most notably by the Port Authority and the Pataki administration) turned the reconstruction into the ultimate boondoggle. Thus we have such dubious enterprises as the Ground Zero museum, the white-elephant PATH station and the unneeded performance center.
Of course, the original Twin Towers were not without controversy. One critic called them “glass-and-metal filing cabinets.” Another dismissed them as “socialism at its worst.” At the opening celebrations, PATH workers were striking.
The new building brought its own issues. Yet for all the squabbles — over insurance, design, security, funding and political control — the building means New York did not allow the terrorists to have the last word. With its spire now dominating the Lower Manhattan skyline as the Twin Towers once did, One World Trade Center has become the most visible symbol of the city’s post-9/11 resurrection.
We celebrate this newest reach into the Manhattan sky, because building high is what Americans do.