NEW YORK — A tall, heavy spire was fully installed atop One World Trade Center on Friday, bringing the New York City structure to its symbolic height of 1,776 feet.
Loud applause and cries of joy erupted from construction workers assembled on a temporary work platform on the roof of the building as the huge, silver spire was gently lowered and secured into place.
“It’s a pretty awesome feeling,” Juan Estevez said from a temporary platform on the roof of the tower where he and other workers watched the milestone.
“It’s a culmination of a tremendous amount of team work … rebuilding the New York City skyline once again,” said Estevez, a project manager for Tishman Construction.
The building is at the northwest corner of the site where the twin World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The installation on Friday, raising the building’s height to 1,776 feet, makes One World Trade Center the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. and the western hemisphere, and third-tallest in the world, although building experts dispute whether the spire is actually an antenna — a crucial distinction in measuring the building’s height.
