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Subscribe to RSSOn Monday, the World Trade Center surpassed the height of the top floor of the Empire State Building. When it's completed, the tower will eventually rise 1,776 feet high. NBC's Harry Smith reports.
One World Trade Center, the giant monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, laid claim to the title of New York City's tallest skyscraper on Monday. Workers erected steel columns that made its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 feet high, just enough to peak over the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State Building.
The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the so-called "Freedom Tower" and it isn't expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it is likely to be declared the tallest building in the U.S., and third tallest in the world.
Those bragging rights, though, will carry an asterisk.
Crowning the world's tallest buildings is a little like picking the heavyweight champion in boxing. There is often disagreement about who deserves the belt.
In this case, the issue involves the 408-foot-tall needle that will sit on the tower's roof.
Count it, and the World Trade Center is back on top. Otherwise, it will have to settle for No. 2, after the Willis Tower in Chicago.
"Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records.
Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and antennas that extend far above the roof.
One World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower, is set to eclipse the Empire State Building to become the tallest building in New York City at 1,271 feet. At its completion the tower will stand 1,776 feet tall.
Consider the case of the Empire State Building: Measured from the sidewalk to the tip of its needle-like antenna, the granddaddy of all super-tall skyscrapers actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above the mark being surpassed by One World Trade Center on Monday.
Purists, though, say antennas shouldn't count when determining building height.
View 180 degree panoramic image from the 69th floor of the WTC
An antenna, they say, is more like furniture than a piece of architecture. Like a chair sitting on a rooftop, an antenna can be attached or removed. The Empire State Building didn't even get its distinctive antenna until 1952. The record books, as the argument goes, shouldn't change every time someone installs a new satellite dish.
Excluding the antenna brings the Empire State Building's total height to 1,250 feet. That was still high enough to make the skyscraper the world's tallest from 1931 until 1972.
From that height, the Empire State seems to tower over the second tallest completed building in New York, the Bank of America Tower.
Yet, in many record books, the two skyscrapers are separated by just 50 feet.
That's because the tall, thin mast on top of the Bank of America building isn't an antenna, but a decorative spire.
Unlike antennas, record-keepers like spires. It's a tradition that harkens back to a time when the tallest buildings in many European cities were cathedrals. Groups like the Council on Tall Buildings, and Emporis, a building data provider in Germany, both count spires when measuring the total height of a building, even if that spire happens to look exactly like an antenna.
This quirk in the record books has benefited buildings like Chicago's recently opened Trump International Hotel and Tower. It is routinely listed as being between 119 to 139 feet taller than the Empire State Building, thanks to the antenna-like mast that sits on its roof, even though the average person, looking at the two buildings side by side, would probably judge the New York skyscraper to be taller.
The same factors apply to measuring the height of One World Trade Center.
Designs call for the tower's roof to stand at 1,368 feet — the same height as the north tower of the original World Trade Center. The building's roof will be topped with a 408-foot, cable-stayed mast, making the total height of the structure a symbolic 1,776 feet.
Six years since construction began on 1 World Trade Center, the tower will soon surpass the height of the Empire State Building's roof. The iron workers placing and setting each beam in the shadow of the 9/11 attacks say they are building out of a "sense of necessity" and know that the tower, now soaring nearly 1300 feet, will help the nation and the iron workers themselves heal. Many of the workers building the tower helped clean the smoldering debris in the days after the terrorist attack. Harry Smith reports.
So is that needle an antenna or a spire?
"Not sure," wrote Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building.
The needle will, indeed, function as a broadcast antenna. It is described on the Port Authority's website as an antenna. On the other hand, the structure will have more meat to it than your average antenna, with external cladding encasing the broadcast mast.
Without that spire, One World Trade Center would still be smaller than the Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower, which tops out at 1,451 feet (not including its own antennas).
Debate over which of those buildings can truly claim to be the tallest in the U.S. has been raging for years on Internet message boards frequented by skyscraper enthusiasts.
As for the Council on Tall Buildings, it is leaning toward giving One World Trade the benefit of the doubt.
"This is something we have discussed with the architect," Hollister said. "As we understand it, the needle is an architectural spire which happens to enclose an antenna. We would thus count it as part of the architectural height."
But, he noted, the organization has also chosen to sidestep these types of disputes, somewhat, by recognizing three types of height records: tallest occupied floor, architectural top, and height to the tip.
Hollister also pointed out that, technically speaking, One World Trade Center isn't a record-holder in any category yet, as it is still unfinished.
"A project is not considered a building until it is topped out, fully clad, and open for business or at least occupiable," he said.
The debate doesn't quite end there.
Neither of the Willis Tower nor One World Trade are as high as the CN Tower, in Toronto, which stands at 1,815 feet. That structure, however, isn't considered a building at all by most record-keepers, because it is predominantly a television broadcast antenna and observation platform with very little interior space. The tallest manmade structure in the Western Hemisphere will continue to be the 2,063-foot-tall KVLY-TV antenna in Blanchard, N.D.
As for the world's tallest building, the undisputed champion is the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, which opened in 2010 and reaches 2,717 feet.
Not counting about 5 feet of aircraft lights and other equipment perched on top, of course.
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Leave a Comment:
It's kind of sad that there is only one tower. Not to mention the fact that most skyscrapers in the USA are considerably smaller than many of the towers in Shanghai.
we must admit we are not leaders anymore..... thats what Obama has set the goal post at.
LOL, yes, Obama, who has been president for all of three years. He's to blame!
It's not Obama's fault America is flatlining. It's not Bush's, either. It's the fault of apathetic Americans. People who, when someone corrects their spelling, say, "Oh it doesn't MATTER. You, like, know what I was saying!" People who are content with mediocrity. People who have 20-second attention spans. People who eschew curiosity and knowledge and learning to tune in to "Jersey Shore."
In short, people like us.
Do NOT try to put this on any one person. America soars or America sucks because of Americans.
Yeah, let's get partisan. Not as if this hadn't been in the works for several decades.
Thinkforyourself gets it.
What a ridiculous comment. What exactly did the President have to do with the size of this building?
Oh Arney, what a cute little troll you are. It wasn't long ago one could troll with pro-Obama comments as well. I think old Willard has taken the wind out of the sails of the anti-Obama crowd.
What are you talking about, so are you saying you want the Federal government to building a giant skyscraper, really. Its the private sector in the U.S. letting us down, not the President or the Federal government.
Thinkforyourself-2427469
I thought you would be trashed a hundred times over. I surmise it proves your point. People apparently don't have any idea what you're writing about and just gloss over it like they do everything else. All the time hoping against hope that someone will read their post and praise them for their apparent wisdom.
Regardless of how high we build, as a country we're on a downward spiral.
Well put Thinkforyourself-2427469! Too much apathy and spoiled attitudes of entitlement exist today in America. Education is rarely valued anymore, in fact our culture celebrates those that ridicule and admonish intelligence and education. The U.S. citizenry needs a reality check and soon.
Thinkforyourself -
I completely agree with your comment. The WWII generation was aptly named "The Greatest Generation," and the Baby Boomers have effectively applied leeches to the institutions that once made us strong. We see it every day--in Congress' inability to govern and set public policy, in the corporate scandals of 10 years ago, in the financial chaos of four years ago, and even on reality TV. The rapid coursening of our culture and society is sad to watch. I can hardly take my kids to a frozen yogurt shop without hearing a dozen f-bombs from the people waiting in line. Some day when we wake up and realize that we will no longer be coddled by government and "others" we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
The only people coddled by gov't are the wealthy and their lobbyists, fake foreign allies and churches.
At least it holds the record as the tallest grave site.
"The only people coddled by gov't are the wealthy and their lobbyists, fake foreign allies and churches."
Oh great, another person from the Liberal media spewing garbage. When are you going to quit being so stereotypical?
Height of the buildings tallest point is important especially if you are flying a plane or helicopter.
I'm an Independent voter and all I see in this election is the extremists of both parties doing their worst. No Obama is not a monster but neither am I at war with any group because I can not follow them lock step to their goals. If either side tried to find the point at which they could agree this country would be a whole lot better off. All we get is people acting like 5yr olds saying "I want it now" and "I want it my way". There are more than 300 million Americans you can not have it all your way. Our political parties both have been hijacked by the extremists. Neither cares about all the people of America. We the people in the middle should run a poll and put Obama, Romney, and none of the above on it. I bet both parties would be surprised by the results.
And hopefully, compliant with EPA asbestos regulation, or it may get demolished as the previous two buildings. (correction, 3. Building 7, nearby was also demolished on September 11, 2001)
Yes, because the normal method to make a building compliant with EPA regulations is to hire terrorists to hijack planes and then fly them into the buildings, therefore bringing them down. Either that or just covering the asbestos with a plastic sheet. Both work.
Another conspiracy theorist -- yes, NYC gets rid of asbestos by breaking it up and allowing it to float off in the breeze -- moron!
Lou-436271....calling someone a moron - always a winner. Conspiracy Theory?? 19 guys from an Afghan cave riding donkeys and carrying boxcutters - yes that does sound like a conspiracy. just happened to fly hijacked commercial airliners for over 90-minutes w/out any fighter planes cutting them off one of which crashes into one of the highest secured buildings in the world. No demolition involved right? Think for yourself people...look up Barry Jennings WTC 7-explosions underneath him and building was never hit by anything - also thermite def. found in large amounts throughout the WTC dust LOOK IT ALL UP ...need help?
Four planes two of which hit the highest structures in the country. Did You want military jets to shoot down airliners carrying civilians before the first one hit the tower? Until they left their flight plans no one knew anything was wrong. Until then hijackings meant a long ride on a plane to somewhere you really didn't want to go. Most times the passengers came out of it OK. Scrambling military jets in a hijacking is a result of 9/11. It was not the normal procedure prior to then. Sometimes being over 15 gives you a knowledge the trolls don't have.
lonereb you are 100% incorrect about scrambling military jets being a result of 9/11. As a 12-year old maybe you arent aware of this. I shouldnt be surprised but smh nonetheless. It's called due dilligence. Payne Stewart...just one GLARING example you troll (it was 1999....do you know 1999 came 2 years before 2001?)
"About 14 minutes after departing Orlando, air traffic controllers were unable
to contact the aircraft. A U.S. Air Force F-16 was was vectored toward the
aircraft, and after visually sighting the aircraft, the pilot was unable to
contact the Learjet. The pilot also reported that both engines were operating
and that the cockpit windows were obscured by condensation or frost. Four other
F-16s observed the flight at various times, including the final descent and
impact of the aircraft."
it took all of 14-minutes...just one of MANY pre 9/11 examples troll boy
The building height should be to the tallest occupiable floor. Not to the top of a spire. The way they count it now is just an accounting gimmick probably inspired by our government.
And this building is taking too long. The Empire State Building was built in 1 year. Germany and Japan were rebuilt in the 10 years after WWII. And here we are 11 years later, and they haven't even topped out WTC Tower 1. Not a great way to show our resolve and how well we can work together.
I have an idea. Since you obviously know everything there is to know about building skyscrapers, why don't you go down there and show them how to do it. I'm sure your expertise will be appreciated.
Did they start rebuilding on September 12, 2011? Not that I recall, so I guess it really hasn't been 11 years. Or anything even close to 11 years to complete.
Sorry, I meant September 12, 2001! My bad! Typo.
It took eight months to clean up Ground Zero. So yeah, from May 2002 to now is 10 years, which in my book, is pretty close to 11 years, especially considering it's still not complete. So much for your snotty commentary, eh?
It took 410 days to complete. At last check, a year on Earth is 365 days. Did you come from another planet?
Yes, I come from the planet Factopia, which is clearly alien to you.
That's from CNN. Here's the link to the story: http://articles.cnn.com/2002-05-30/us/rec.wtc.cleanup_1_ceremony-firefighters-tower?_s=PM:US
That's eight months, 19 days. Took me about 40 seconds to get the link and the facts to prove what I said. Got any other comments? Got anything to back up your "410 day" assertion? What is with the snottiness on this site today? Wow.
You know they may be including the planning stages as part of the 11 years.
That forty seconds was wasted, Thinkforyourself. People should just read the article before they think they know everything. The blurb under the pictue of the building being built says construction was begun six years ago. The rest of the time was wasted arguing what was going to take the place of the original WTC.
Talk about not reading for comprehension! LOL. My 40 seconds was spent looking up facts to prove my statement that the clean-up efforts from 9/11 (i.e., cleaning up Ground Zero) took eight months... it was a response to this post:
My 40 seconds of research had nothing at all to do with the rebuilding time. That was an entirely different post. Thanks for playing, though.
Part of the building time was the approval of the plan which I remember wasn't done in a day. And Gee how long did it take to clear the rubble from the site? That wasn't done in a day either. They didn't start building on 9/12/01 you know. This isn't a government project either. Who cares how long it takes? I don't live in NYC I don't care either way. 4 days after 9/11 I was too busy dealing with a local problem that killed 5 people I knew and seperated two cities in the same school district.
Thinkforyourself; yes, I mistakenly failed to notice that the 'research' was for the cleanup. I meant to respond to your post #3.4 where you said the actual building took 10 years. I need to be more careful and specific as to what "snotty commentary" I'm responding to!
I almost wish that coward Bin Laden was still around so he could witness the completion of construction. .......... Almost.
@deemo-2034081 It must look so much taller when he`s looking up at it from the pit of hell!!
you could add a target to the antenna.......
Or a Phalax gun
Will you hold the target? It would be appreciated.
If you put a building on the side of a mountain that stretched 3000 feet up the side would it be the tallest building in the world? I have always been awestruck by tall buildings ever since I was a kid. Antenna, spires, or anything above where the last of the usable floors are should not be included.
God Bless the men building this super structure! I get vertigo simply from looking at the picture! 30-odd years ago I was on the top floor of one of the original towers. (Can't remember which of the two, though.) What an exhilarating feeling to look downward (so long as I was secured by those windows!). I truly admire the workers who can deal with such heights with such commitment and accuracy. I believe many of them are Native American? Godspeed to all of you!
don't you like women? I'm sure more than a few were involved. Are they second class citizens serving men in your church reverund?
Umm, couldn't women be included in the term "Native American workers"? Just say'n.
I'm pretty sure that should be "peek over the roof." Way to go, Associate Press editor. :)
The dictionary is your friend. The editors got it right:
see:
verb (used without object)
14 to project in a peak.
15 to attain a peak of activity, development, popularity, etc.: The artist peaked in the 1950s.
I'm pretty sure you are wrong.
It is not "peek" as in view quickly but "peak" as in to attain a level.
Well, I make my living as an editor, and I wouldn't have phrased it that way. The dictionary seems to require "peak" to be used as an intransitive verb, and here, it's used confusingly at best.
"The unfinished building has peaked at 1,250 feet, just over the top of the Empire State Building." -- This sentence works and "peaked" is used as a verb without an object.
"The building is at 1,250 feet, just enough to peak over the top." -- Sorry, but strictly speaking, this really is grammatically incorrect, at least according to the dictionary definition you provided.
The meaning I got was that this unfinished building was just high enough to barely peer over the roof of the Empire State Building, so I'd have chosen "peek." However, if I really analyzed THAT word, I'd come to the same conclusion as I did with "peak," and just have gone with "peer" or something like that.
So I guess I wouldn't say it was functionally wrong, certainly not for a newspaper article, but I still don't agree with the word choice. :P
P.S. You can make points in the future without being snotty. ("The dictionary is your friend.")
Let's hope this one is more resistent to Thermate.
Yeah, no $hit, building 7 should have been enough proof for all but the most brainwashed of sheeple to see that that whole deal was perfectly staged and orchestrated.
How DARE you state the truth!!!
100% agree! and you will get hammered on for stating the truth! SMH- The Gov't and/or MSM etc report something and it's hook, line n sinker! Stop for a moment people and start thinking for yourself! do your own research...ask questions...didnt someone once say. "don't believe everything you hear and dont believe everything you read???" can we not agree that most politicians are liars?? start there and do your due dilligence people! plenty of information available to see for yourself.....
They dont know how, that's why they're called brainwashed sheeple. Lead em to the slaughter!
What a beautiful new building it will be!
Obviously the building stops where the people stop. It would be very symbolic if there were 1776 floors. No argument then for sure.
Floors are generally considered every 10 feet, a building 1776 floors high would be 17,760 feet tall, that's about 3 1/2 miles. :)
3 1/2 MILES HIGH! Yeah, that should do it! I wouldn't want to be within 3 1/2 miles of a building that tall, but I wouldn't mind looking at it from 4 miles away.
Who's building it? The rich jew that owned the twin towers that took out the insurance policy on them shortly before the controlled demolition stunt that took them and bldg. 7 down as well?
Get off this site you bigot.
FU................Liberal twit
Girls, girls, there's no need to get into a catfight now.
"Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records.
I've dealt with this Council in the past and find them to be very arrogant and stand offish. The only organization I trust in reagrds to building height is the Secret Society of Mid-Sized Structures and Suburban Dwellings.
Wow, I'm impressed, you truly are aware of your surroundings, aren't you? If it's such a secret society, how do you know about it?
I wish they'd put a 50mm chain gun on top of it on each side with a sign that says 'Let's try this again succas!!'
I wonder if the terrorists will blow this one up too.
The way we run roughshod over the rest of the world in the name of global economic and military supremacy, I'll bet it's an inviting target for more than one group.
Terrorists would never target a building that has this much structural reinforcement and added security. They are just going to move down the street where they could easily take down another building. Not literally down the street, well maybe, but probably another city with another iconic building if they even target a building the next time. Could be water treatment facilities or railroads. There are chemicals hauled on the railroads every day that if an overpass where taken out at the right moment would spill and make 9-11 look like a picnic in the park. Chemicals that could kill tens of thousands once air born. Where do these travel? Right through almost every major city in America. Along side all our rivers and by lakes and streams that could spell a huge environmental disaster. Terrorists are not some group of idiots that because we rebuild it they will come. Their plans are years in the making and their cells are all around the US and the world waiting patiently to sacrifice for their cause. They have plans that our imaginations probably could not even wrap around. They are laughing at the cost we paid for just this one building. By our actions they have already beaten us. Especially financially!
Mike Fillmore raises a realistic concern. From even before the official groundbreaking ceremony, some nutcases somewhere were probably already planning a means to topple this replacement WTC tower.
wouldn't want to work in it.... or be in it for a lengthy time, to hard to get out of quickly....
For all of you twits who insist on politicizing even this: Get a life, but mostly, GET OFF this forum! You epitomize redundancy!
another anti-american demanding an end to free speech. In the name of our hijacked democracy, you epitomize hypocrisy.
The top of the occupiable portion should be the consideration. They have the NY Times Building in NY City listed at 1000+ feet, but it appears like any other newer, good sized skyscraper; it does not stand out because of its' height. Look at a profile of the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago stacked up against the Petronas Towers in Malaysia; the Petronas Towers are listed as taller because of the spires, but the Willis Tower dwarfs these buildings. Sorry, but the 1776 foot height on the new WTC which includes a 408 foot spire is a dissapointment as it does not make the fully robust statement of resiliency that relegates fanatical acts of terror to near-irrelevance. The 1776 foot height is a bit of a cheesy nod to patriotism; a more dominating project would be a better expression of spirit. The WTC project is better than turning the site over to ordinary development, but I think most of us feel that the response required something that equaled or surpassed the previous project, without question.
Well put
My take on this article is that the whole focus is completely wrong. Who really cares how tall it is? More importantly, it makes a statement to the Islamist animals that have no regard for human life that we will never allow them to destroy the American spirit. They can attack us and kill thousands of innocent people, but we WILL stand strong - more determined than ever to keep freedom alive! God bless the families that were affected by this tragedy. LET US NEVER FORGET!
P.S. I don't like Obama either... never have, never will - but for crying out loud, posters, this is not about him! Keep your comments about him out of stories like this!
why is it necessary to drag the whole Islamic religion into the attacks or for that matter even bring up there religious affiliation? When the US attacks and kills thousands of innocent people in their war of fear do you call them christian murderers? Watching too much faux news will give you islamophobia. Or ANY fox news for that matter.
Mike X - Stop believing the liberal propoganda. Islam is not a religion, it is a hate cult. Get it? When someone you love is killed because they are an "unbelieving infidel", don't come crying to me. Maybe it isn't here yet, but wait until they become a majority in the U.S. But just keep reading BSNBC and keep the blinders on.
Don't start on me with your lies about Christians. As has been stated so emphatically by the liberals on here, the U.S. is not a Christian nation. You can't have it both ways.
Fear born from ignorance may well constitute the only true evil. It is from this dark energy that we orchestrate and execute most heinous acts against our own bretheren.
-Homosapien for life.
mattimaki,
Lest you misinterpret my post, I am not advocating violence or war against Islam. What I am advocating is that we make the practice of Islam illegal in the U.S. As I have stated, it is a cult operating under the guise of religion so they can be protected by the constitution, all the while growing in strength and numbers. And our government is buying it hook, line, and sinker. There is nothing "peaceful" about Islam. Any so called "peaceful Muslim" is either lying low until the time is right or they are woefully ignorant of their own "religion". You may call it fear, I call it realism. Those who choose to deny or disbelieve what Islam is all about are truly the ignorant ones.
I highly contest the validity of your claims; I am simply friends with too many peaceful muslims who do indeed understand their religion and refuse to believe that they are waiting for some directive to commence violence against infidels. However, even if they are the hate group you say they are, I for one am glad that their alleged hate group along with real hate groups such as the KKK are able to voice their opinions as plainly as you or I. To opress people based upon fear and conspiracy is to undermine the foundation of our republic.
am i the only one who is wondering who would want to work in this building -- i think i'd feel like a sitting duck -- especially when it is declared the tallest building -- even if only in NYC...