A private jet carrying former President George W. Bush to Texas was diverted to Louisville, Kentucky late Saturday after the pilot reported possible smoke in the cockpit, according to his spokesman and Federal Aviation Administration officials.

The aircraft was traveling from Philadelphia International to Dallas Love Field airport when it made an unscheduled landing. President Bush later continued to Texas.

"President Bush's flight was briefly diverted to Louisville late this evening, but he is already safely home in Dallas,” spokesman Freddy Ford told NBCDFW.com in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the FAA confirmed that the flight was diverted because the captain reported possible smoke in the cockpit.

Four men remain in critical condition after their small plane crash landed on a Kentucky golf course Tuesday evening, according to a spokesman for the University of Louisville Hospital.

The plane, a four passenger Cessna 172 aircraft, crashed near the 18th hole on the Seneca Golf Course in Louisville, according to report filed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane was registered to Cardinal Wings Aviation LLC, a flight school in Louisville. Preliminary observations indicate that the aircraft was practicing takeoffs and landings when the accident occurred.  

The plane has not been involved in any prior accidents or incidents, the FAA said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into probable causes for the crash.

AP / Francisco Rodriguez

A man is seen sitting atop a car that fell into the Skagit River after the collapse of the Interstate 5, Thursday.

A driver said he thought he was about to die when an Interstate 5 bridge span collapsed in Washington state, plunging his pickup and another car into the Skagit River below.

Dan Sligh, his wife and another motorist found themselves waist-deep in water when the freeway crumbled moments after the bridge was clipped by an oversized truck, he told NBC affiliate KING5 of Seattle.

State officials said the rescue had been “amazing” and warned of major traffic disruption following the complete closure of the section of the road, near Mount Vernon.

Sligh, a Command Master Chief Petty Officer with the U.S. Navy, said the accident was “like a Hollywood movie unfolding in front of your eyes - up close and personal.”

He said he managed to release his seat belt and climb out of his mangled truck to shallower water, despite fearing he had dislocated his shoulder.

His wife also escaped, and was being kept in the Skagit Valley hospital where she was being treated for internal bleeding.

"I thought we were done," Sligh told KING5 outside the hospital late Thursday. “When I look at all the carnage, all the metal, I assumed that was it at that point. But here we stand."

The couple waited 90 minutes on the roof of pickup awaiting rescue, he said, adding that the other driver was not seriously injured.

“I’m OK. I’m beat up. I feel like I rode a rodeo bull or something.”

I-5 is the main freeway that runs up and down the West Coast between the Canadian and Mexican borders, and traffic was significantly backed up in both directions overnight.

The bridge collapse was caused by an oversize truck, which had a permit, that hit an overhead span, officials said. The driver of the truck was cooperating with investigators, police said.

At an afternoon briefing, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called for patience while officials work on a plan to reopen the I-5 corridor.

He said an investigation into who is at fault is underway, but "we want to discourage drivers from crashing their trucks into state bridges."

The 1,112-foot steel truss bridge, built in 1955, was described by the Washington State Department of Transportation, after an inspection in August 2010, as "somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is."

Diversions have been set up and plans are already underway to install a replacement span, said Bart Treece, a spokesman for the department, describing the lack of more serous injuries as “amazing."

Officials are trying to find a pre-fabricated structure they could use as a temporary replacement for the bridge before they decide how to repair or replace it.

The section of the freeway carries 71,000 vehicles a day, Treece said, warning significant delays were likely over the Memorial Weekend.

“If you can reduce trips or take another route, that would help,” he said.

The minimum vertical clearance on the bridge (distance from the road to something a truck can bump into) is 14.5 feet. The standard height is 16 feet.

Inslee's statement added: "We will be involved in a vigorous and diligent effort to get traffic flowing again through the Skagit bridge corridor and I will issue an emergency proclamation [Friday] to make sure we have the resources to do so as quickly as possible."

State officials stressed that the bridge was not one of the 66,000 nationwide that are considered "structurally deficient.'

“This is just bad luck of where it hit and how it hit,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. “Based on our inspections, the bridge is not structurally deficient.”

State inspection reports submitted to the Federal Highway Administration were reviewed by NBC News. That overall evaluation of the structural condition on the bridge corresponds to a score of 5 on a scale from 0 (worst) to 9 (best).

The bridge received identical scores on inspections in 2010, 2008 and 2006, and is on a schedule for inspection every 24 months, as generally required by federal regulations. State officials said Thursday evening they were working to make public a copy of the latest inspection report, presumably from 2012.

The bridge was of a "fracture critical" design, as are 18,000 bridges nationwide, meaning it could collapse if even one part failed. Even after the bridge collapse that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007, a haphazard system of inspections continued, with federal authorities choosing not to require re-inspection of all the fracture-critical bridges.

In a survey of every state by msnbc.com in 2008, only six states and the District of Columbia said they began to recheck all their fracture-critical bridges. Officials in Washington state, like in most states, said they performed special inspections of only their few dozen bridges of the particular deck-truss design used in Minneapolis.

The bridge that fell Thursday did go on to receive its regular inspections in 2008 and 2010, according to the federal records, called the National Bridge Inventory.

NBC News' Andrew Rafferty and Justin Kirschner contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 7:15 AM EDT

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Destroyed vehicles lie in the rubble outside the Plaza Towers Elementary school in Moore, Okla., on Tuesday.

Launch slideshow

As evening drew to a close in Oklahoma, after a day of tireless searching for survivors among the debris left behind by a powerful tornado, officials said the operation could end by nightfall Tuesday.

"We will be through every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we're done and we hope to be done by dark tonight," Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird said at a news conference.

Emergency crews and National Guard troops picked through neighborhoods without recognizable streets in a grim, house-by-house search of the blasted-out husk of a city left behind by the ferocious tornado.

Authorities lowered the death toll to 24, less than half the figure they gave in the initial chaos after the twister, but there was still no full accounting of those missing. Nine of the confirmed dead were children, including seven in a flattened elementary school.

Four bodies were recovered, including a 3-month-old baby, at a local 7-Eleven.

Working with search dogs and under menacing skies, the crews meticulously combed the rubble in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, which took a direct hit when the tornado cut a 17-mile path of destruction on Monday afternoon.

Dozens of people were pulled from the wreckage in the initial hours after the storm, but there were no reports of additional survivors found Tuesday — only scraps of wood, shreds of clothing, shards of glass and metal and cars crumpled into each other and into buildings. Entire stretches of Moore looked as if they had been put through a blender.

“I mean, there’s nothing,” said Robert Foster, whose family home was destroyed. “People are walking up and down the streets. It’s really upsetting to look at. We grew up there. That’s our whole childhood. And it’s all flattened now.”

Gov. Mary Fallin said there were 237 injured, but authorities cautioned that figure and the death toll could still rise. Even with the benefit of a full day’s light, people were only beginning to grasp the scope of the destruction in Moore and parts of Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma University Medical Center admitted 59 children and 34 adults.

The National Weather Service said survey crews had found at least one area of Category EF5 damage — the highest classification for tornadoes, meaning winds had exceeded 200 mph.

Frank Keating, a former Oklahoma governor, said on MSNBC that as many as 20,000 families could be displaced.

“This was the storm of storms,” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said.

The first of the victims was publicly identified — Ja’Nae Hornsby, a third-grader who was killed when the tornado demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School. She was remembered by her family Tuesday as full of joy and fond of playing dress-up. Her relatives gathered at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City to console each other.

A second victim, Hemant Bhonde, 65, became separated from his wife when the tornado struck their home, his family told NBC News. Bhonde's body was recovered Tuesday, hospital officials said. His wife survived.

Tannen Maury / EPA

Firefighters examine the rubble of a home in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore.

As they took the measure of what they had lost, people in Moore also marveled that they were alive, and began to share stories of survival and of how they protected each other when the twister struck, announcing itself with roaring wind.

Children from Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were reported drowned in a pool of water, told of hearing sirens and running into a hall for cover, some still carrying their math books.

A teacher, Rhonda Crosswhite, said she huddled with students in a bathroom stall and draped herself over them for cover as the storm hit.

“One of my little boys, he just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me, please don’t die with me,’” she told TODAY. “But we’re OK. And we made it out, and it finally stopped.”

She said all her students were accounted for.

Damian Britton, a fourth-grader, credited “Miss Crosswhite” with saving his life. He estimated it took about five minutes for the twister to pass through before the students emerged from cover to survey the damage and check on their classmates.

“It was just a disaster,’’ he said. “There was just a bunch of stuff thrown around and the cars were tipped over, and it smelled like gas.”

At an afternoon news conference, Bird said that search dogs were no longer “making any hits” at the school. He said no one had been found there Tuesday but cautioned that the search was still active.

“They will not declare that structure clear until they are down to the ground and have been through every piece of rubble in that building,” he said.

One child was killed at Briarwood Elementary School, elsewhere in Moore, said police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis. There was no word on how the ninth child died. Besides the 19 deaths in Moore, five were killed in southern neighborhoods of Oklahoma City.

Charlie Riedel / AP

Zac Woodcock salvages items from the rubble of a tornado-ravaged rental home in Moore.

Authorities said they hoped to have every home, business and car in Moore searched by nightfall. They worked under the threat of still more severe weather. Forecasters said parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including Dallas, were at risk for more tornadoes.

The tornado Monday spent 40 minutes on the ground, said Rick Smith of the National Weather Service.

“We’ve seen numerous structures that are wiped clean to the foundation,” he said.

Smith said that the first severe thunderstorm warning had gone out 44 minutes before the tornado touched down, and the first tornado warning 16 minutes ahead. The weather service said the storm, at its widest, stretched 1.3 miles.

President Barack Obama called it “one of the most destructive tornadoes in history.” Speaking from the White House, he pledged the full help of the federal government and said there was no time to waste.

“In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured, and among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school,” he said. “So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today.”

Fallin, after a helicopter tour that traced the tornado’s path, said searchers were having trouble because “the streets are just gone. The signs are just gone.”

Expressions of grief and support came from across the world. Pope Francis said on Twitter: “I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them.”

Queen Elizabeth II extended her deepest sympathies, and House Speaker John Boehner ordered flags at the Capitol to half-staff.

Relief efforts sprang up. The NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder and its star player, Kevin Durant, each pledged $1 million. Others helped as they could: Miles from Moore, people went on Facebook to post family photos that had landed in their yards, hoping to match them with their owners.

Aerial pictures of the destruction brought to mind Joplin, the Missouri town virtually wiped off the map two years ago when an EF5 tornado killed 158 people and caused $2.8 billion in damage.

The twister cut a path similar to a tornado outbreak that ravaged Oklahoma and Kansas on May 3, 1999, killing 46 people and damaging or destroying more than 8,000 homes. Wind in that outbreak was clocked at 318 mph, the fastest ever recorded on earth.

Officials in Moore complained earlier this year about foot-dragging by the federal government over $2 million in federal grants for “safe rooms” in 800 homes to protect them from severe weather.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency told NBC News the agency was looking into the claim.

The city’s website also said, however, that Moore faced only a 1 to 2 percent chance of a tornado on any spring day, and that if a tornado did strike, there was less than a 1 percent chance that it would be as strong as the 1999 tornado.

Monday’s storm beat those odds. Alfredo Corrales and Viviana Lune rode it out in a shelter beneath their house. Corrales told TODAY that they had hunkered down there and heard voices above, and popped open the door to find several neighbors asking to come in.

The wind was so strong, Corrales said, that he and a neighbor had to hold the cellar door shut. When they emerged, they found a rewritten landscape.

“I saw basically nothing,” Luna said. “There were no fences there anymore, trees were snapped in half, roofs of houses were gone. Everything from people’s houses and even from neighborhoods across the street was laying in our yards. Half of the roof is torn off, the garage is caved in — it's just a total mess.”

More on the Oklahoma tornado:

How to help Oklahoma tornado victims

Tornado survivors: A 48-hour window of opportunity

‘The school started coming apart’: Trapped students had nowhere to hide

‘Bless you for posting’: Facebook group reunites tornado victims with photos, documents

Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

NBC News' Jeff Black, Tracy Connor, Becky Bratu and Kristen Welker contributed to this report, as did NBC News contributor Alex Hannaford and The Associated Press.

This story was originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 8:55 PM EDT

Mike_Yoder / AP

Riders on horseback search culverts and drainage ditches along Kansas Highway 68 for 18-month-old Lana-Leigh Bailey, Friday.

Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said early Sunday that remains believed to be those of Lana Leigh Bailey — who had been presumed dead — were found Saturday in Osage County in eastern Kansas.

"It is with great sadness that I report a body found in Osage County, Kansas, is believed to be the remains of 18-month-old Lana Bailey," Richards said in a statement he emailed to The Associated Press.

He said the body was found by an Osage County sheriff's deputy who was scouring an area for items that could be connected to the deaths reported at the farmhouse May 6 in nearby Franklin County. The evidence collected Saturday when the body was found led investigators to believe it was the infant's body, his statement said.

"We hope that a forensic examination will make a final identification," Richards added.

Richards told The AP by telephone that he would not have additional information beyond his statement early Sunday.

The search crews had been using boats and sonar equipment but Richards did not say in his statement exactly where the body was found. Earlier authorities had said investigators were scouring ponds and other waterways in the area looking for the body of Lana Leigh Bailey.

Kyle Flack was charged Friday with capital murder in the deaths of Lana Bailey, her 21-year-old mother, Kaylie Bailey, and 30-year-old Andrew Stout. The 27-year-old convicted felon was also charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder in their deaths as well as the death of 31-year-old Steven White.

The investigation has included searching the farm and other rural areas in the 50-mile stretch between Ottawa and Emporia, where Kaylie Bailey's car was found Tuesday.

Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting said Friday that a firearm was used against the victims recovered at the farm, but didn't elaborate on whether that meant they were fatally shot. Authorities have not commented on a motive.

Richards said previously that the extensive investigation has taken a toll and that members of the investigative team have required medical attention after searching in difficult areas. Others have sought counsel from a chaplain.

Related: Kansas man arrested, suspected of murdering three or four people

This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 3:59 AM EDT

Russell family via Reuters

Sgt. John M. Russell last month pleaded guilty to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers.

TACOMA, Washington - A survivor of a shooting spree that killed five U.S. servicemen at a combat stress clinic in Iraq testified on Tuesday that he remembered the gunman, a fellow soldier, chuckling after he shot an unarmed man who had been trying to hide.

U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 shooting the military has said could have been triggered by combat stress.

He is facing a streamlined court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to determine the level of his guilt, a question that will hinge largely on whether the military judge finds he acted with premeditation, as prosecutors say, or on impulse, as the defense argues.

Army Sergeant Dominic Morales, working at the clinic at the time of the attack, recalled that he hid under a desk beside another soldier and heard shots ring out and said he could smell gunpowder.

Morales testified that Russell shot a soldier hiding near a filing shelf one time and chuckled as he moaned "Oh God, oh God..." and then shot him again.

"I heard Sergeant Russell chuckle ... an evil chuckle," Morales said. "To me, a frightening chuckle."

Russell then approached his hiding place and shot the soldier next to him, Specialist Jacob Barton, whose dead body fell onto him.

Seconds later, with Russell out of sight, Morales sprinted out of hiding but the soldier fired at least two bullets at him.

The testimony came on the second day of a court martial that is expected to focus largely on Russell's state of mind at the time of the shooting, which marked one of the worst episodes of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.

Defense attorney James Culp later established through questioning Morales that nightmares jogged his memory of Russell's laugh.

Military prosecutors have focused this week on the more than 40 minutes Russell had to consider his actions as he drove back to the clinic with a stolen SUV and rifle and on his calm, stone-faced demeanor as he carried that rifle in a combat-ready position as he slipped into the clinic through a rear entrance.

Russell, who agreed to plead guilty in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, faces up to life in confinement without the possibility of parole, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge.

Defense lawyers, who had not yet made an opening statement, have said Russell suffered a host of mental ailments after several combat tours and was suicidal before the attack. With his mind damaged and unable to get the help he needed, they say, he cracked.

An independent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff of the University of Pennsylvania, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings.

Sadoff suggested Russell, who was attached to the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, was provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of mental health personnel at Camp Liberty.

The presiding judge, Army Colonel David Conn, ruled on Monday that when Sadoff testifies he can draw upon another doctor's findings that the soldier had "brain abnormalities" in areas that govern behavior and emotion. Sadoff used that analysis in his own broader psychiatric evaluation.

Prosecutors also asked Staff Sergeant Derrick Flowers, who jumped out of a window to escape the attack, whether Russell's gunshots were "erratic or controlled."

"It was controlled, sir," Flowers said. 

Related:

• Ten years after Iraq invasion, US troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'
• Army deserter who fled to Canada sentenced to 10 months in prison
• Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions?

A 19-year-old man is dead after police say he was dragged out of his Pennsylvania home by several gunmen and was later found lying on the side of a road at least two miles away.

On Sunday, shortly after 2 p.m., police responded to a home invasion report at a house in West Pottsgrove Township, about 30 miles north-west of Philadelphia.

Police say several gunmen entered the home and demanded money from the homeowners. Neighbors say an older woman lives at the home with her adopted children.

"I believe that she adopted those children, maybe three or four," said Dee Bleacher.

The gunmen then allegedly dragged one resident, 19-year-old Kareem Ali Borowy, out of the house at gunpoint. Investigators say Borowy was targeted and that the home invasion was not a random act.

Read more stories from NBC10.com

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., officials say a passing motorist found Borowy lying on the side of a road in Lower Pottsgrove Township. He was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after ambulance crews arrived.

Bleacher says there have been prior issues at the house where the home invasion took place.

"Police have been there numerous times," said Bleacher. "Maybe once every two months on average."

Investigators have not yet revealed how Borowy died and they are still trying to determine a motive.

Sources tell NBC10's Daralene Jones that preliminary information suggests that drugs were involved however.

No arrests have been made. Police have not yet released any descriptions of the suspects. 

CAMARILLO, Calif. - A flow of damp air from the Pacific Ocean helped firefighters in their battle against a huge wildfire burning through coastal mountains in Southern California.

Fire crews on Saturday worked to create miles of containment lines as the high winds and hot, dry air of recent days were replaced by the normal Pacific air, significantly reducing fire activity.

The 43-square-mile blaze at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains was 56 percent surrounded. The progress made led authorities to lift evacuation orders for residences in several areas.

"The fire isn't really running and gunning," said Tom Kruschke, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.

The humidity level rose so much that an overnight effort to burn away fuel at one section of the fire did not work well, Kruschke said.

There was more good news for Sunday. The National Weather Service said an approaching low pressure system would bring a 20 percent chance of showers in the afternoon, with the likelihood increasing into the night and on Monday.

"Anything we get is going to help us," Kruschke said.

Nearly 2,000 firefighters using engines, bulldozers and aircraft worked to corral the blaze.

Firefighting efforts were focused on the fire's east side, rugged canyons that are a mix of public and private lands, Kruschke said.

David Mcnew / Getty Images

A firefighter surveys burned hills near Hidden Valley at the Springs fire on Saturday near Camarillo, California.

The change in the weather was also expected to bring gusty winds to some parts of Southern California, but well away from the fire area.

Despite its size and speed of growth, the fire that broke out Thursday and quickly moved through neighborhoods of Camarillo Springs and Thousand Oaks has caused damage to just 15 homes, though it has threatened thousands.

The fire also swept through Point Mugu State Park, a hiking and camping area that sprawls between those communities and the ocean. Park district Superintendent Craig Sap told the Ventura County Star that two old, unused ranch-style homes in the backcountry burned. Restrooms and campgrounds also were damaged. Sap estimated repairs would cost $225,000.

The only injuries as of Saturday were a civilian and a firefighter involved in a traffic accident away from the fire.

Residents were grateful so many homes were spared.

"It came pretty close. All of these houses — these firemen did a tremendous job. Very, very thankful for them," Shayne Poindexter said. Flames came within 30 feet of the house he was building.

On Friday, the wildfire reached the ocean, jumped Pacific Coast Highway and burned a Navy base rifle range on the beach at Point Mugu. When winds reversed direction from offshore to onshore, the fire stormed back up canyons toward inland neighborhoods.

The blaze is one of more than 680 wildfires in the state so far this year — about 200 more than average.

East of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a new fire that broke out Saturday afternoon burned 650 acres of wilderness south of Banning. It was 20 percent contained. Banning has been flanked by a nearly 5-square-mile fire to the north which destroyed one home shortly after it broke out Wednesday. That fire was fully contained late Saturday.

In Northern California, a fire that has blackened more than 10 square miles of wilderness in Tehama County was a threat to 10 unoccupied summer homes near the community of Butte Meadows, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Thunderstorms Saturday were expected to bring erratic winds but little rain to the area about 200 miles north of San Francisco.

Nearly 1,300 firefighters were on the lines and the blaze, which started Wednesday, was 20 percent contained.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related: 'Long, hot, incendiary summer': Early wildfires bode ill for California

This story was originally published on Sun May 5, 2013 8:57 AM EDT

Gary Hershorn / Reuters

The final section of the spire that will top off One World Trade Center is raised past iron workers to the top of the building in New York, on May 2. The spire will be permanently attached at a later date.

Construction crews on Thursday hoisted the final segment of spire that will top One World Trade Center and complete a piece of the New York City skyline missing since the 9/11 terror attacks.

A crane guided the final piece into a temporary structure that will house the section until final installation by iron workers at a later date.

Once installed, the spire — weighing more than 700 tons — will crown the Freedom Tower at 1,776 feet, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The building currently tops out at 1,368 feet.

9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels watched the spire piece rise Thursday morning from the memorial's office windows overlooking the World Trade Center site.

"It's a big milestone in the history of the rebirth of the site," Daniels told NBC News. "This renewal of spirit, to see spring here and this beautiful weather, the memorial fountains and the flag on the spire piece going up. It was one of those things that you won't forget."

By chance, the hoisting fell exactly two years after Navy SEALS shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the terror attacks that demolished the two World Trade Center towers and killed thousands of Americans.

"To have the One World Trade Center spire happen today — it feels poetic, and it feels like poetic justice," Daniels said.

The event came one day after a 250-pound piece of an airplane wing, believed to be part of a 9/11 jetliner, was removed out of an alley near the World Trade Center where it was found last week and taken into police custody.

When the building is completed, and once it is verified by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, One World Trade Center will be the third-highest building in the world, behind Dubai's Burj Khalifa (2,717 feet) and Mecca's Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel (1,972 feet).

Willis Tower (formerly called Sears Tower) and the Trump International Hotel & Tower, both in Chicago, are currently the two highest buildings in the U.S.

The spire — complete with galvanized steel broadcast rings — will serve as part of the One WTC's transmission facilities for the region's media outlets. Perched at its tip is the spire's stainless steel beacon.

A large group of spectators gathered to watch the needle's ascent on Thursday.

Tourist Moulen Katherine called the spectacle "impressive" and "emotional."

Rick and Cindy Baldwin of Charlotte, N.C., had just arrived in New York City and called the sight "inspiring" and felt "excited to be part of New York City."

"I'm more interested in watching the people, they are as inspiring as the spire — the camaraderie they feel as they watch it  rise... we get to be part of history," Cindy Baldwin said.

Pockets of workers and tourists watched as two building crew members affixed an American flag to the spire.

Just outside the scrum, two building crew members, clad in white hard hats and neon yellow safety vests, called to each other from the sidewalk: "How you doing — all right?"

"Yeah, just trying to get a good picture," said the other as he raised his phone for a photo.

The spire's pieces were scheduled to be raised Monday but were delayed by wind.

Mark Lennihan / AP

Workers attach a harness to the final piece of spire before it is hoisted to the roof of One World Trade Center, on May 2.

Justin Lane / EPA

People watch as the spire is hoisted to the top of One World Trade Center in New York, on May 2. Once the spire is put in place One World Trade Center will be the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

An ironworker uses a line to steady the final piece of a spire, affixed with a U.S. flag, before it is lifted to the top of One World Trade Center in New York, on May 2.

Justin Lane / EPA

Workers watch as the spire for the top of One World Trade Center is hoisted to the top of the building in New York, on May 2.

Related links:

• Six months after Sandy many residents are still adrift
• Stars of Hope shine in Breezy Point
• View other images of the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy from Breezy Point 
• Sandy-struck Breezy Point facing 'greatest historical challenge'
• Sandy victims on the move but temporary housing 'will never be...home'

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This story was originally published on Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:11 AM EDT