The first steel columns are being laid in New York this week for the Freedom Tower which is being built on the site of the World Trade Centre Towers destroyed during the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
The first steel columns are being laid in New York this week for the Freedom Tower which is being built on the site of the World Trade Centre Towers destroyed during the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Politicians and workers cheered on Tuesday morning as a crane laid the first white steel column, 9.4 metres long and weighing over 2,500 kilos, into place. The column was painted with an American flag and the words 'Freedom Tower'.
The authorities hope to have a total of seven columns in place before the end of the year. An additional tier of columns will be raised on top by mid-January, bringing the structure to almost 20-metres in height. By the spring all 27 jumbo columns for the perimeter should be in place. It will take a more than 45,000 kilos of steel to complete the tower. The property will provide 241,000 m2 of office space.
The steel for the initial 27 massive columns was forged by Arcelor in Luxembourg and shipped to from the Belgian port of Antwerp on four ships to the US. The steel was then fabricated into columns at the Baker Steel Company in Virginia.
