Construction workers guide cornerstone into place

In a July 4 ceremony honoring the "enduring spirit of freedom," a 20-ton slab of granite inscribed with those words -- the cornerstone of the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower -- was laid at the base of the World Trade Center site. 

The elegantly tapered, twisting tower is designed to evoke the nearby Statue of Liberty and to "come out of the bedrock of this disaster," said Daniel Libeskind, master planner of the World Trade Center site. With the Independence Day ceremony, its construction has officially begun.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki, and New Jersey Governor James McGreevey joined rebuilding officials from the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to unveil the rock that will form the cornerstone of the new building. They addressed an audience that included family members of those killed on 9/11 as well as Lower Manhattan community members actively involved in downtown revitalization efforts.

Bloomberg addresses audience of victims' families, community leaders

Gov. Pataki spoke of the highly symbolic nature of the day's ceremony. "Today we take Adirondack granite -- the bedrock of our state -- and place it as the foundation, the bedrock, of this new symbol of American strength and confidence," he said. "Today we lay the cornerstone for a new symbol of this city and of this country, and of our resolve to triumph in the face of terror."

Developer Larry Silverstein, the building's leaseholder, said that progress on the building will soon be apparent. "In the days and weeks and months to follow, you will see a significant -- almost massive -- amount of construction taking place down here," he said. "At the end of the day we are going to look with tremendous pride and emotion at what we will have accomplished, because we will ultimately have the new icon of the skyline of this great city of New York."

The ceremony also included remarks by Gov. McGreevey, musical performances by the Young People's Chorus of New York City and Metropolitan Opera singer Morris Robinson, and a reading from the Declaration of Independence by the 12-year-old son of Clinton Davis, a Port Authority police officer killed on 9/11.

Julian Davis, who lost his father on 9/11, reads from Declaration of Independence

Shaiita Torrado, a 17-year-old chorus member, was excited to be part of the symbolic ceremony. "We've rehearsed every day for the past two weeks, and being here feels very good," she said. "After you sing you feel like you have fulfilled at least a little bit of the pain the families have."

Family members made up a significant portion of the several hundred people gathered for the morning event. "I'm glad I'm here," said John Foy, whose mother-in-law died in Tower Two. "It is like a new beginning for New York City and for me, too."

Work on the building is scheduled to begin immediately, with the removal of a parking garage under the former Six World Trade Center tower, according to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architectural firm whose principal, David Childs, is the Freedom Tower master architect. Crews will work at the same time to reinforce the bathtub wall and construct below-grade infrastructure for the tower and adjoining areas. The building, which will include 2.6 million square feet of office space as well as below-grade retail, PATH and subway access, an observation deck, and world-class restaurants, is slated for completion in 2009.

Freedom Tower promises to restore New York's skyline

Plans for other portions of the site are already well underway. Earlier this year, the design "Reflecting Absence," featuring enormous, cascading pools marking the outlines of the fallen Trade Center towers, was selected from 5,200 other submissions to serve as the permanent memorial to the victims of the attacks of Feb. 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. Construction of the memorial is scheduled to begin in 2006.

Last month, the LMDC offered space in a planned 250,000-square-foot performance arts center to the Joyce Theater Foundation and the Signature Theater Company. Space in a planned 250,000-square-foot cultural center was offered at the same time to the Drawing Center and the Freedom Center. Completion of each of these buildings is expected by 2009.

But of the many exciting projects planned for the future World Trade Center site, the Freedom Tower stood tallest Sunday with just its five-foot-high cornerstone in place. When the blue sheet was lifted away and the celebrated slab of garnet-flecked granite revealed for the first time, New Yorkers busy celebrating the nation's independence got their first glimpse, via televised broadcast, of the stone's inscription: "To honor and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 and as a tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom -- July Fourth, 2004."

Though these words will soon be impossible to read, buried in the tower's foundation, the sentiments etched there will remain forever.

To view a slide show of the the cornerstone laying ceremony,  click here. This slide show is courtesy of the LMDC.