A Look At World Trade Center Rebuilding

With much of the activity at Ground Zero below surface, it's only been in recent months that passers-by have seen buildings actually emerge from the World Trade Center site. On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the Port Authority's projects at the World Trade Center site, where about 1,400 constructions workers are on site daily and working on the array of projects.

Being on site, the scale of rebuilding is much bigger than one can imagine. The site is 16 acres and includes the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, skyscrapers, a transit hub for the PATH, the Vehicle Security Center, not to mention all of the projects' infrastructure, which occupy many floors underground. Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said that all projects are on schedule—the 9/11 Memorial plaza will be open for September 11, 2011 (the Museum will be open by 2013), One World Trade Center will be open in 2013, and the Transit Hub will open in 2014. One WTC, which will ultimately have 105 floors, now stands at 240 feet at the 24th floor and will continue to add floors at the rate of one per week, weather permitting.

A few months ago, the Port Authority created a website, WTC Progress, to show how much has been rebuilt at Ground Zero, to battle perceptions that not much has happened since 2001.