Largest steel column yet is installed at tallest tower being built at World Trade Center site
By APWednesday, August 12, 2009
70-ton column is largest installed at WTC tower
NEW YORK — Builders of the tallest office tower under construction at ground zero have set a 70-ton piece of steel into place — the largest column installed yet at the building.
Three more columns are set to go up Thursday, and 24 by the fall at One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower. The 1,776-foot-tall skyscraper is the largest of five planned to replace the trade center after the 9/11 attacks.
Each steel column — made at a factory in Luxembourg — is about 60 feet long. The columns at the bottom of the tower’s foundation are about 35 feet long.
The new columns will bring the building’s steel skeleton several stories above street level. The building is set to be finished in 2013.
