Nearly three years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, New York was scheduled to begin construction yesterday of a tower that will be the centerpiece of the new World Trade Center.
A 18-tonne granite slab that arrived at New York City's "ground zero" on Thursday will be the cornerstone of the rebuilt center.
Laying the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower will mark the start of construction expected to cost about US$1.5 billion.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
The tower will reach 541m when it is completed in 2009.
The slab was scheduled to be put in place yesterday at a ceremony presided over by New York Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Freedom Tower, the centerpiece of the new World Trade Center, is expected to top Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers at 452m and Taipei's 101 Tower at 508m.
The reconstruction will include a permanent memorial to the more than 2,700 people who died at the site.
But no one -- not the governor, the mayor, the developer, the bureaucrats, the planners, and certainly not the reporters -- can say for certain how much of the current vision for the new center will be realized.
Pataki has gone to great lengths to identify himself personally with the rebuilding of the trade center, while Bloomberg's administration has kept itself at some distance.
LarrySilverstein of Silverstein Properties controls the development rights to all the office buildings on the site. But after losing several rounds in a legal battle with his insurers, he lacks the insurance proceeds to pay for much more than the construction of the Freedom Tower.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued a sea alert for Typhoon Fung-wong (鳳凰) as it threatened vessels operating in waters off the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the Bashi Channel and south of the Taiwan Strait. A land alert is expected to be announced some time between late last night and early this morning, the CWA said. As of press time last night, Taoyuan, as well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties had declared today a typhoon day, canceling work and classes. Except for a few select districts in Taipei and New Taipei City, all other areas and city
VIOLATION OF NORMS: China’s CCTV broadcast claimed that Beijing could use Interpol to issue arrest warrants, which the MAC slammed as an affront to order The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for attempts to intimidate Taiwanese through “transnational repression.” The council issued the remarks after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) yesterday during a news broadcast aired a video targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), threatening him with “cross-border repression” and saying: “Stop now, or you will be next,” in what Taipei officials said was an attempt to intimidate not only Shen, but also the broader Taiwanese public. The MAC in a statement condemned the threat, accusing Beijing of trying to instill fear and self-censorship among Taiwanese and
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