By JT Nguyen –
NEW YORK — The skyscraper that is to replace New York’s World Trade Center twin towers, destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be taller than the city’s iconic Empire State Building, news reports said Monday.
The construction of One World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower, is scheduled to reach 1,776 feet when construction of the 104-floor building is completed, in 2015, with architectural and security designs that U.S. authorities believe would withstand terrorist attacks. The symbolic figure 1776 represents the year in which the U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed.
The Empire State Building, by contrast, measures 1,250 feet and was the world’s tallest building when it was built, in 1931.
Details of the rising Freedom Tower were reported in local newspapers and television networks.
Once completed, it will be the tallest building in the United States, taking over from the current Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago (1,451 feet).
