9/11: Rebuilding of Ground Zero

For nearly a year after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, workers continued to remove debris and recover bodies from the ruins of the Twin Towers at Lower Manhattan’s former World Trade Center complex.

Meanwhile, intense debate raged over how best to rebuild the World Trade Center, as well as how to memorialize the thousands of victims. Though initial plans called for the rebuild to be completed by September 2011—the 10th anniversary of the attacks—a combination of political struggles, financial problems and legal squabbles among the various parties involved led to repeated delays, and rebuild efforts are still ongoing. The 9/11 Memorial was dedicated on September 11, 2011.

Challenges of Rebuilding After 9/11

Immediately after 9/11, a number of prominent leaders—including New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and U.S. President George W. Bush—pledged to quickly rebuild the World Trade Center site as an inspiring symbol of American resilience and triumph over terrorism.

Among the parties directly involved in the enormously complex project were the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; real estate developer Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties, who leased the World Trade Center from the Port Authority in July 2001; and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), an organization established in November 2001 to manage federal aid and oversee the rebuilding efforts. As the rebuild got underway, it eventually came to involve (by some estimates) more than a dozen government agencies and some 100 construction companies and subcontractors.

Did you know? In May 2011, the publishing giant Condé Nast signed a 25-year lease on 1 million square feet of office space in 1 World Trade Center (beginning sometime in 2014), becoming the first major corporation to make the decision to move its offices to the new building.

Cleanup and recovery at Ground Zero, as the World Trade Center site became known after 9/11, continued every day around the clock for the better part of a year. An official ceremony in May 2002 marked the end of those efforts. After the LMDC invited a number of top architects to submit designs for the rebuilding of the site, the architect Daniel Libeskind was chosen as the winner. The centerpiece of Libeskind’s master plan, known as “Memory Foundations,” was the construction of a new tower at One World Trade Center that would reach the staggering—and symbolic—height of 1,776 feet (541 meters) including the spire at the top. As the tallest of four new office towers at the site, the “Freedom Tower” (in the words of New York’s Governor George Pataki) would represent New York’s (and the country’s) triumph over terrorism.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This pair of women’s heels belonged to Fiduciary Trust employee Linda Raisch-Lopez, a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center. She began her evacuation from the 97th floor of the South Tower after seeing flames from the North Tower. She removed her shoes and carried them as she headed down the stairs, reaching the 67th floor when the South Tower was stuck by Flight 175. As she headed uptown to escape, she put her shoes back on, and they became bloody from her cut and blistered feet. She donated her shoes to the museum.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This American Airlines flight attendant wings lapel pin belonged to Karyn Ramsey, friend and colleague of 28-year-old Sara Elizabeth Low, who was working aboard Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Following the memorial service for Sara, Karyn pinned her own service wing on Sara’s father, Mike Low. Mike Low would refer to the lapel pin as “Karyn’s wings.” Watch this video to learn more.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This pager, recovered from Ground Zero, belonged to Andrea Lyn Haberman. Haberman was from Chicago and was in New York City on September 11, 2001 for a meeting at Carr Futures offices, located on the 92nd floor of the North Tower. It was Haberman’s first time visiting New York; she was only 25 years old when she was killed in the attacks.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — On the morning of September 11, 55-year-old Robert Joseph Gschaar was working on the 92nd floor of the South Tower. At the time of the attack, he called his wife to let her know about the incident and reassured her that he would safely evacuate. Robert did not make it out of the tower alive. A year after the attacks his wallet and wedding ring were recovered.Inside his wallet was a $2 bill. Robert and his wife, Myrta, carried around $2 bills during there 11-year marriage to remind each other that they were two of a kind.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — On September 11, FDNY Squad 18 responded to the attacks on the Twin Towers. Among this unit was David Halderman, who was a firefighter just like his father and brother. His helmet was found crushed on September 12, 2001 and given to his brother, Michael, who believes his death was due to the the collapse of the tower and a strike to the head. David Halderman’s body was not recovered until October 25, 2001.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This I.D. card belonged to Abraham J. Zelmanowitz, an Empire BlueCross BlueShield computer programmer. On the morning of the attacks, he was working on the 27th floor of the North Tower, along with a wheelchair-bound friend, Edward Beyea. Zelmanowitz decided to stay behind to remain by his friend’s side as the rest of the company began to evacuate. Coworkers who evacuated informed professional emergency responders that the two were awaiting assistance inside.FDNY Captain William Francis Burke, Jr. arrived at the scene on the 27th floor as the South Tower began to collapse. Burke, with the same bravery as Zelmanowitz, sacrificed his life to help others by telling his team to evacuate to safety while he stayed behind to try and help Zelmanowitz and Beyea. The three men would only make it as far down as the 21st floor, making phone calls to loved ones before their deaths.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This gold link bracelet belonged to Yvette Nicole Moreno. Bronx native Yvette Nicole Moreno was working as a receptionist at Carr Futures on the 92nd floor of the North Tower, after recently being promoted from a temporary position. After the North Tower was hit, she called her mother to let her know she was heading home. However, on her way out of the office she was struck by debris from the South Tower, dying at the young age of 24.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This baseball cap belonged to 22-year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department, James Francis Lynch. At the time of the attacks, James was off duty and recovering from surgery, but felt the need to respond. He had previously responded to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He died at the age of 47 that day, and his body was not recovered until December 7, 2001.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — This police badge belonged to John William Perry, a New York Police Department officer with the 40th Precinct and a N.Y. State Guard first lieutenant. He was another off-duty officer who responded to the attacks. He had plans to retire from the police force to pursue a career as a full-time lawyer. He was 38 years old.

9/11 Attacks Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — On March 30, 2002 a firefighter working at Ground Zero found a bible fused to a piece of metal. The bible was open to a page with fragments of legible text reading “an eye for an eye” and “resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Watch this video to learn more about the bible.

1 / 10: The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum

The National September 11 Memorial

A second international competition in 2003 asked for design proposals for a national memorial to honor and remember the men, women and children killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as well as the bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. The winning design–“Reflecting Absence,” by Michael Arad and Peter Walker–was chosen out of more than 5,000 submissions from 62 countries in early 2004. After construction of the memorial began in 2006, ballooning costs led developers to scale back plans in order to cut the budget from $1 billion back to the original $500 million.

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum occupies about half of the 16-acre World Trade Center site. It contains two large waterfalls and reflecting pools, each about an acre in size, set within the footprints of the Twin Towers that fell on 9/11. On the bronze parapets surrounding the pools are inscribed the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as well as those killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The memorial was dedicated on September 11, 2011, in a ceremony for the families of the victims; it opened to the public the following day.

The Freedom Tower and Other WTC Site Buildings

After multiple changes to Libeskind’s original design of the Freedom Tower and prolonged disputes between the various parties involved over financing, Silverstein handed control over the building’s development to the Port Authority in 2006, and construction of the tower began in earnest after that date. In 2009, the Freedom Tower was officially renamed One World Trade Center, perhaps in response to concerns that the original name would make it too tempting a target for future terrorist attacks. After years of sluggish progress, the rebuild effort quickened significantly in 2010, with One World Trade Center reaching the halfway point of its final height (693 feet above street level) by December. The tower officially opened on November 3, 2014.

As for the rest of the complex, a new tower at 7 World Trade Center, rebuilt on the site of a 47-story building that was the last to collapse on 9/11, opened in 2006. The $2 billion 4 World Trade Center, located at the southeast corner of the site, houses more than 50 floors of office space and five stories of retail space and opened in 2013.

An ambitious glass and steel transit concourse and shopping center designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, The World Trade Center Oculus, opened to the public in 2016, while the 1,155 foot tall 3 World Trade Center opened in 2018. Silverstein’s 2 World Trade Center and 5 World Trade Center remain incomplete.

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