New York's Freedom Tower Update - April 2013

Scott, one of our loyal Readers, just sent us some new photos showing us the progress that has been done on the future memorial area in New York City for the tragic attack of September 11, 2001. Take a look, and enjoy:
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Welcome all to this update straight from New York City. It has been a while since I last sent in an update on the progress on the new World Trade Center site. The current completion date is set for 2015. I hope you enjoy these photos! (P.S. These images were taken with an iPhone Camera. So sorry if any quality is poor!)

Photo courtesy of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 

 Here is a site plan to give you a better sense of where I am describing the photos in relation to the actual site. 

Coming out of the parking garage near the Marriott Hotel, Tower 1 is absolutely stunning. 

Tower 4 from street level. This can be seen right next to the queue line that is set up to get into the memorial.

For the time being as construction continues on, everyone that wishes to see the memorial must reserve passes to enter the site. Everyone also goes through an extensive security check before getting a chance to view the memorial. 

Another shot of Tower 4, right before entering the memorial.

Finally made it to the memorial! Tower 1 is seen on the opposite side of the memorial entrance. That bottom bit that is looking very bare, will be the beautiful lobby. Some close up shots later on. 

No words can describe the beauty.

 First footprint of the former World Trade Center Tower 2. The incomplete Museum can be seen in the background.

Looking across the marble, where all the lives that were lost on September 11, 2001 and the February 26, 1993 are engraved on the marble on both footprints.

The waterfalls are always running. During Hurricane Sandy that struck the Northeast in the Fall, the pools were in fact shut off. This was because the water surrounding the downtown area actually rose so much it came into the memorial site. They had to drain all the sea water, and clean it again to get the pools running.

Before moving to the Tower 1 footprint, here are a couple shots of the still unfinished museum. The Museum was supposed to open on September 11, 2011, but due to lack of funds and disputes upon the ownership of the site the construction came to a halt. Thankfully everything was resolved and construction has resumed. No opening date has been announced yet.



Another shot.

Moving on to the Tower 1 footprint, you can see the construction of the new Tower 1 in the background.

Getting closer to Tower 1.

It is truly a massive project.

This was as close as I was able to get to.

Last shot looking up.

I conclude my images with a panorama of one of the memorial pools (FULL-SIZE).

Just recently Tower 1 reached the 100th floor. The Public observation deck will be on the 100th and 101th floor. Here is a video of the intended vision of the Observation Deck:

Video courtesy of The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

A special thank you to Orlando Theme Park News for giving me the opportunity to these photo updates!

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A big thank you again to Scott for preparing this very special update for us!