There’s been progress at Ground Zero – and you can see it!
Builders of the site's tallest office tower, One World Trade Center, set a 70-ton piece of steel into place today -- the largest column installed yet at the building.
Three more columns are set to go up Thursday and another 24 by the fall.
The 1,776-foot-tall skyscraper is the largest of five planned to replace the two World Trade Center buildings.
Each steel column -- made in 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 – some of the first tangible evidence that there will, in fact, be redevelopment at the site.
The construction comes amid a months-long lease dispute that has threatened to stall rebuilding at Ground Zero between developer Larry Silverstein and the owner of the site, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The squabbling is one of many obstacles facing redevelopment in the area. A report issued earlier this year found that the World Trade Center Transportation Hub could cost nearly 30 percent more than was projected less than a year ago.
