Spiffalicious and Delicious: September 2007

Tomorrow will mark the 6th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Can you remember that day back in 2001? What were you doing when you heard the news? I remember I was watching a video that morning before I had to leave for work. My Aunt who lives in New York called us and asked if we had heard the news. We quickly put the news on and saw everything going on. I can remember my heart sinking. I was in shock and scared for everyone involved. I began to pray that God would save them. It was getting late so I left for work, at that time I working in retail. I remember the store being so empty and quite, we all left early that day. Nobody had a radio so every now and then we’d walk to the back and watch the news quickly. I tried to call my Aunt and a few friends that live in New York, but the telephone lines were shut down and we couldn’t get in touch with them. And for many weeks after the horrid attack it was hard to get a free line into New York. As I stood in the store, I began to think. I could have been there! I remembered that 1 ½ months ago, I was in New York. I applied for a job at Goldman Sachs, we had a close friend that worked for that company at the World Trade Center location and I was very close to getting the job, but a few things fell through and I wasn’t hired. I actually flew out of New York exactly a month before the attacks. We later found out that the Goldman Sachs office was blown out, luckily those in the office came through alright. In the days to come, American heard story after story of who survived, heroes, reasons why they left home late, lost friends and family, bravery and much more.

How much has America changed since then? Are we really safer? I can tell you from day to day living in America, watching the news, flying or just transportation in general there is a major change in security. Can we do better? How safe are we? Is America turning to God? Was this a wake up call….and did it wake up America?

I remember visiting the World Trade Center in 1998, one of my trips to New York. I remember standing at the top of the building on the view deck. When you out the window you can see the whole city and beyond. It’s quite breathtaking.

Here’s a little knowledge of the future of the World Trade Center

World Trade Center Tower 1, or Freedom Tower, is the centerpiece building of the new World Trade Center complex currently planned for Lower Manhattan. The tower will be located in the northwest corner of the 16-acre (65,000 m²) World Trade Center site, bound by Vesey Street, West Street, Washington Street and Fulton Street.[1] Construction on below-grade utility relocations, footings, and foundations for Freedom Tower began on April 27, 2006.[2] By December 19, 2006, the first steel columns were installed in the building's foundation. Three other high rises are planned for the site along Greenwich Street, plus a residential tower that will surround the World Trade Center Memorial that is currently also under construction, and a museum.
Following the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in the September 11, 2001 attacks, there was much debate regarding the future of the World Trade Center site. Proposals began almost immediately, and by 2002, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who own the right to develop the site, organized a competition through the newly created Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to determine how to use the land. Public rejection of the first round of designs, the "Preliminary Design Concepts," led to a second, more open competition in December 2002, the "Innovative Design Study," in which a design by Daniel Libeskind was selected. This design went through many revisions, largely because of disagreements with developer Larry Silverstein, who held the lease to the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001.
A final design for the tower was formally unveiled on June 28, 2006. To satisfy security issues raised by the New York City Police Department a 187-foot (57 m) concrete base was added in April of that year. The final design included plans to clad the base in glass prisms to address criticism that the base looked like a "concrete bunker." Contrasting with Libeskind's plan, the final design tapers the corners of the base outward as they rise. Its designers stated that the tower will be a "monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna." In terms of a completion date, Larry Silverstein stated "By 2012 we should have a completely rebuilt World Trade Center more magnificent, more spectacular than it ever was."[3] On April 26, 2006, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a conceptual framework that enabled foundation construction to begin while a formal agreement is drafted on the following day, the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Empire State Building. Construction began with a formal ceremony that took place when the construction team arrived.[4] It is projected that steel for the building will be visible above ground in 2008, with a topping out in 2010. The building is projected to be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2011.[5]
-Wikipedia