Freedom Tower Set To Claim Title as NYC's Tallest
The unfinished building is set to take the title from the Empire State Building, weather permitting.
| Posted Monday, April 30, 2012, at 11:09 AM
Photograph by Don Emmert/AFP/GettyImages.
If all goes as planned, One World Trade Center will reclaim the title of the tallest building in New York City on Monday once construction workers erect the Freedom Tower's steel columns that will make the work-in-progress officially taller than the Empire State Building.
Weather permitting, the unfinished building will stand at 1,271 feet by day's end, making it 21 feet higher than the Big Apple's current record-holder, the New York Times reports.
The Freedom Tower will also be on its way to becoming the tallest building in the United States—well, kind of. The Associated Press explains that title will come with an asterisk. Once completed, it will stand at 1,776 feet, 408 feet taller than the north tower it replaced. However those final 408 feet come in the form of giant needle that will sit atop the building's roof. If the needle isn't counted toward the tower's total height, the building would be only the second-tallest in the country, losing out to Chicago's 1,451-foot Willis Tower (the building formerly known as Sears Tower.)
Regardless, the Freedom Tower won't have a claim to being the tallest in the world. That title, as ABC News notes, belongs to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, at 2,717 feet.
