World Trade Center tower surpasses Empire State

World Trade One (left), and the Empire State Building. / CBS/AP

Last Updated 2:58 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) The new One World Trade Center - under construction on the site of the original World Trade Center, destroyed in the 9/11 terror attacks - has surpassed the height of the Empire State Building to become New York City's tallest building.

Workers erected steel columns that make the unfinished frame of the building a little more than 1,250 feet high - the level of the Empire State Building's highest observation deck.

The tower still isn't as high as the antenna that sits on the Empire State Building, but when complete will stand at 1,368 feet, beating out the midtown skyscraper that was for decades the world's tallest. When counting a 408-foot-tall antenna spire that will sit on its roof, the "Freedom Tower" will measures 1,776 feet.

Discounting the antenna, it will still be the second-highest building in the U.S., after the Willis Tower in Chicago. (Experts usually don't count antennas or flagpoles when measuring building height.)

30 Photos

World's tallest buildings 2012

Completed in 1931, the Empire State Building was the tallest free-standing structure in the world until 1967 (when Moscow's Ostankino Tower was completed), and lost its status as New York City's tallest building when the original World Trade Center (at 1,368 feet high, plus a 359-foot antenna) was completed in 1972.

Now it is being demoted again.

Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and antennas that extend far above the roof.

If the Empire State Building were measured from the sidewalk to the tip of its needle-like antenna, it actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above One World Trade Center's elevation today.

Purists, though, say antennas (which can be attached or removed) shouldn't count. The Empire State Building didn't even get its distinctive antenna until 1952.

Unlike antennas, record-keepers like spires. It's a tradition that harkens back to a time when the tallest buildings in many European cities were cathedrals. Groups like the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, and Emporis, a building data provider in Germany, both count spires when measuring the total height of a building, even if that spire happens to look exactly like an antenna.

"Height is complicated," said Council spokesman Nathaniel Hollister.

This quirk in the record books has benefited buildings like Chicago's recently-opened Trump International Hotel and Tower. It is routinely listed as being between 119 to 139 feet taller than the Empire State Building, thanks to the antenna-like mast that sits on its roof, even though the average person, looking at the two buildings side by side, would probably judge the New York skyscraper to be taller.

The same factors apply to measuring the height of One World Trade Center.

Designs call for the tower's roof to stand at 1,368 feet — the same height as the north tower of the original World Trade Center. The building's roof will be topped with a 408-foot, cable-stayed mast, making the total height of the structure a symbolic 1,776 feet.

So is that needle an antenna or a spire?

"Not sure," wrote Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building.

The needle will, indeed, function as a broadcast antenna. It is described on the Port Authority's website as an antenna. On the other hand, the structure will have more meat to it than your average antenna, with external cladding encasing the broadcast mast.

As for the world's tallest building, the undisputed champion is the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, which opened in 2010 and reaches 2,717 feet.

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Dubai's Vertical City

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CBS Station WCBS it has been a collaborative effort: "Lots of people deserve credit, it's taken a long time. But this is probably the most complex construction site any place, ever."

As the new World Trade Center claims bragging rights for the city's tallest, the New York Post reports that on Monday night the tower will be lit up blue-and-white, characterizing the color scheme (according to unnamed sources) as a pointed dig at the Empire State Building's controversial rejection in 2010 of illuminating the building in honor of the 100th birthday of Mother Teresa.

The Empire State Building's owners declined comment, and instead told the Post, "The world's most famous office building, the ancestor of all super-tall towers, welcomes our newer, taller cousin to the skyline."

[searstower]

It is amusing that the CTBUH still proclaims this archaic myth that "antennas" are non-permanent, non-architectural features.

There is already debate in the skyscraper enthusiast community as to whether the proposed spire of the Freedom Tower is not in fact just an antenna in disguise. The official plans call for antenna segments encased in radome. But, that is not unlike the Sears Tower's triangle support towers and pylons which are encased in white radome.

The primary distinction seems to be that the Freedom Tower architect asked "permission" to have the antenna counted as an architectural feature. The CTBUH granted them a concession out of respect for the Freedom Tower's notoriety and civic importance. So that is all it takes to contradict their own rules?

Why again is the CTBUH an established technical authority?

--Randall

[JigokuRrei]

BTW: Its, JigokuRei:

Some will appreciate this and many others will not.

There is a darker significance with regard toward the proposed naming and height of WTC; that of 1776, and with regard to many that still feel 9/11 was an "inside job," as often said by Alex Jones. I am sure he'll love this information too.

First, the naming; One World Trade Center, it signifies the attempt by so-called Global Elite to eventually create a global net and world dominance -- a one-world government with only one ruler in place; hence, "One World" Trade Center -- a significant part of the NWO plan.

Second, the height; to many conspiracy buffs, this is by no means a symbolic Patriotic gesture toward the obvious; however, it is believed to be cleverly concealed, in my opinion, as the placing cap-stone, the cementing of success toward the NWO plan, and the height of 1776 may in fact be meant to pay homage to Adam Weishaupt.

The clever disguise is meant to conceal its message, both by securing a place in the hearts of the ignorant by use of readily understood symbolism for support, and the secrecy in concealed disguise sealing the deal toward the NWO plan.

[hypnotoad72]

If it were a patriotic symbol, we would pay our own to manufacture every piece of it (not rely on countries, of which one has just a small record of being deceitful time and again) and pay middle class wages. THAT is patriotism.

On the plus side, at least the steel isn't being purchased from the same place the glass is...

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/new-world-trade-center-tower-to-be-made-with-glass-from-china-and-steel-from-germany

And let's take a quick peek at the track record that the world is apparently so proud of:

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Senate-Investigates-Counterfeit-Parts-in-Military-Equipment/10737425339/
(hey, there's the C-word again)

http://economyincrisis.org/content/oakland-bay-bridge-built-china

http://prestowitz.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/27/cheap_is_expensive

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bringing_america_back/american-infrastructure-jobs-shipped-china/story?id=14592567

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/07/why-are-our-bridges-made-in-china/242115/

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1856168,00.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13036943

http://www.chinatoday.com/china.topics/china.milk.scandal.htm

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/ucm129575.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/business/worldbusiness/19toys.html

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Air-13-Inch-Mid-2011-Teardown/6130/2
(slick under fan, and MacBook Airs are not cheap and their owners often state they are built with quality and care...)

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-Early-2011-Teardown/4990/2
(stripped screw and poorly applied thermal grease in what is a VERY expensive product, and xbox 360 owners and scores of other electronics owners might find similar issues... poor thermal grease application can lead to overheating...)

http://news.injuryboard.com/chinese-recall-of-leukemia-and-arthritis-drug-methotrexate.aspx?googleid=27994
(that came out just three MONTHS after it was deemed Canadian drugs couldn't be imported in our "free market" culture because their drugs were "unsafe" or "counterfeit"... irony, ouch...)

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-03-16-chinese-drywall-sulfur_N.htm
(let's see - if it causes allergies, just get medication. That helps the medical industry AND the economy. Oh, the drywall also rots electronics, but just repurchase - via cash or credit, that's stimulating the economy too. Especially credit, since something has to supplant your wages dropping to match the market values caused by these market forces...)

[TimeToEvolve]

I did not say Bush DID it. I said that it was on his watch that it happened. He also made out big time politically, he got his illegal war in Iraq started. So he had no reason to stop it. In fact, I think he let it happen for political gain.

And who can forget his little bank of neocons and their People for a New American Century (PNAC) document that said we needed another Pearl Harbor so the neocons could do their deed of taking over the Middle East for oil.

[vkpretz]

Let us Pray to God we are not building another target~

[TimeToEvolve]

I was in downtown Manhattan last July on my way upstate and saw them building this. Impressive sight, once they got started it was pretty fast going. I just hope they built it to spec this time.

[TimeToEvolve]

I am really glad they built this again. I worked in the South Tower for three years when I was in high school and college. It was such a shock seeing them build it while I was working there and then to see it collapse into it's own footprint when it was time to demolish it. Unfortunately they did not evacuate it before they pulled it.

[TimeToEvolve]

Have you ever seen a building demolition where the entire building collapses inside itself. That's what happened in NYC. And especially Building 7 that was not even hit by a plane.

Also there has NEVER been a skyscraper that collapsed due to fire. In fact, I doubt a skyscraper has EVER collapsed unless it was done on purpose like by demolition.

[Molly-Pchr]

My husband, rest his soul, used to sit and watch them build the twin towers, and his dad had been a steel worker on the Empire State Building, and they both said, at the time, when the new "jumbo" jets were being used more commonly, in the late sixties, early seventies, the buildings would never stand up if a jet struck them up top. He said if the planes took off locally full of fuel, and accidentally hit a tower, the building would never stand. While they weren't thinking of terrorists, but how close to a number of busy airports, how tragically right he was.

[SUZAMBA]

Let us hope that the past does not repeat it's self?

[fastdraw2]

Just putting up another target, daring someone to knock it down. Muslim extremists all over the world are dreamming and scheming about how they can do that. Wonder if they'll wait until it's finished.

[TimeToEvolve]

If they get another Republicon administration that will benefit from another Pearl Harbor (remember the PNAC document?), there is a much better chance.

[moshe05]

Earth5604 is correct. no one ever mentions that wtc 1,2 and 7 were the only bldgs in the world (as far as i know) constructed with all load bearing steel outer walls. that's why the windows were so small. the floors were basically suspended within a rigid tube. once the supports on the edge weakened, everything collapsed. most older tall bldgs had concrete-encased steel posts. these would have survived--as, indeed, one other bldg near the wtc site that sustained damage but stood tall. that was the barclay vesey building, now known as the verizon building. (beautiful art deco structure.)
at any rate, any examination of the collapse that does not start with this is not one worth listening to.
and knewsterrrrr, i wouldn't say the terrorists won. the fact that there is going to be a new, functioning commercial building means that americans were not cowed.

[technocoffee]

It stands to represent a huge middle finger to the scummy cowards who murdered so many innocents with those jets on 9-11. It also represents a society that builds up & progresses; not some backwards, hate-filled cave people who can only destroy.

[venusvegasvada]

Wonderful!!!!

Congratulations New York and the people that are building it!

Thank you!