What Ever Happened to Ground Zero?

(CBS)  Written by 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley

"I describe it as a national disgrace." Larry Silverstein, the 78-year-old New York City real estate tycoon, shook his head slowly as we stood over the muddy pit known around the world as Ground Zero. It took three cameramen from "60 Minutes" to photograph the expanse of the 16-acre hole that was once the basement of the World Trade Center. True, some construction had begun, but as I stood there with Silverstein looking at rainwater pooling down below, I thought, "Nobody's gonna believe this."

Pelley's report on Ground Zero airs Sunday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on "60 Minutes"

According to the plans announced with fanfare seven years ago, Silverstein and I should have been craning our necks at five skyscrapers, including America's tallest tower. We should have been jostled by commuters surging in and out of a spectacular, $2,000,000,000 train station. And, all around us, there should have been a gentle, cascading sound from the 9/11 memorial, two waterfalls laid out in the footprints of the Twin Towers, a whispering reminder of 2,752 people murdered here.

Photos: Haunting Reminders of 9/11
Developer: Ground Zero a National Disgrace

But as we stood near the center of the seven story pit, none of that was here. Nearly nine years after the attack on Manhattan, not one project was finished. Silverstein, who wears ship propeller cuff links owing to his affection for his massive yacht, was supposed to have built those five skyscrapers himself. He ended up with the job after what may be the worst timing in the history of commercial real estate. Silverstein signed a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center just six weeks before 9/11. Now he stood over the hole in the heart of Manhattan and spoke in his clipped Brooklyn accent as though he was revealing a dark, national secret, "It's hard to contemplate the amount of time that's gone by here, the tragic waste of time and what could have been instead of what is today."

This story began as so many stories do at "60 Minutes," with a simple question. Walking through the office one day last fall I asked one of our producers, Shawn Efran, "Hey, what ever happened to Ground Zero?" It seemed to me a lot should have been finished downtown, but I wasn't hearing anything about it. Shawn and I had been among the many 60 Minutes people who had raced downtown after the first 767 struck in 2001. Most everyone who witnessed the calamity will tell you it's never far from their minds, even now.

9/11/01

The morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers were still standing but mortally wounded. I left our 60 Minutes offices on the West Side and jumped into a cab. "World Trade Center," I said. "Ya nev'a gonna get there," the driver replied without looking back. Sure enough, after a couple of miles down the West Side Highway, the cops turned the cab around. I bailed out and started running along the Hudson River, trying to reach the scene. I pushed through what seemed like tens of thousands of Manhattan office workers, walking up all six lanes of the highway. They looked like refugees from combat, which, of course, they were. As I came into the neighborhood of the World Trade Center, I started to trip over and kick something scattered all over the road. They were women's high heals, hundreds of them, abandoned in the panic. I raised my eyes from the Blahniks and Ferragamos and up the burning facade of architect Minoru Yamasaki's Tower Number One.

My first sense was relief. The tower hadn't fallen. But just then, the building's television mast that reached to 1,727 feet appeared to sway, which struck me as incredibly odd. Amazing how you won't believe what's happening right in front of you when your mind is unequipped for the truth. I decided the sway was an illusion created by the heat of the fire but, just as I fabricated that reassuring thought, the top floors began to pancake. People say catastrophes appear to unfold in slow motion. I promise you, it's true. To my eye, the 110th floor fell on 109 which fell on 108. Bang, stop, bang, stop, bang, stop. I told myself it would quit - ten or 15 stories - but as the roar shook the air and the collapse picked up speed, I surrendered to what was happening. I dropped to both knees and prayed to God to take the souls without pain. It was the only thing left to hope for.

A hurricane of ghastly gray powder shot through the canyons of downtown and covered everything; survivors, flattened fire trucks and taxis that were now just 18 inches tall.

Then, silence. Like the first big snow of winter.

The powder blew and drifted. It struck me there was nothing left that was recognizable. How many thousands of computers had there been, office chairs, desks, filing cabinets, doors, telephones? Where were the people? All had been cremated by the titanic force of the collapse. The only thing that survived (and that rained down for more than an hour) was paper. There were stock trade receipts, appointment calendars, photos of a family on a ski vacation. Paper, ashes and silence.

At the end of that day, standing by the flaming neo-gothic arches that formed the base of the towers, I knew two things were true; the United States would have Osama bin Laden in a cage and Ground Zero would be rebuilt into a soaring statement of American Spirit.

Now standing with Larry Silverstein on the edge of the pit, an old thought came back to me, "Amazing how you won't believe what's happening when your mind is unequipped for the truth."

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[Mario-500]

Like the airplanes on the day of the attacks in 2001, the calendar date on which they occurred was also hijacked as proven by the constant references to the attacks only by the calendar date in numeral form or alphabetical form. The eleventh day of September should be a regular day like any other, a birthday like any other, a wedding anniversary like any other, or any other day of celebration like any other.

I wish reporters and writers would stop using the calendar date in reference to a series of events that happened to occur on that date in 2001. If you were born on the eleventh day of September, you wouldn't want to use your birthday in such a negative way. Just because the date resembles 9-1-1, as in the emergency telephone numbers, doesn't mean the date should be used to mean a series of emergencies from one day in history.

Every day should be a new day, including every eleventh day of September.

[TESTAR10]

New York City will never be the same until the twin towers are rebuilt on the very same foot prints where they once stood. We owe it to the fallen. We can build them again, we can build them stronger and this time I believe we can protect them.

[TwinTowers2Supporter]

100% right! please read my comment below with the site and please spread the word!

[covingtonbrenda]

what is wrong with u people if i was in that building i would say build it back .when u knock down an ant hill they build it back.i myself would say build back and learn from it.i fell i was told to say this.your more advance now fix a better way out for all buildings of this sort.u can fix a place on a outside wall for names.i think the best monument is our towers back.get to work

[TwinTowers2Supporter]

haha absolutely! look at my comment right below yours..and please spread the word!

[TwinTowers2Supporter]

I think what they are doing down there is a disgrace and I don't like the "Freedom Tower" design at all. I speak for many when I say that..if you agree with me please go to the following site: http://www.twintowersalliance.com/ and please sign the petition and spread the word. The Twin Towers 2 design is ready to go and its bigger, better, and safer than the previous Twin Towers. Please go sign the petition and read through the website! It is very informative!

[inventagod]

Hmmm, Larry Silverstein profited from 9/11, and still wants more?

As a conspiracy theorist, I listened to him proudly telling America about his order to "pull it" prior to the demolition of Building 7. I understood the term back then.

The Pit should be left as the greatest tribute to those who planned and executed 9/11 - the NeoCons.

[kamsack50]

Dear inventagod
Why don't you change your name to inventaconspiracy, or inventabinladentopretendhehatesAmerica?
You don't have difficulty having faith in those , do you?

[hope4better]

It was the morning of either the 13th or 14th of Sept, 2001. I was in the breakfast room of a hotel in St. Louis and the TVs were tuned to CNN. During that hour or so, one of the repeating stories (relayed by both talking head and graphics crawl) was the release of the new plans for the site. The drawings showed 4 towers around a central courtyard.
I remember thinking how cold that was: How could anybody even be thinking about that now, let alone have drawings?? If you weren?t watching at that time, you missed it. I didn?t see the story repeated again. I guess someone decided it was a little premature.
Later, I learned that Silverstein had tried to get permission to demolish the trade center, but was denied because the towers were considered a city landmark. And still later, I saw the clip from the PBS interview where he admitted to the controlled demolition of building 7. Oddly, the 9/11 Commission decided instead that it was a few office fires on the lower floors that brought the building down, collapsing into its own footprint in a textbook example of a controlled demolition.
Call me a conspiracy nut if you wish. But the towers didn?t fall because the steel got too hot from the fires, any more than building 7 fell that way. If the towers had pancaked down, floors collapsing onto each other, why did everything explode? Concrete, furnishings, people, all exploding into dust. Buildings don?t ?fall? like that. It?s long past time to have a real investigation of the events of that day, and Larry Silverstein should certainly be among the first to be questioned. He benefited greatly from the day?s events, and not just from the insurance money. The buildings were demolished quickly, asbestos & all, the blame placed on terrorists, and the entire cleanup cost was covered by the taxpayers. Truly brilliant.
Silverstein calls the lack of progress a disgrace. But the real disgrace is that he and his co-conspirators are still walking around free and rich, and the majority of Americans still can?t remember what they saw that day: buildings exploding, not buildings ?collapsing?.

[tmittelstaed]

Ground Zero is a perfect testament to capitalism in action. Why? Simple, the City of New York has a high office vacancy now, and it would be impossible to make any kind of profit on any office building that is built there. Thus, there is no need for one, and that is why there isn't one there now. The only reason that Silverstein wants a building there is that he was paid billions by the insurance companies for replacement cost and he is afraid that if no building is built then there will of course be no replacement cost and the insurance companies are going to want all their money back.

Eventually one will be built and then will run at a high vacancy and never make a profit, or it will run at a low vacancy because they cut rates, and still never make a profit. Someday your going to see Silverstein's children agitating to sell the building back to the Port, to put the albatross on their necks. We can only hope the Port isn't that stupid to buy it.

[johnsmith2010]

What happened is the efficiency of government. 8 years and still nothing built.