The elevators up to the observation deck on the 102nd floor of the new World Trade Center will present a video showing the evolution of the New York City skyline from the 1500s until today. The timelapse video gives riders a quick but ultra-realistic look at the remarkable growth of New York City and doesn’t shy away from the reality of our loss on September 11, 2001.
The video is displayed on the walls of the elevator cab as if they are giant windows looking out over a flowering skyline. Riders catch a glimpse of the original north tower standing tall, but as the video moves past 2001, they notice the tower’s disappearance.
David W. Checketts, chief executive of Legends Hospitality, the company in charge of the observation deck, admitted there was internal debate over the matter of depicting the tower in the video, saying, “There were strong opinions and emotional reactions all around.”
Checketts went on to explain, “We did not think you could ignore it. Having it appear in the year it did and disappear in the year it did was the respectful way of addressing the fact that it was part of the landscape.”
The observation deck won’t be open to the public until next month, but One World Trade Center has been open since November 3, 2014. The building dubbed ‘the freedom tower’ is now 1776 feet tall, the tallest building in the western hemisphere, and the fourth tallest building in the world, giving the heavily Irish American construction crew and the rest of America a lot to be proud of.
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