One World Trade Center United States

Legendary

Visit the tallest building in the US that’s part of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex.

Photo by R Boed

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Every number in this building means something. It's 1,776 feet tall, matching the year the United States declared independence.

Its roof sits at 1,368 feet, the exact height of the original North Tower. Its square base is the same size as the base of each Twin Tower.

The building stands in Lower Manhattan, at the World Trade Center site. On September 11, 2001, terrorists flew hijacked planes into the Twin Towers, and both collapsed, killing nearly 3,000 people.

New York decided to rebuild. In 2003, architect David Childs was chosen to design the tallest of the new towers.

The first cornerstone was laid on July 4, 2004, and early plans called the building the Freedom Tower. It was officially renamed One World Trade Center in 2009, but the nickname stuck.

Construction started in 2006 and took eight years. On May 10, 2013, workers bolted the final piece of the spire into place, bringing the tower to its full height.

That made it the tallest building in the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere. It's about 400 feet taller than the Empire State Building.

The tower opened for business on November 3, 2014. The observatory on floors 100 to 102 followed in May 2015.

The elevators to the top are among the fastest in the world. They rise 102 floors in under 60 seconds, and the walls show a time-lapse of New York's skyline growing from the 1500s to today.

Ride the Sky Pod elevator to the One World Observatory and step onto the Sky Portal, a glass disc showing a live view of the street far below. Visit the 9/11 Memorial next door, where two reflecting pools mark the footprints of the original towers. Look down from the observatory and find those pools from above.