Photograph by Joe Woolhead

The story so far:

"The Foundation," September 2005

Larry Silverstein holds the lease, but he needs the cooperation of governor George Pataki and the consent of his landlord, the Port Authority. With an acceptable design finally ready, prepping the foundation begins.

"The Engineers," February 2006

Architect David Childs is faced with the challenge of bomb-proofing the tower. Engineers Pablo Lopez and Andrew Pontecorvo declare the bedrock stable. Construction superintendent Carmine Castellano figures out how to build a tower over a subway station.

"The Blasters," September 2006

The electricians are working on the crash wall. Line drills, excavators, and dynamite prepare the bedrock for the tower's footings. Five years after 9/11, it's finally time to build.

"The Steel," June 2007

Two hundred thousand tons of steel went into making the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. Almost six years after 9/11, ground zero, barren until now and buffeted by politics, greed, and grief, is once again filling up with steel. A new skyscraper is going up. The fourth in a series of exclusive reports.

"Of Time and the Freedom Tower," September 2008

The Freedom Tower will always be a symbolic nexus of the horrific past and what the future might become. The question is: What's taking so damn long, and what will it mean when we're all dead and gone?

"Good Days at Ground Zero," October 2010

Given all the political noise, you might not realize that the towers of the new World Trade Center are swiftly reaching the sky rising by a floor a week. Soon, the noise will be forgotten. It's the towers we'll remember.

"The Memorial," September 2011

People talk a lot about the "healing process." Well, this is New York. In the aftermath of a tragedy of monumental proportions, the healing process has been noisy and rude, with elbows out, redolent of greed, power, and the darker forces that drive human existence. And most of the shouting has been about how to make a fitting monument to what happened here. But in a hundred years, all the shouting and all the politics will be forgotten. What will be remembered is what is built here, now, on these sixteen acres.

"The Truth About the World Trade Center," September 2012

Seven years ago, when Ground Zero was just a hole in the ground and the world seemed convinced that nothing good would ever be built there, the author began the epic story of the rebuilding of downtown New York. Now, as the "Freedom Tower" reaches its full height, the inside story of boondoggles, self-dealing, common corruption, and why it's all taken so long.

"A Target in Perpetuity," September 2013

And if the politicians have their way, the security of the World Trade Center will be seriously compromised. The foremost writer on the rebuilding of Ground Zero asks the question: Who will protect the buildings in the crosshairs?

"The Freedom Tower Is an Absolute Miracle," January/February 2015

We began telling this story 10 years ago. Beset by the nastiest politics, paralyzed by corruption and avarice, overwhelmed by grief, these sixteen acres had become a symbol of our national fecklessness, proof of our decline. Nothing good, it was thought at the time, would ever happen there...

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