Only 1,761 feet to go.

Another tangible and fanfare-free milestone occurred over the weekend at ground zero, where two steel columns of 1 World Trade Center rose above street level for the first time. That means the 1,776-foot skyscraper, until now an entirely subterranean structure, will be doing the rest of its climbing in the public eye.

In contrast to the heavily orchestrated ceremonies of past years — white doves taking flight (they turned out to be homing pigeons) and a 20-ton cornerstone being set into place (it had to be picked up again and moved off site) — the latest milestone was noted quite modestly by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.



Rather than staging speeches, the agency simply handed out prepared, two-sentence statements from Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman, and Christopher O. Ward, the new executive director.

One World Trade Center, also called the Freedom Tower, broke through the street-level barrier on Saturday when workers for DCM Erectors attached new sections atop two of the 24 jumbo columns that form the building’s perimeter. The additional steel brought the columns to a height of about 15 feet above grade. The authority said the 22 other columns were expected to sprout through May, June and July. Tishman Construction Corporation is the construction manager for the project, which is to be completed in 2012.

For now, the best vantages of the rising columns are either from the corner of Washington and Vesey Streets (through a chain-link fence) or from within the second-floor gallery of the Winter Garden at Battery Park City. If you wait long enough, however, you won’t have any trouble seeing the structure from almost any nearby vantage. And if you wait longer than that, you won’t be able to avoid seeing it from almost anywhere, since it will be the tallest in New York City.