Giant WTC Spire Coming To New York City On Barge

New York, NY – The giant WTC spire is making its way from Canada to New York City by barge right now. The new One World Trade Center will stand at the site where the previous twin World Trade Center buildings stood before the 9/11 attacks. The WTC spire’s $10 million antenna was held back on setting sail due to a financial dispute with the Canadian manufacturer.

According to the Daily Mail, in a lawsuit filed at the New York Supreme Court, the New York and New Jersey Port Authority accused ADF Steel of holding the giant WTC spire “hostage” in a “bid to receive $6 million it claimed it was owed from another WTC-related project.”

Due to the onset of winter conditions, any further delays in delivering the antenna would have pushed it off until early spring at earliest. This long delay would have had serious implications for the scheduled opening of One World Trade Center and would also have resulted in the temporary termination of 100 iron worker jobs needed to construct the giant WTC spire.

According to the Associated Press, the giant WTC spire is divided into 18 sections that weigh between five and 67 tonnes. Eight of the giant WTC spire’s sections are being transported via barge from Canada on the Atlantic Salvor. The remaining WTC spire sections are expected to arrive via truck in the middle of December.

Once the 125-meter WTC spire is installed, the One World Trade Center tower will stand 541 meters tall, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. The New York City Port Authority says the giant WTC spire will take about three months to install.

The Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center site, says progress of the barge and the giant WTC spire can be tracked online. You can check out a time-lapsed video of the construction of the new One World Trade Center building here: