It’s official: One World Trade Center now New York City’s tallest building

One World Trade Center shattered the record
for tallest building in New York City this afternoon, surpassing the
Empire State Building, which became the tallest in the
city after the twin towers fell on September 11, 2001.

The WTC is now taller than the Empire State, which stands at 1,250 feet. When finished, One WTC will stretch to 1,776 feet from the sidewalk to the top of its antenna, which is expected to be added next year.

The Empire State Building announced today it will be lit up in red, white and blue tonight in honor of the World Trade Center.

“The New York City skyline is — once again — stretching to new
heights,” said a triumphant Mayor Michael Bloomberg today. “The latest
progress at the World Trade Center is a testament to New Yorkers’
strength and resolve, and to our belief in a city that is always
reaching upward. Today our city has a new tallest building — and a new
sense of how bright our future is.”

For the past nearly eight years, New Yorkers have watched One World Trade Center slowly rise season after season, but a stunning new video compiles seven and a half years of construction into two minutes that truly capture the essence of this historic project.

The video was made by “webcam technology experts” EarthCam. Daily images of the WTC were snapped from four different cameras pointed at the site. Images were taken every 15 minutes from a variety of positions, and then archived and edited.

The video shows each development in the construction process using more than half a million images that each capture a moment in history.