A test of the Tribute in Light rises above lower Manhattan. Photo: AFP
NEW YORK Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the reconstruction
of the World Trade Centre shows the city has finally turned the corner
from the trauma of September 11, 2001.
Speaking five days before the 10th anniversary of the
attacks, the mayor described lower Manhattan's resurrection as ''one of
the greatest comeback stories in American history''.
Predictions that New York couldn't recover from the impact of the attacks had been proved wrong, he said.
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''New York has come roaring back faster than anyone
thought possible.'' According to Mr Bloomberg, the half-finished World
Trade Centre office project at the site of the destroyed twin towers is
the core of an increasingly vibrant neighbourhood, which now has the
highest residential population since the 1920s.
He said that top-flight companies re-entering the area, as well as families settling there, had shown their faith in the city.
They came ''knowing that the area would remain a
terrorist target, but they refused to live in fear and they knew that
New York has the finest police department in the world''.
The main tower at the new World Trade Centre will reach
541 metres, becoming the tallest building in the country when completed.
Tower two will be slightly shorter and towers three and four will be
shorter still.
A memorial consisting of two sunken fountains has been installed where the twin towers stood and will be opened on Sunday.
''We will never forget the devastation of the area that came to be known as ground zero - never,'' Mr Bloomberg said.
''But the time has come to call those 16 acres what they
are: the World Trade Centre and the National September 11 Memorial and
Museum.''
AFP
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