Video: Workers Hoist Spire Atop One World Trade Center

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Workers hoisted the last two pieces of a 408-foot spire onto a temporary platform atop One World Trade Center yesterday – and once bolted into place at a later date the building will become the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

The delivery of the final two sections (seen below in a video from Bloomberg TV) of the 104-story, three-million-square-foot building’s 758-ton spire was scheduled for Monday but cancelled due to heavy winds.

The two stainless steel sections, comprising the 17th and 18th pieces of the spire, will bring the building to 1,776 feet, at which point it will supercede Chicago’s Willis Tower as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The spire will double as a state-of-the-art broadcast facility that will provide transmission services for the region’s broadcast outlets, and an illuminated beacon at the top of the spire will produce 288,000 lumens of light and will be visible from up to 50 miles away.

The spire is a joint venture between Canadian engineering firm ADF Group Inc. and New York-based steel contractor DCM Erectors Inc.  It traveled 1,500 nautical miles down the Atlantic seaboard from Valleyfield, Quebec to Pier 25 in Lower Manhattan in late 2012 before it was transported to the World Trade Center site, where hoisted the first piece 67 tons piece to the top in December of last year.

The world’s tallest building, topping 2,700 feet, is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

One World Trade Center is scheduled to open next year.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9agfHrMAA9A&w=560&h=315]

Here’s the extra patriotic version:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfQADfFtFCQ&w=560&h=315]

(Credit, homepage photo: Gary Hershorn, Reuters)