Final design for Freedom Tower is unveiled

NEW YORK—Architect David Childs unveiled the final design for the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower planned for Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Intended to be a monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna, the Freedom Tower’s design uses a high-tech laminated safety glass, which if attacked by a truck bomb would shatter into falling pebbles, not break into flying shards.

Reported to have the blessing of both the New York police department’s counterterrorism experts as well as state and city officials, developer Larry Silverstein told reporters that if everything now goes according to plan, "By 2012 we should have a completely rebuilt World Trade Center more magnificent, more spectacular than it ever was."