'Rise' Shines Light on Workers Who Built 1 World Trade Center
In the film, they shared their feelings of pride toward the project and the US.
— -- Time magazine's new film "Rise" focuses on the stories of 1 World Trade Center's workers, such as Tom Hickey, who was following in the footsteps of his family when he became an ironworker.
"My father's first job was here -- North Tower," Hickey says in the film. "I'm a fourth-generation worker from my father's side -- and third from my mother's."
In the film -- part of a multiplatform project by Time on the construction of 1 World Trade Center titled "Top of America" -- the workers expressed their pride in the construction project as well as their pride in the United States.
They said the building's spire -- the final step to rebuilding 1 World Trade Center -- had made them all nervous.
They attached a camera to the spire and hoisted it up. As they watched it soar, the workers cheered and whistled.
More than 13 years after the Twin Towers were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, the new centerpiece skyscraper at the World Trade Center opened in November. The new 1 WTC tower and the 16-acre site it anchors are owned by the Port Authority, a massive government agency controlled by the governors of New York and New Jersey.
Standing at 1,776 feet, which includes its landmark spire, 1 WTC is the tallest building in the country and the Western Hemisphere. It is 104 stories tall and has a three-floor observatory that opened this spring.
The observatory takes tourists up to the 102nd floor. The families of the 9/11 victims and first responders as well as the survivors all get in free.
Today, ironworker Kevin Scally, who helped secure the spire, said he tells his kids: "You know, telling my kids about it, let them know -- tell their friends at school or their teachers that their dad set the spire on Tower 1. Great feeling when you get to say that.”
