Angeli and Steelman describe a 20-story section of 1 World Trade Center -- the north tower -- now embedded into the ground to the subway lines below.

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The area, once a barren and bitterly contested site, has since given way to the beginnings of construction for a long awaited "Freedom Tower, " or the 1 World Trade Center.

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If it didn't have the spire, One World Trade Center would be shorter than the Willis Tower in Chicago, which stands at 1, 451 feet and currently has the title of tallest building in the U.S., not including its own antennas.

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That was surpassed when the World Trade Center arrived in 1973, but two years later, Chicago's Sears Tower became the tallest at 1, 454 feet.

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