Last days near for tragic tower
Source: Agencies |
January 11, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE contaminated tower stood shrouded in black netting for years near the World Trade Center site, filled with toxic dust and the remains of 9/11 victims.
Nearly a decade after the trade center's south tower fell into it, the building with a sad history of legal and regulatory fights, multiple accidents and a blaze that killed two firefighters will finally be gone.
The demise of the 41-story former Deutsche Bank building, just south of the trade center site, is at hand.
The bank tower - first slated for deconstruction in 2005, when a government agency bought it to end an impasse over who would pay to take it down - is down to two stories above street level.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp, the agency that oversaw the US$300 million dismantling, said it will be totally removed in a little over a week.
"You're talking about the end of an era," said Kirk Raymond, gazing at what's left of the building on a visit to the trade center site. "You're erasing the last signs of something pretty terrible."
The work of dismantling a skyscraper - referred to by its street address, 130 Liberty - is visible from surrounding buildings and from the street.
Less than an hour after a hijacked jet slammed into it on September 11, 2001, the south tower collapsed, tearing a 15-story gash in the Deutsche Bank building.
Accidents plagued the deconstruction. In May 2007, a pipe fell from the building and crashed into the firehouse next door, injuring two firefighters.
Three months later, a construction worker's discarded cigarette sparked a fire that tore through several stories. Firefighters faced hazards including deactivated sprinklers, stairwells that had been blocked to contain toxic debris and a broken standpipe, a crucial water conduit like a fire hydrant.
Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino were trapped on the burning 14th floor and died of smoke inhalation on August 18, 2007.
Nearly a decade after the trade center's south tower fell into it, the building with a sad history of legal and regulatory fights, multiple accidents and a blaze that killed two firefighters will finally be gone.
The demise of the 41-story former Deutsche Bank building, just south of the trade center site, is at hand.
The bank tower - first slated for deconstruction in 2005, when a government agency bought it to end an impasse over who would pay to take it down - is down to two stories above street level.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp, the agency that oversaw the US$300 million dismantling, said it will be totally removed in a little over a week.
"You're talking about the end of an era," said Kirk Raymond, gazing at what's left of the building on a visit to the trade center site. "You're erasing the last signs of something pretty terrible."
The work of dismantling a skyscraper - referred to by its street address, 130 Liberty - is visible from surrounding buildings and from the street.
Less than an hour after a hijacked jet slammed into it on September 11, 2001, the south tower collapsed, tearing a 15-story gash in the Deutsche Bank building.
Accidents plagued the deconstruction. In May 2007, a pipe fell from the building and crashed into the firehouse next door, injuring two firefighters.
Three months later, a construction worker's discarded cigarette sparked a fire that tore through several stories. Firefighters faced hazards including deactivated sprinklers, stairwells that had been blocked to contain toxic debris and a broken standpipe, a crucial water conduit like a fire hydrant.
Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino were trapped on the burning 14th floor and died of smoke inhalation on August 18, 2007.
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