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Freedom Tower Defenses Admired
By: Doug CaverlyWednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
September 12, 2007 - The Freedom Tower is intended to serve as a tribute to those who were lost in the September 11 terrorist attacks. As a functional office tower, it’s also intended to exhibit America’s resilience, and so the Freedom Tower’s designers have taken a number of steps to protect its inhabitants against future threats. Some of the defenses are extremely formidable.
Glass Steel and Stone, an architecture encyclopedia, notes one of the most obvious security features. “Though it will be clad in glass prisms, the 186-foot-tall base will be a windowless concrete wall, intended to absorb and deflect the blast from car or truck bombs. The glass prisms will be coated with plastic like automobile safety glass to help absorb the impact.”
The building will also be set far back from surrounding roads, making it harder to bring destructive devices nearby.
Furthermore, critical areas will be protected by thick barriers, biological and chemical filters will clean the air, and there will be a special stairway for firefighters. Even normal stairways will be unusually wide, allowing for easier entry and exit.
Aesthetics aside, the designers of the Freedom Tower appear to have done a good and thorough job.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
As a New Yorker practically raised between the shadows of two beautiful pieces of art called the World Trade Center towers,I think that people are being a bit ridiculous on the subject of the Freedom Towers.
We all know that terrorist attacks can happen, we must also realize that there has not been a significant attack on US soil since 9-11.
This nation was not built on fear, this nation went through fear and heroism to allow our founding fathers the priviledges of adding fifty stars to a gorgeuos flag. Has anybody thought that the Empire State building, the Chrysler building,the Citibank building,etc are still standing? Do people believe ground zero is forever a place where attacks will be planned on?
Let’s move on and finish lower Manhattan so it can look beautiful again and fill the void with those Towers people.
A proud American.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:49 am
The tower in essence is a fantastic design. However, this wont prevent a future attack…remember what they said about the Titanic?
I have read several papers and books about the subject, including the comission report. Unfortunately 9/11 was a chain of tragic events from the hijacking running mostly as planned to the dreadful communication between the port authority police and the fire service, NORAD and the CAA, what im basically saying is that the infra structure needs to be improved for the safety of the tower to exist, before addressing the tower’s safety measures themselves.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:08 am
…..while I’m glad to see the tower going up…I wish we could have just rebuilt it exactly as it was. Just a thought about security…on our warships,we have laser guided chain guns that can take out an incomming missile or plane from several miles out….why not put a couple of these on top of the Freedom Tower?
April 9th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
When is the freedom tower gonna be complete?It’s already april 2008,and the steel isn’t rising above street level as promised.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
If all those defenses and protections had been there on 9/11, they would not have changed a thing!
January 16th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Now you must understand this is one of my first read-ups on the tower, but what of the air-attack possibilities? If we are to agree that a plane took down the other two, what is to stop one from taking this one down as well? Also, in this post there seems to be a strong note on the placement being far from the road, but where are the parking garages? Is there not some directly below the tower or are they placed elsewhere underground? A response would be nice for reassurance. Thankyou