One World Trade Center Completion: Spire Hoisted

One World Trade Center is another step closer to completion as the final two sections of the 408-foot spire were hoisted to the top of the towering building in Lower Manhattan Thursday morning.

The final sections were raised onto a temporary platform where they will stay until installed at a later date.
 
And once the final sections of the spire are installed, the building will stand at a symbolic 1,776 feet.
 
"It's a prideful day," one of the workers said as quoted by CBS News.
 
"It's a great day to be an American."
 
The pieces that comprise the spire were shipped from Canada to New Jersey and will be part of the spire that is designed to be a state-of-the-art broadcast antenna for television and radio broadcast channels that were lost as a result of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
 
One World Trade Center is slated to open its doors in 2014 and is the currently the tallest building in New York City.
 
But whether the new building will be considered the tallest building in the Western hemisphere has yet to be determined.
 
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat will make the decision on whether One World Trade Center fits the bill.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said that One WTC will be the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. Despite the accolade, One WTC must still be judged by the Council to make its title official as tallest building in the Western hemisphere.

"A tall building is a serious iconic symbol of the aspirations of whoever is constructing it, and that can extend to the developer, the architect, the city in which it's places and even the whole country," said Daniel Safarik, spokesman for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

The spire's functionality as an antenna may affect the ruling on whether 1 WTC is the tallest building. If the spire is considered by the Council to be an antenna and not part of the actual structure of the new tower, it will lose the honor to the two current tallest buildings - the Willis and Trump towers in Chicago.