Work Begins on WTC Site Foundation Wall

NEW YORK -- The World Trade Center site's owners are laying a small piece of a new foundation for three planned skyscrapers on the east end of ground zero.

Construction workers have been digging an 85-foot trench to build the retaining wall to hold the foundations for the three towers, which are scheduled to begin construction over the next two years.

Workers for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey planned to set in place steel for the first panel of the
1,600-foot-long wall on Thursday morning.

"The start of the foundation work for the east side of the site is an important step in living up to the Port Authority's commitment to rebuilding,'' agency chairman Anthony R. Coscia said.

The agency promised trade center site developer Larry Silverstein it would build the foundations for all three towers by the end of 2008.

Designed by architects Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki, the three skyscrapers would all be at least as high as the Empire State Building. They would descend in height from the iconic, 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, forming a spiral around a memorial to the terrorist attacks that destroyed the original twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

The three office buildings are scheduled to open between 2011 and 2013.

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