Rebuilding at Ground Zero will take longer than construction of Panama Canal

So how far along are we towards completing the Freedom Tower? Not far along as far as we can tell. Michelle Malkin asks the same question I’ve been wondering about for the last four or five years. Why is the Freedom Tower not done yet?

Malkin points to quite a few major construction projects here in the United States that took between 66 days and three years, the latter being Chicago’s Sears Tower, re-branded the Willis Tower.

More perspective…

The Panama Canal was completed in 10 years and remember, the canal was open for business in 1914, the same year World War I started.

The Hoover Dam was completed in five years and dedicated in the summer of 1935, four years prior to the start of World War II.

At the rate construction is going, I’m willing to bet a few dollars it may take another 10 or 11 years to complete construction of the Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan … for a total of 20 years.

It is estimated the Great Pyramid of Giza – completed around 2560 B.C. – took about 20 years to complete.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

8 Comments

  1. DanWH on September 12, 2010 at 10:57 am

    It has taken way too long, but One World Trade Center is 40 stories tall, and should be done in 2013 WTC7 is open for business, the whole WTC complex should be done in 2035.

    Most importantly it is called One World Trade Center, not the Freedom Tower.



  2. Dimsdale on September 12, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    They built the Empire State Building in 13 months!

     

    We need more "can do" than "hope and change" in America today.



  3. Anne-EH on September 12, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    Does not surprise me at all with the slow progress of rebuilding. Got to remember that the WTC area covered a large number of blocks and not just only the two main WTC towers. Plus the red tape that was added to be able to "secure" the main building, "Freedom Tower" to protect it from any future attacks. Question I have is this: Does the slow effort at rebuilding give victory to our enemies?



  4. Lynn on September 13, 2010 at 3:41 am

    It is a symptom of the same disease. No one can agree on anything. There is no give and take, everyone had a different idea and they fought like children in a nursery school about the plans. I'm sure if anyone investigated (please no investigations), there were fights over whether there were Union contracts or who was going to get the most money. Why can't we just learn how to work together? We came together for a few months in 2001 and then we fractured into 2 parts. This used to be the United States of America.



  5. pauldow on September 13, 2010 at 6:08 am

    I'm going to take a different tack on this from Lynn. I think the problem is that there's too much trying to work together. Everything needs to be decided by committee. Back in ye olden days decisions could be made without considering "feelings" and all the "save the snails" causes. That hole in the ground is a national embarrassment. The problem is that no one person was put in charge with authority and commensurate responsibility.



  6. PatRiot on September 13, 2010 at 6:53 am

    The Washington elites cannot rewrite or revise this history.  They can only delay it.  If they can delay it for 40 plus years, then they can deny it ever happened and scrap the rebuilding plan.

    Delay is one of the 7 D's of management:  Delay, deny, delegate, demoralize, denegrate, deflect, and disenfranchise.



  7. GdavidH on September 13, 2010 at 7:25 am

    I'm convinced the delay in building the monument is due to the fact that it will be a monument. There may be some who believe it is not a neccessity, therefore don't build it. It may be percieved as a reminder to Muslims what some muslims did in the name of their god. We wouldn't want to offend anyone.

    Just sayin', ya know.



  8. JollyRoger on September 13, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Oh how progress slows when we build something that actually must obey natural laws- rise vertically, electrically powered, withstand wind loads…  Yet we can ram through Health Care Reform, Stimulus,  printing money, etc- all in the dark of night, between vacations and recesses!   Surely, there will be more time spent pulling permits to flush every toilet in the new towers than was spent reading the healthcare reform bill!



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