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Comparing Tower 1 Pics from 2009 & 2011

Every so often I shoot a picture of the World Trade Center’s Tower 1. This time I decided to put the latest picture I took side by side with one…

DD David Daniels Personal blog · Since 2001
The Lower Manhattan skyline glows in warm late-afternoon light from across New York Harbor, with One World Trade Center catching the sun and the boat's white wake filling the foreground.

Every so often I shoot a picture of the World Trade Center’s Tower 1. This time I decided to put the latest picture I took side by side with one of the earliest pictures I took of the tower just peeking out above ground…

One World Trade Center under construction, viewed from street level with scaffolding and orange framework surrounding the tower
One World Trade Center rising above Lower Manhattan, swathed in scaffolding and construction framework. The new tower looms behind classic New York buildings.
One World Trade Center construction tower seen through a glass viewing wall, showing the crane at the top and orange scaffolding at the base
One World Trade Center under construction, viewed through a glass viewing wall, with a tower crane visible at the summit and orange scaffolding rising from the street.
Lower Manhattan skyline rising above New York Harbor, with One World Trade Center as the tallest tower, a small tour boat passing in the middle distance, and chrome navigation instruments on a boat's bow in the foreground.
Lower Manhattan seen from a boat in New York Harbor.
One World Trade Center tower under construction with orange scaffolding, framed between neighboring glass skyscrapers
One World Trade Center climbs skyward, framed dramatically between neighboring glass skyscrapers, as construction scaffolding encases the rising tower.
Aerial view of the World Trade Center construction site with multiple cranes, an American flag, and surrounding Manhattan skyscrapers
The bustling World Trade Center construction site in Lower Manhattan, with cranes at work and an American flag flying amid the rebuilding effort.
View of the World Trade Center construction site through a glass viewing wall, showing multiple cranes and the Lower Manhattan skyline
The World Trade Center construction site, photographed through a glass viewing panel, reveals the scale of the rebuilding effort with multiple cranes against the Lower Manhattan skyline.
Lower Manhattan skyline viewed from the Hudson River, with One World Trade Center under construction beneath a dramatic cloudy sky
Lower Manhattan skyline with One World Trade Center rising under construction.

So here is the side by side comparison. In about a year and a half the tower has grown tremendously and the picture on the right is the first picture I’ve gotten where the first 6 stories of glass have been installed. I believe a big chuck of the stories underneath with be blast proof concrete and may not have windows.

There are about a dozen new photos’s of the WTC Tower on Flikr and a quick video, (I did not realize I made a video on my phone but uploaded it here anyway).

[Recovered from Wayback Machine on 2026-05-10] Original: http://daviddaniels.com:80/2011/01/comparing-tower-1-pics-from-2009-2011/ · view snapshot

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