First stone laid for Freedom Tower

A 20-TON slab of granite, inscribed to honour "the enduring spirit of freedom," was laid yesterday at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the skyscraper that will replace the destroyed towers.

The ceremony marked the start of construction on the 1,776ft Freedom Tower, designed as a twisting glass and steel tower that evokes the Statue of Liberty, including a 276ft spire resembling her torch. Its height in feet is to symbolise the year the United States gained independence from Britain.

Organisers say it would be the world's largest skyscraper - but it's not clear whether it would hold that title by the time it's scheduled to be completed in 2009. The current largest skyscraper is Taipei 101 in Taiwan at 1,667ft, which this year surpassed the 1,483ft Petrona Towers in Malaysia.

The 110-story World Trade Center towers were 1,350ft tall.

New York Governor George Pataki said he chose July 4 - US Independence day - to begin rebuilding to show that the terrorists who attacked New York on September 11, 2001, didn't destroy America's faith in freedom.

"How badly our enemies underestimated the resiliency of this city and the resolve of these United States," Pataki said. "In less than three years, we have more than just plans on paper we place here today the cornerstone, the foundation of a new tower."

The cornerstone put in place yesterday is garnet-flecked granite from the Adirondack Mountains. Garnet is the New York state gemstone.

It is inscribed: "To honour and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 and as a tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom - July Fourth, 2004."

Among the several hundred people at the ceremony were relatives of some of the people killed in the terrorist attack.

"It's a new beginning," said John Foy, whose mother-in-law was killed. "We all need to move on and rise above this."

Completion of the Freedom Tower is scheduled for 2009, and trade centre leaseholder Larry Silverstein has plans to build four more towers between 2009 and 2015.

Also planned for the site are a rail hub, a memorial that transforms the twin towers' footprints into reflecting pools, and cultural space including several small theatres.

The Freedom Tower is set to rise in a corner of the site that still holds the ruins of a parking garage.

Critics have questioned whether all five towers of the Trade Center complex will be built, especially after a jury verdict this year cut the insurance proceeds Silverstein is seeking to pay for the development from a possible $7 billion to a maximum of $4.5 billion.

Silverstein still hasn't signed an anchor tenant for the Freedom Tower, but said he has more than enough money to complete it with insurance proceeds. He has said he will use "traditional financing methods" to pay for the rest of the development.