Mayor: World Trade Center Tour 'Experience of a Lifetime'

Walking through the site of where the World Trade Center once stood, almost 10 years to the day since terrorists crashed hijacked planes into them, Mayor Kathy Fitzpatrick couldn’t hold back the tears.

“It was very powerful and emotional,” Fitzpatrick said. “Just amazing.”

The Cinnaminson mayor was asked, along with 11 other New Jersey mayors that included Dana Redd in Camden, to . Fitzpatrick and the others walked the new memorial and museum, construction site, and even went up to the 50th floor of what will be One World Trade Center.

The group met at the Hudson News Stand, the end of the PATH near the World Trade Center.

“We identified each other because we were all wearing work boots,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was very funny.”

Joining the boots were safety goggles, a vest and a hard hat. Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port Authority, led them on a tour of the site.

“The scope of the reconstruction was exceptionally complex,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s an unbelievable amount of work.”

Planned rebuilding of the World Trade Center includes five towers, along with 7 World Trade Center, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and a transportation hub.

As of this month, there are 80 floors finished for One World Trade, with glass paneling reaching the 53rd floor.

Fitzpatrick got to sign her name on a steel beam on the 70th floor of the building.

“The views were spectacular,” said Fitzpatrick.

The tower will be 105 stories when finished, and will be the tallest office building in the world. Fitzpatrick said it would be high enough to see the curvature of the earth.

The mayors toured the site of the new memorial and museum. The memorial set to open this Sept. 11 and the museum next year. It’s based on the footprint of the first tower that went down, according to Fitzpatrick.

“All along the perimeter is every victim’s name etched in bronze,” she said. “I was just overcome with emotion because you see right before you all the names of the people and the lives that are touched from one person,” Fitzpatrick said.

Hundreds of trees are planted around the memorial’s square too. The trees will not have red leaves, Port Authority officials told the mayor, so no red leaves will fall near Sept. 11 each year.

“With each decision the Port Authority made,” Fitzpatrick said, “it’s just such a high regard to the honor of the victims and their families.”

In the future, families of the victims of the attacks will be able to gain access to the part of the museum dubbed as the official Ground Zero. Fitzpatrick and visitors were able to visit that spot. She called it “sacred ground.”

"It was just an experience of a lifetime," Fitzpatrick said, "not unlike 9/11, that I will never forget. I don't know why I was blessed with it."

The entire World Trade Center project is slated for completion by 2015. Fitzpatrick said Baroni told the visitors that upon completion, 25,000 people will have worked on the project.

“There was a sense of resolve I saw on the construction workers’ faces,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was very solemn—powerful and emotional. They caught your eye and smiled with pride. It was so touching.”

Mayor Kathy Fitzpatrick was asked to attend the Empty Sky Memorial dedication in Liberty State Park in Jersey City on Sept. 10. The monument will display the names of the 746 New Jerseyans who lost their lives during 9/11. Check back for a story on that.