At nearly $4 billion dollars One WTC, also known as Freedom Tower, is the most expensive skyscraper in the world. And since its announcement more than twelve years ago, it has undergone numerous designs and one transformation after another.

Some may wonder what makes the skyscraper so expensive. For starters, it isn’t the tallest building in the world. In fact, the Burj Khalifa is more than 1,000 feet taller. A large majority of the increased expenditure is a direct result of the additional security and building safety measures that were put into place as a result on the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers.

For starters, the structure is built like a bunker. According to the architectural designers, the building had to stand as a metaphor for American resilience. The lessons learned from the 9/11 catastrophe simply couldn’t be ignored.

Some of the added structural features include:

-A 20-story concrete podium built to withstand a 1500 lb. truck bomb.
-An extensive network of filters and redundant air systems to increase ventilation in the event of a fire, airborne toxins, or biological agents.
-High-security elevator shafts that serve as a concrete “spine” for the building in case the steel frame collapses, and…
-An impressive internal security network that includes cameras, thousands of networked security doors, fully-automated elevators, and hundreds of detectors that monitor air quality and temperature.

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