The first steel columns of a new Freedom Tower were raised at the World Trade Center site today, more than five years after 2,749 people died when the Twin Towers were hit by two hijacked airliners and collapsed.
Agiant crane lowers the first of three 25-ton steel columns into position to be bolted into place marking the beginning of the Freedom Tower's construction
With more human remains found recently and victims' families still bickering over a memorial, three steel pylons were put into place -- one bearing the words " Freedom Tower " and another covered with thousands of hand-written messages.
"Today America's strength is evident in these columns of steel -- the footings for the great monument to freedom that is rising on this hallowed site," New York Governor George Pataki said at the ceremony.
The 1,776-foot (541-metre) Freedom Tower is due to be completed in 2011. Initial plans for reconstruction at the site of the September 11 attacks were delayed by arguments over financing, security and design.
In late October, bones were found in a manhole covered by a temporary road built after the attacks to allow in cranes to remove debris. An ensuing search uncovered more than 200 body parts in the weeks that followed, ranging in size from 1 inch (2.5 cm) to 12 inches (30 cm) in length.
Some 1,148 of the 2,749 victims of the Twin Towers attack are yet to be recovered or identified. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said more than 20,800 remains had been recovered and nearly 11,000 of those had been identified.
The Freedom Tower includes plans for a memorial that has raised objections from some victims' families. On Monday several family groups rejected New York City's plan for listing the names of victims from one tower in groups and with their affiliations, but then listing the victims of the other tower without such information included.