Quantcast

Map of the Day: World Trade Center as Fortress

Yesterday, the Daily News created map showing how the World Trade Center will turn the prior super-block of open plazas and buildings into a heavily guarded and gated compound, with entrance limited to those who have been screened and or inspected.

2008_04_wtcmaps.jpg

While little mention is made of what restrictions pedestrian visitors wanting to see the WTC Memorial will be, vehicles getting anywhere near the Freedom Tower or any of the other buildings will have to pass through a phalanx of security. According to the News, "Tenants, chauffeurs, livery cabbies and tour-bus drivers who need regular access to the complex would have to register with cops and win approval as 'trusted drivers.'" (They'd get special transponders.)

However, the NYPD says the Daily News was using "outdated" information and created an exaggerated vision of what the WTC will be. Then again, the NYPD did demand that the Freedom Tower be redesigned for safety reasons, so a checkpoint-heavy WTC site is not so unbelievable.


Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • soothsayer

    not gonna happen. there will be no sallyport on church street. where will you reroute all those hundreds of buses that must go north during rush hour?

  • west side Michael

    It's still a sad graveyard ,what ever the Landlords

    wish to do. I hate going down there ,the cry of

    the dead say we should have had it made into a

    12 acre park as a memorial not another eco disaster

    hi rise conclave.

    Who in their right mind wants to

    now work down there?.

    I was downtown when it happened ,voting so I may

    not be objective.

  • wowthatsucks

    Hmmm, looks similar to the way the NYPD took over the municipal parking lot under Police Plaza and Park Row & neighboring streets in Chinatown. Nahhh, that didn't cause too much headache.

  • EastRiver

    Except not one major american airline has retrofitted their planes with reinforced doors.

    Source please.

  • zodak

    snake plissken will still be able to get it.

  • S.D.

    Um, Snowman, Who's "S.B."??

    (sigh)

    I'm not particularly "anti" anything, but riddle me me this genius:

    How will this make us safer when the entire Island has targets??

    You know, Like Citibank Building on 53rd, the Empire State Building on 34th, NYPL on 40th?

    Ooops! Am I emboldening our enemies? My Bad...

    As the buildings are allegedly resistant to bombing as per the NYPD, what's wrong with the normal and effective barriers?

    OR is this just to give the enclave of people working and living there a false sense of security

    I know! Maybe this is a back door method to reduce congestion? Hmmmm, Very Clever!

    Hey! You were posting at "12:41AM"???

    Can't sleep?

  • matty

    "That's what the reinforced cockpit doors and airport security for."

    Except not one major american airline has retrofitted their planes with reinforced doors.

  • snowman

    "Great, an exclusive Enclave in the name of 'security'...." ~S.D.

    Okay, people like this will always find something to complain about. S.D. I'm sure you're very pleased with yourself for the perceived irony you discovered... And, I'm equally sure that the exclusivity of the area would apply mainly to VEHICLES that don't need to be there... Anti-government-you, S.B., would be allowed to stroll right in as long as you weren't visibly laden with explosives!

    And wasn't the Anti-Atlantic Yards cabal saying that AY shouldn't be built b/c it would be too close to active streets and thus would be too vulnerable to a terrorist-driven-vehicle-bourne-explosive??

    ....You can't win with some people.

  • EastRiver

    Can we please stop calling it the "Freedom Tower"?

    There was an article in the Times a few months ago about how state documents have been increasingly referring to the building as WTC 1 and not as the Freedom Tower. Of course, this has annoyed the usual suspects but they have yet to rally as nothing is official yet.

  • ^sarcasm

  • Peter

    The "war" on terrorism is over. We won. End of discussion.

  • eveostay

    Did any of you read the post? It's just to keep motor vehicles out. This could be a really great pedestrian environment if they do it right.

  • emilydickinson

    I worked on that black for many years, worked uptown, and now I'm back again in that neighborhood. It's getting overrun with gawking tourists. I usually have no problem with tourists, but this whole 'compound' setup is really to control crowds of people who visit NYC and feel some compulsion to see 'Ground Zero'. This is the best case for , 'Move along folks, nothing to see here...' I've ever heard of. I hate to see something like the monstrosity above go up downtown. That's an old, very cool neighborhood with some of NYCs best hidden secrets. Let's leave well enough alone.

    @DaveHogarty: When the zombies come I'll be commandeering a water ferry from World Financial, so feel free to hop on board. Next stop, Bermuda...Lost fans and fantasist's can catch another boat.

  • Dave Hogarty

    On the upside, when the zombies come, at least some NYers will have a full-amenity dystopian redoubt to fall back to.

  • with all those ground tactics how will they secure the airspace?

  • interlard

    Can we please stop calling it the "Freedom Tower"? 9/11 wasn't about freedom, it was about religious nutcases and US foreign policy.

    Perhaps "We're Really Sorry We Funded the Mujahideen Tower"?

  • Spirit of 76

    There are plenty more highly visible targets for truck and car bombs. Can you imagine the kind of mayhem a few such bombs on any NYC bridge or any large bridges around the world would create? It could look like something from out of "I Am Legend." You can't protect everything.

    If we live in terror, then indeed the terrorists have won.

  • EastRiver

    And this will stop jets flying into buildings how?

    It doesn't. That's what the reinforced cockpit doors and airport security for. These procedure are for truck and car bombs. Perhaps you have seen them on television. Any other questions, smart guy?

  • badtzmaru

    Great, on my way to Freedom Tower I will be frisked! And how will this affect shopping trips to Century 21?

  • jt10000

    MidCFrank beat me to it.

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com