We used to count it in terms of feet, number of floors or how many times we visited it when friends came to town. Now, our tallies are less felicitous, involving the number of attacks, the total dead and the amount of insurance money owed to New York developer Larry Silverstein, leaseholder of the site.
On December 6, a federal jury found that the World Trade Center suffered two attacks on 9/11 (a previous jury had declared the two hijacked planes comprised a single strike), allowing Silverstein to collect $2.2 billion, or twice what nine insurance companies were providing. Altogether, the developer is seeking some $4.65 billion for the losses that day. The money will go to rebuild lower Manhattan, including a 1,776-foot skyscraper bearing the unimaginative name of Freedom Tower which will rise on the trade center site.
Experts predict the verdict will almost certainly cause sharp rises in premiums for property coverage. But for many of us the real cost is levied each time we look at the New York skyline and realize our view is now, and forever will be, incomplete.
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