One World Trade Center (also 1 World Trade Center or 1 WTC, formerly known as the Freedom Tower) is the primary building of the new World Trade Center complex in New York City's Lower Manhattan. The 104-story supertall skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. The building is bordered to the west by West Street, to the north by Vesey Street, to the south by Fulton Street, and to the east by Washington Street. Construction on below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the building began on April 27, 2006.[10] On March 30, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the building would be known by its legal name, One World Trade Center, rather than the colloquial name, Freedom Tower.

The tower's steel structure topped out on August 30, 2012.[4][11] On May 10, 2013, the final component of the skyscraper's spire was installed, making One World Trade Center the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the world by pinnacle height. Its spire reaches a symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 m) in reference to the year of the United States Declaration of Independence.[12][13][14] It has been the tallest building in New York City since April 30, 2012, when it surpassed the height of the Empire State Building.[15][16] The new World Trade Center complex will also feature three other high-rise office buildings, located along Greenwich Street, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located just south of One World Trade Center, where the Twin Towers once stood. The construction is part of an effort to memorialize and rebuild following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex during theterrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.