--- --- # Watch a Stunning 11-Year Time-Lapse of One World Trade Center Being Built ## Video: RISE [Watch (HLS stream): RISE](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YAAwl6nK.m3u8) (13:48)  _Published 2014-03-03. After 9/11 New York had an arduous task ahead: How to re-build. This is the story of of the World Trade Center's rise back into New York's Skyline, and the iron workers that made it possible_ by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jun 2, 2015 4:13 AM UTC by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jun 2, 2015 4:13 AM UTC To mark the opening of the One World Observatory in New York City over the weekend, EarthCam released an incredible time-lapse video that shows the slow construction of the One World Trade Center over the 11 years it took to build. According to EarthCam’s [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbA89YbWoL8) page, the team cut together hundreds of thousands of high-definition images captured between October 2004 and Memorial Day 2015 to produce the stunning two-minute video of the building rising into the sky. The observation deck, situated on the 100th-102nd floors of the tower, officially opened to the public on May 29\. At 1,298 ft., the One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the western hemisphere and the fourth tallest in the world. [_Read more about the One World Observatory here._](http://time.com/tag/one-world-trade-center/) Watch an 11-Year Time-Lapse of the One World Trade Center Construction ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3904514/one-world-trade-center-observatory-time-lapse-video-construction/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3904514/one-world-trade-center-observatory-time-lapse-video-construction/"},"headline":"Watch a Stunning 11-Year Time-Lapse of One World Trade Center Being Built","datePublished":"2015-06-02T04:13:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:04.502Z","description":"Hundreds of thousands of images capture the laying of the foundations all the way to the finishing touches","url":"https://time.com/3904514/one-world-trade-center-observatory-time-lapse-video-construction/","keywords":["Newsfeed","U.S.","New York City","Construction","Time-lapse"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3904514/one-world-trade-center-observatory-time-lapse-video-construction/","name":"Watch a Stunning 11-Year Time-Lapse of One World Trade Center Being Built"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"RISE","description":"After 9/11 New York had an arduous task ahead: How to re-build. This is the story of of the World Trade Center's rise back into New York's Skyline, and the iron workers that made it possible","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YAAwl6nK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-03T17:37:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YAAwl6nK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3904514/one-world-trade-center-observatory-time-lapse-video-construction/","duration":"PT13M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3904514/one-world-trade-center-observatory-time-lapse-video-construction/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```