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Up, Up, & Away

Up, Up, & Away

No, we’re not talking about the progress on Tower 1, though that is impressive. We’re talking about news of the building’s new, fastest-in-the-hemisphere elevators. Call it jealousy: We’ve been having horrible problems lately at A/N HQ with the elevator. First, it was grinding and creaking. Then it was getting stuck between floors. They say it’s fixed but we’re still taking the stairs. Can we be blamed for looking longingly to the south from 21 Murray Street after this ecstatic report from tomorrow’s Times:

Add one more ear-popping superlative to the structural distinctions at 1 World Trade Center.

On opening in 2013, it will have the five fastest elevators in the Western Hemisphere, according to the company that will make them. These express cars, serving the restaurant and observatory, will reach a top speed of 2,000 feet a minute, meaning that a trip to the top of the city’s tallest building will take less than three-quarters of a minute.

To put that speed in perspective, it is 25 percent faster than the express elevators that served the twin towers — which seemed plenty quick enough, once you had negotiated the long waiting line.

Perhaps we’ve been rendered paranoid, but what happens when you get stuck on a super elevator? Are you super screwed?


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