FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Federal agencies opening offices at One World Trade Center is a "message to the entire world that we will never renounce our values," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday, marking the return of the U.S. government to the World Trade Center.
Friday's ceremony, on the 63rd floor of One WTC, commemorated several U.S. agencies opening offices over the past year inside the soaring building, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Control.
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Charles led the commemoration, saying that return of federal offices to the World Trade Center, which had a long history at the Twin Towers, indicated the renewal of Lower Manhattan.
"Literally out of the ashes, we have rebuilt stronger and taller," Charles said Friday, two days before the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
Charles also presented outgoing NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton with a plaque, "the highest award for your service," he told Bratton, adding, "Billy, you've been a terrific friend to Homeland Security."
De Blasio said rebuilding the World Trade Center, complete with the return of the federal government signifies that "we bring back all of the strength we associate with this location...we show that the terrorists achieved none of their aims."
"The terrorists lost and lost badly," he said "This place came back literally stronger than ever."
One World Trade Center, now the tallest building in America, at a symbolic 1,776 feet tall, still has about one-third of its office space up for rent, after opening in late 2014.
