The One World Trade Center Tower in Manhattan was declared the tallest U.S. building, narrowly beating out Chicago's Willis Towers.
There were doubts that the needle on the top of the World Trade Center counted as part of the building or was simply an antenna, USA Today reports.
The Height Committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat were called in to make a rule on which building was taller. The committee ruled that the needle was a part of the building, making the World Trade Center the symbolic height of 1,776 feet.
The One World Trade Center was originally designed to have communication equipment set in fiberglass and steel with a decorative cladding. The designer, however, felt that the plan would make it hard to perform maintenance work on the equipment.
So the building almost stood 1,368, until the design was proposed, which would have made it shorter than the 1,450 foot tall Willis Tower.
According to The Chicago Tribune, Anthony Wood, executive director of the Height Committee noted that the building would be given the title when it was completed in 2014.
"Even though the cladding was taken off the spire, you can still see that it is an architectural element," Wood said. "It is not just a plain steel mast from which to hang antenna or satellite dishes."
With the matter settled, New York City can now brag that they have the tallest building in the United States and Western Hemisphere.
image: Wikimedia Commons
