Once More to the Sky: The Rebuilding of the World Trade Center

Journalist Raab (You’re Welcome, Cleveland) brings together 10 essays on the rebuilding efforts at the 16-acre site of the fallen Twin Towers, written for Esquire from 2005 to 2015, in this arresting tribute. “The Foundation” describes how the Freedom Tower’s footprint was forced back from the street for security reasons as the NYPD feared it was open to truck bombs, while “The Blasters” explains that underground work such as testing the bedrock and relocating the utilities could only be done between 1 and 5 a.m. so as to not interfere with the schedules of commuter trains that run near the site. Key figures come to life, too: Port Authority executive director Chris Ward comes across as “a straight-shooting leader” who got the delayed project back on track, in “Good Days at Ground Zero,” and the Freedom Tower’s architect, David Childs, sweet-talks Larry Silverstein, the World Trade Center’s leaseholder, in “The Engineers.” Though the essays occasionally rehash information (likely due to their initially being published as a magazine series), together with Woolhead’s photos, the collection presents an inspiring commentary on New York post-9/11, covering the construction efforts as well as the lives of the architects, ironworkers, and bedrock blasters behind it. Readers will be moved by this vivid collection. (Aug.)