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[UPDATE] Video: One WTC Tower Making Haunting Moaning Sounds
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 3, 2013
Modified Dec 3, 2013
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Christopher Torella
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 3, 2013
Modified Dec 3, 2013
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[UPDATE BELOW] When the wind whips through the 1 WTC tower from a certain angle, the surrounding area is bewitched by a strange, high-pitched sound evocative of a choral crescendo from a Philip Glass symphony. One local resident captured video and audio of the strange phenomenon last week; it's worth donning headphones if you have them handy and turning the volume up a bit. And it couldn't hurt to light some candles and a sage stick after making sure all the doors and windows are securely locked:
On the day after Thanksgiving, the Tribeca Citzen published this email from a reader:
Have you ever heard from neighbors about the wailing World Trade Center? I live a couple of blocks from the tower, and first heard this very eerie sound during Hurricane Sandy last year. I’ve heard it only once afterwards, sometime last winter. I assumed once the building’s framework and windows went in, the airflow would be redirected.
At 3:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, I awoke to the sound. It was slightly different in timbre, with two tones this time. I couldn’t be sure what it was at first, but after a moment I realized it was the Trade Center. Outside it was raining but the trees were calm. I can only imagine at that height the weather is different. I’m sure all of downtown hears this—it’s unmistakable and very chilling. I had to get up and record it. [You can hear it especially well around :20.] It seemed to calm down about 5 a.m.
And it's not just eerie sounds that are giving the former Twin Towers site a haunted atmosphere. Construction workers say they see the face of a woman in a mangled steel girder recovered from Ground Zero, which is now installed at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum:
It's believed that the beam was located where United Flight 175 collided with the South Tower, and workers have dubbed it "The Angel of 9/11." One visitor told the New York Sun, "You can see the face clear as day, as if it’s looking down over a sacred spot."
Update 1:22 p.m.: Reader Jenna Pope captured more of the mysterious 1 WTC sound during Hurricane Sandy:
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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