Look to Floor 102 for wow views when NYC’s One World Trade Center opens

When the observatory atop New York City’s One World Trade Center opens in the spring, visitors can tour three floors and take in panoramic views. Three restaurants, a bar and a virtual concierge to greet you also are planned at what is being touted as the nation’s tallest building.

The observatory will be on the 100th, 101st and 102nd floors of what was once called the Freedom Tower next to the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which opened in May. The big views will be on the 102nd floor with wall-to-ceiling windows that look out more than 1,250 feet above the city.

The building reached a height of 1,776 feet in May to surpass Chicago’s Willis Tower (1,451 feet).

The tour will start at lobby level with a “Voices of the Building” program about its construction, and “Foundations,” which will allow visitors to walk along the bedrock below the skyscraper. From there, five elevators are outfitted with a screen simulation showing the development of Manhattan’s skyline as the cars take visitors on a 60-second ride to the top.

The See Forever Theater on the 102nd floor will offer a two-minute video about the rise of New York City. On the 100th floor, at a circular disk 14 feet wide called a Sky Portal, visitors will be able to stand and look straight down to the streets below.

Only ticket-holders will be allowed to eat at the 101st floor’s fine-dining, casual and grab-and-go eateries.

Tickets are to go on sale early next year (no date yet) and will cost $32 for adults 13 to 64 years old, $26 for children 6 to 12. Family members of 9/11 victims and rescue and recovery workers get in free.

Though sales haven’t yet begun, tickets are to be available at the observatory’s website, which also will have updates.

Info: One World Observatory