[caption id="attachment_100452" align="aligncenter" width="607"] Getty Images[/caption]

More than a decade after the original World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, and seven years since construction began, the 408-foot spire was placed atop the new World Trade Center this morning, making the building the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

One World Trade Center's total height of 1,776 feet is a symbolic allusion to the year America declared its independence.

The spire, actually an antennae for an in-house TV broadcast facility, is comprised of 18 steel sections and three communications rings. Installed in January, the first section alone weighs more than 65 tons.

"[The spire is a] beacon that'll be seen for miles around and give a tremendous indication to people around the entire region, and the world, that we're back and we're better than ever," construction director Steven Plate told CNN.

Don't pack your bags just yet, though–One World Trade Center won't be open to the public until 2014.