'America Rebuilds' -- World Trade Center Cleanup & Future -- PBS TV 9/10/2002.

Entertainment Editors and Television Writers

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Aug. 1, 2002

In "America Rebuilds," a 90 minute film produced by Great Projects Film Co., PBS offers a sensitive, comprehensive portrait of the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Center and the beginning of the effort to rebuild the 16 acres of lower Manhattan devastated that day. "America Rebuilds" will be seen on PBS September 10, 10 pm ET/PT.

The film, which a crew from Great Projects began shooting on October 31, 2001, was made possible through a decision by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to grant the film company complete access to the disaster site and to personnel assigned to the demolition and recovery. Great Projects' original contact with Mayor Giuliani was made through George Tamaro, an engineer who had advised the film company on its four-part series, "Great Projects, The Building of America," seen on PBS in the summer of 2002.

Central to "America Rebuilds" is New York's little known Department of Design and Construction (D.D.C.). Typically, the D.D.C. builds schools and playgrounds. To say that the demolition and stabilization of the World Trade Center site dwarfs the experience of every engineer working on the project is understatement in the extreme, but there are no other words for it. Seven buildings on the 16 acre site were destroyed together with the lives of nearly 3,000 people.

Improvisation dominates "America Rebuilds." Firemen had no way of searching through the twisted steel debris until the ironworkers arrived, bringing with them the skill and the equipment to cut the steel and move burned out vehicles from the streets, making way for rescue and recovery equipment. Cranes could not enter the massive foundation area or "bathtub" of the Trade Center. They are too heavy. Instead, giant tank-like "grapplers" were used to wrestle massive steel girders from the debris. Sites for the equipment were constantly changing because as debris was removed, a previously stable location often became unstable. Welding torches glow like small suns against the night sky. Engineers sit in chairs designed for second graders in rooms decorated with children's watercolors as they adjust and re-adjust their plans. Their construction office is a commandeered school. Through it all the reverent, solemn recovery of human remains, accompanied by the grieving, ash-covered faces of a spontaneous Fire Department honor guard punctuate the work. The public meetings and political debate about the site's future offer an almost jarring counterpoint to the solemnity of the recovery effort.

Public meetings and political debate point the way to the future. The site is crossed by a subway station that will cost a quarter billion dollars to rebuild. A damaged PATH commuter train station is estimated at half a billion to restore. Parts of the eight-lane West Side Highway need to be rebuilt, along with countless miles of public utilities -- and that is before any comprehensive rebuilding can be undertaken. Already the public have made themselves heard, demanding that Seven World Trade Center, the first of the buildings to be restored, be bisected to make way for the restoration of Greenwich Street, which the Trade Center's original planners had closed to make a contiguous site.

Major funding for "America Rebuilds" is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Coldwell Banker Real Estate. Executive Producers are Kenneth Mandel and Daniel B. Polin. Producers are Seth Kramer and Daniel A. Miller. On-site World Trade Center recovery and cleanup footage was shot by Justin Schein and Roger Grange.

Note to Editors: Photos Available