SLINGMAX® heavy-duty sling helps top the Freedom Tower

Published On: August 19, 2013

The Freedom Tower, located at One World Trade Center (1WTC), New York, N.Y., is a focal point for American pride, determination and recovery following the destruction of New York City’s Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Freedom Tower’s focal point is its 408-foot silver spire. Raising the spire to the Freedom Tower’s peak required the initiative of industrial fabric companies—and slings that lifted the building’s crown to its 1,776-foot apex.

SLINGMAX® Inc., an Aston, Pa., company that provides advanced rigging products, made the slings that cradled the silver spire to the top. The SLINGMAX Twin-Path® High Performance synthetic slings are abrasion resistant, lift high capacities, can be repaired if damaged and have less than a one-percent stretch. The Twin-Path patented design provides the rigger with redundant protection in the event that one path is cut. ASC Industries Inc., East Hazel Crest, Ill., distributes the slings, supported by their expertise with overhead lifting applications.

The slings feature K-SPEC® Core Yarn with Dyneema® ultra high molecular weight polyethylene fibers. Lightweight Dyneema fibers, made by DSM Dyneema LLC, Stanley, N.C., are strong enough to protect armored vehicles from rocket fire, a confidence-builder for workers staging the lift. These companies, and many others, took great pride in the entire Freedom Tower construction. Tony Fastuca, vice president of sales and marketing for PYTHON America, a wire rope distributor, said: “I had a sense of pride every time I walked onto the job site.”