One World Trade Center: New York’s tallest building? (PHOTOS)

One World Trade Center is to surpass the Empire State Building today as New York City's tallest building.

More from GlobalPost: World Trade Center to become New York's tallest building

The record will be official once a steel column is lifted into place, reported BBC News. The installation of the column on the 100th floor of the skyscraper will put it at 1,271 feet, with one floor of the building being erected each week, and its final height coming in at 1,776 feet.

Also known as the Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center doesn't quite have a firm hold on the No. 1 spot in the United States yet, according to MSNBC. There have been doubts about whether or not the building being erected on the site of the 9/11 attacks should have its antenna counted toward its height. Count it, and One World Trade Center stays on top. Without it, the skyscraper sits at No. 2, behind Chicago's Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower.

"Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records, according to MSNBC.

Whether or not it comes in first in terms of its height, One World Trade Center will always be symbolic to New Yorkers, according to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"The latest progress at the World Trade Center is a testament to New Yorkers' strength and resolve – and to our belief in a city that is always reaching upward," he said to the New York Daily News. "This building has been a labor of love for many, and I congratulate the men and women who have worked together to solve the challenges presented by this incredibly complex project."

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