Iowa Public Television

America Rebuilds II: Return to Ground Zero

America Rebuilds II: Return to Ground Zero

After recapping rebuilding since 9/11, including cleanup and recovery, which were the focus of the first AMERICA REBUILDS: A YEAR AT GROUND ZERO, FOUNDATIONS OF FREEDOM explores how people -- builders, developers and victims' families -- are working against terrific odds to move forward.

Fueled by necessity and federal funding, Port Authority engineers rapidly rebuilt the PATH commuter rail-line so that tens of thousands could return to work in Lower Manhattan. But greater challenges lie ahead. Builder and World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein, backed by insurance settlements and driven by commitment, rebuilt a skyscraper at 7 World Trade Center. Though state-of-the-art, it remains largely vacant. And victims' families, seeking to create meaning from their loss, dedicate themselves to helping others make sense of the site.

As documented in A YEAR AT GROUND ZERO, the first year's work at the site brought out the best in Americans and New Yorkers. Can what began as an unprecedented cooperative effort by public and private sectors to create one of the largest public works projects in American history continue and succeed? FOUNDATIONS OF FREEDOM will document the effort in a way that is measured and accurate, and sensitive to the essence of what's at stake for New York and the nation.