NEW YORK — From rubble to rebirth, the live-streaming website EarthCam has documented the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site over the past quarter of a century through time-lapse imagery.
It has now released a new documentary showcasing those 25 years of pictures in lower Manhattan.
“EarthCam was started as a way to really bring people together using live camera technology,” Brian Cury, EarthCam’s founder and CEO, told Spectrum News. “First, we were doing entertainment events. And when the terror attacks occurred on Sept. 11, we were compelled to use this technology that we had, this webcasting technology, to be able to share that witness to the world.
“We first started documenting the rescue and recovery efforts, and that led to the construction and rebuilding efforts.”
Cury said that due to the size of the World Trade Center site — which is 16 acres and now features the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center building — panoramic time-lapse images seen on the EarthCam website are actually made up of thousands of photos stitched together.
“When you look at it day by day, it looks like a real slow, gradual effort,” he said. “But when you look at the 25-year time lapse, you see the monumental, tremendous effort and the accomplishment that’s taken place.”
Not surprisingly, the technology has evolved considerably over the years.
“We started out with maybe a twelfth of a megapixel, and now we’re doing 80,000-megapixel imagery,” Cury noted.
The video showing the 25-year time lapse, along with EarthCam’s documentary, “We Never Left,” can be viewed at EarthCam.com and on YouTube.