Building Past The Sept. 11 Attacks

Federal and New York state officials said Sunday they'll rent half the office space in the Freedom Tower, the tallest of the yet-to-be-built skyscrapers planned for the World Trade Center site.

Federal agencies have agreed to lease about 600,000 square feet, and the state will rent another 400,000 square feet.

CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod went down into the pit at Ground Zero on the fifth anniversary of the attacks to see what has been – and what will be – done.

Seventy feet below street level, Ken Ringler, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, defends the pace of rebuilding on the site.

"I'm as impatient as anybody to see structures come out of the ground, but you know it has only been five years," Ringler said. "People really didn't know what they wanted to do. There were some people that would have liked to grass the site over. There were others that said we should build the original towers."

The Port Authority – the agency which owns the 16-acre site – got the trains running again down here just 16 months after the cleanup.

But, breaking ground on buildings took a lot more time. Construction is underway at Ground Zero – signified by the workers hard hats.

"Six months ago, I didn't need have to wear a hard hat down here," Ringler said.

By next January, steel will be rising out of the ground for what New York's governor has dubbed the "Freedom Tower," a 1,776-foot icon to fill the hole in the Manhattan skyline.

Building the new towers is personal for many of the construction workers who also worked on the recovery and cleanup after 9/11.

"Oh, it definitely is personal," Ringler said. "It's personal, I think for all Americans."

Most personal of all is the memorial to nearly the 3,000 people killed in the attacks. Construction of that is finally underway.

Water will cascade into reflecting pools where the Twin Towers once stood with access to the bedrock below the buildings.

Part of the deep foundation wall – which keeps Hudson River waters at bay – will remain exposed as a symbol of the strength of a democracy that withstood the attacks.

Passionate debate and redesigns for security concerns have given way to bulldozers and bullish attitude.

"By moving forward and listening to these sounds and seeing the faces of people building the project, it gives us a sense of pride, and I think, a sense of renewal," Ringler said.

You don't often think of building projects as therapeutic, but this one most certainly is.