After nearly nine years, life is returning to ground zero in a tangible way.
Sixteen swamp white oaks arriving Saturday are the first of nearly 400 trees planned for the former World Trade Center site where more than 2,700 people were killed in on Sept. 11, 2001.
Cultivated for four years on a New Jersey nursery, the 16 trees were to be loaded onto eight tractor-trailers at midnight Friday for the 35-mile trip. For about two days, crews will work around the clock planting them on the 8-acre memorial plaza that its designers envisioned as a peaceful green space.
Eventually the sanctuary will be home to 389 of the oaks. The trees will surround the plaza's two huge pools built on the footprints of the destroyed towers.
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