One World Observatory atop new World Trade Center to open May 29

One World Observatory on the upper floors of New York City’s new One World Trade Center building will open to visitors May 29. Tickets go on sale Wednesday (today) for the city’s newest perch for spectacular aerial views of Manhattan’s skyscrapers and neighborhoods.

The observatory isn’t just one observation deck. It takes up three floors -- 100, 101 and 102 -- in the building in the Ground Zero area of the city where the former Twin Towers stood.

visitors can walk around the floors to see different views -- from the southern Battery to uptown and beyond. (See the video rendering above to get an idea of what you’ll experience.)

The Main Observatory on the building’s 100th floor offers an “interactive skyline concierge” that helps explain what landmarks and neighborhoods you’re seeing from on high. Here you can step onto a 14-foot-wide disc called the Sky Portal to look directly down and see what’s 1,250 feet below.

Even the elevators (called Sky Pods) that whisk you up to the top are decked out with high-tech walls that re-create the city’s skyline from the 1600s to today.

The See Forever Theater on the 102nd floor shows a two-minute video of aerial views of the city. There are restaurants too for those who want to stay and linger.

Tickets cost $32 for adults (13 to 64 years old), $26 for children (6 to 12 years old) and $30 for people 65 years old and older. Admission tickets are issued for a time and date.

The observatory will be open year round from 9 a.m. to midnight daily from May 29 to Sept. 7. After that, hours change from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Buy tickets at OneWorldObservatory or call (844) 696-1776. You can also purchase them at the box office, open at 8:30 a.m. daily in the lobby of the building at 285 Fulton St. (Enter on West Street near the corner of West and Vesey Street.)

One World Trade Center opened last year. It’s the largest of the buildings in the footprint of the former Twin Towers, which were destroyed Sept. 11, 2001, in a terrorist attack.

The area includes the nearby National September 11 Memorial Museum and the 9/11 Memorial which honors the 2,983 victims of attacks on the towers in 1993 and 2001.