New York to dig up World Trade Center area

World Trade Center rebuilding and an ongoing search for human remains have continued to unearth debris from the fallen twin towers under nearby roads and possibly under ground.

Hundreds of human bones, ranging from fragments to full arm and leg bones, have been found since October and continue to be recovered daily in a massive city-led search for the remains of victims missed in the cleanup right after the 2001 terrorist attacks. City officials have searched manholes, rooftops, sewer lines, a service road at ground zero and under a state highway, sometimes finding steel and debris from the destroyed towers mixed in with the remains.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the lower Manhattan site's owner, recently found material that "could be trade center debris" under a road in front of the World Financial Center, the skyscrapers west of ground zero, deputy mayor Ed Skyler said Tuesday in a memo to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The agency was digging in the area to build an underground tunnel as part of a transit hub. continued →