Modern Day Spider Man Climbs to Top of WTC

Modern Day Spider Man Climbs to Top of WTC

  • By Ginger Hill
  • Mar 21, 2014

Imagine this: You’re a 16-year-old living on the border of New York and New Jersey. It’s 4am on a Sunday morning; you’re wide awake and bored (if that’s even remotely possible with access to such a huge city), so what else is there to do than to climb to the top of your favorite building which also happens to be the tallest one in America? Yep, I’m talking about the World Trade Center complete with at least four layers of security, or supposedly!

Modern Day Spider Man Climbs to Top of WTCIntroducing Justin Casquejo, the 16-year-old who crawled through a hole in a Ground Zero fence, tip-toed past a sleeping security guard and fooled the clueless union elevator operator who did not ask the teen for his ID, nor did he have one.

As the story goes, Casquejo was dropped off on the 88th floor, and then hiked up the next 16 flights on foot, reaching the 104th floor. This is where he found the guard sound asleep, who by the way, has since been fired. He climbed up to the roof and then over to the spire, spending about 2 hours snapping photos, until he was finally discovered by a construction worker.

Casquejo bragged to police that it was quite simple to get past security in a building that was supposed to be encased in a “ring of steel,” and explained that he simply walked around the construction site unnoticed and figured out how to access the Freedom Tower rooftop.

Although Casquejo faces trespassing charges, in a one-word tweet, he summed up his adventure: “Inspired.”

About the Author

Ginger Hill is Group Social Media Manager.

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