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American Ground by William Langewiesche, North Point Press, $22, ISBN 0865475822 Reviewed by Jonathan Beard

Subway service resumed on the Number 1 Line in Lower Manhattan on 15 September last year, with the first train rolling through the huge hole left by the World Trade Center collapse, heading for the South Ferry station.

How was the largest pile of twisted steel, pulverised concrete and human remains in history removed in just one year, and without a single fatal accident? William Langewiesche, the only journalist to stay on the site for 9 months, tells the tale of deconstructing the Twin Towers,…

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