Watch as One World Trade Center Comes to Life in a Stunning Time Lapse

Across the street from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum now resides the tallest building in the United States, One World Trade Center. Thanks to its 408-foot long spire, the skyscraper reaches 1,776 feet, soaring beyond the Willis Tower in Chicago. Photographer Benjamin Rosamond had a front-row view to the tower's construction as it began its ascent into the Manhattan skyline and did what any person with this amazing view would do — mount a camera to their living room window and record as a feat of modern engineering unfolds in front of them. Construction of the building was met with countless delays, with the exterior completed in 2013, seven years after concrete was first poured.

Benjamin had the cameras pointed at the skyline from February 2011 to July 2014, amassing somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 total photos, which he whittled down to the 1,100 photos you see here for the sake of time (and possibly sanity). Plus, these included the best-looking shots, usually taken shortly after sunrise, when the colors of the buildings and sky are most picturesque. In addition to the living room camera, he occasionally set up one on a tripod on his bathroom — can we have that bathroom view?! — with a long lens to zoom in on specifics of the scene.

And that gorgeous twilight and evening finale to the tower's construction? That's comprised of photos from just one sunrise and one sunset, where you can see the literal passage of time with the glowing hands of the clock tower to the right off One World Trade Center. In fact, Benjamin told us, that in itself is the beauty of time lapse: "It shows progress that is not visibly obvious to the naked eye . . . it highlights the changes that happen too slowly to notice in real time."

Visits Benjamin's photography site for more of his breathtaking cityscapes.