50th tree planted at Ground Zero memorial in NYC

New life is growing at Ground Zero.

The 50th swamp white oak tree was planted Tuesday at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza - the focal point of the World Trade Center's reflecting pools - where the lives of nearly 3,000 killed in terror attacks will be remembered.

"It's starting to make me feel complete that we are filling up the hole and restoring some pride to the city and the country," said Mark Cilla, 55, of Commack, who works for one of the site's contractors, Fresh Meadows Mechanical Corp in Queens.

Cilla, who was at Ground Zero the day after the attacks to help in the rescue effort, said the park will be a great place for people to come and "reflect for the next 600 years."

It is expected that 250 oak trees that will be planted at the Memorial Plaza by summer in preparation for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The trees - which eventually will total 400 - will surround the pedestrian plaza, and the north and south reflecting pools with their waterfalls. They will sit at the footprints marking where the Twin Towers once stood.

Workers Tuesday were installing and waterproofing the granite tiles of the completed south reflecting pool. Work on the north pool is also nearly complete.

The names of the people who died at Ground Zero and those killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be etched in bronze parapets that will rim the four sides of each pool. Thirty-foot waterfalls on all four sides of each pool will cascade 52,000 gallons of recycled water per minute.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who ceremoniously shoveled dirt onto the 50th new tree, said later at a news conference the Memorial Plaza will be open for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, but it not clear if it will be open to the public at that time."We have not gotten down to those details. But we should let the families who have the emotional connection" to be the first to visit the site in 2011, he said.

The 30-foot-high trees will grow a leaf canopy between 18 and 20 feet wide, and grow as high as 80 feet. The trees were selected within a 500-mile radius of the World Trade Center to include Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., also attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.