World Trade Centre: New York's history unfolds in front of visitors' eyes in incredible time-lapse elevator video

The video starts in subterranean New York

What Manhattan looked like in 1802 (New York Times/World Trade Centre )

Visitors to the new 1 World Trade Centre building will soon have the chance to experience an immersive animation in the building’s lifts, which showcases the development of Manhattan over 515 years.

As sightseers travel from the first to the 102nd floor, a panorama time-lapse will unfolds across nine 75-inch, HD monitors, attached to the elevator walls.

Viewers first find themselves cast deep into the earth in the year 1500, before the lift jolts into action.

A circular timer in the corner shows visitors which century they are in, as green space is gradually dotted with increasingly elaborate buildings. By 1795, a dock appears, while the 1800s usher in the iconic skyscrapers that make up the New York skyline.

The animation also briefly features the façade of one of the twin towers, which were targeted by terrorists in 2001.

One World Trade Center, where the One World Observatory visitors' centre is scheduled to open to the public on 29 May. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

“We did not think you could ignore it,” David W. Checketts, the chief executive of Legends Hospitality, the company chosen by the authorities to operate the three-level observatory, told the New York Times.

"Having it appear in the year it did and disappear in the year it did was the respectful way of addressing the fact that it was part of the landscape.”

In a meta twist, when the timer reaches 2010, the time lapse shows 1 World Trade Centre itself being constructed before visitors’ eyes.

The One World Observatory will open to the public 29 May.