The first columns for the indecision-plagued Freedom Tower were raised today: WTC tower steel rises at ground zero.

I still wish they were building this, but I’m glad to see the project finally starting for real.

NEW YORK - Two 25-ton steel columns — one bearing signatures of American steelworkers who helped make it — rose at ground zero Tuesday, a milestone in prolonged efforts to build the skyscraper that will replace the World Trade Center.

As construction workers, politicians and architects applauded, a massive crane lifted the first, 31-foot-high column, which was painted with an American flag and the words “Freedom Tower,” and set it over steel bars on the southern edge of the tower’s base.

A second column set a few feet away carried the signatures of steelworkers and politicians from Virginia, where it spent time at a steel company before being shipped to New York.

A third column lay on its side, plastered with signatures of New Yorkers and Sept. 11 victims’ relatives as well as pictures of some firefighters killed in the 2001 attack. It will be installed in the next few days.

By next spring, 27 of the jumbo steel columns will anchor the skyscraper and rise to street level — about 70 feet from the bottom of ground zero.