Damaged trade center building torn down

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A wrecking ball Saturday began knocking down what remained of World Trade Center 4, another casualty of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Elsewhere in New York, life began returning to normal, with people visiting the Empire State Building after a bogus bomb threat closed it for a day.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani attended another memorial service for more victims of the attacks, and said he planned to go on television later Saturday to urge New Yorkers to laugh again.

Also, two former political adversaries announced a joint effort to create a scholarship fund for the attacks' youngest survivors.

309 confirmed dead

At the spot known as "ground zero," the World Trade Center site, heavy machinery prowled about the site of building No. 4. The 24-year-old, seven-story, 84,500-square-foot building partially collapsed when rubble from the twin towers fell on its roof.

Other buildings made unstable by the collapse of the twin towers will also be torn down in coming days, city officials said.

The death toll Saturday rose to 309, of whom 248 have been identified, said Giuliani, who attended memorials in Queens Saturday for a firefighter and paramedic.

Between 4,642 and 5,641 people remain missing, he said. The lower figure is based on reports from family members; the higher number is compiled by the police department, which draws from six separate sources of information and may contain some duplicates, he said.

Anyone worried about their immigration status should not be deterred from reporting a person missing, Giuliani said. "Nothing will be done to you," he said. Private benefits to the families of the dead and missing will be shared with undocumented immigrants, though benefits from public sources may not, he said.

Nearly 8,800 others were injured in the attacks, noted Giuliani, who said that it would be a "miracle" if searchers found anyone alive in the ruins.

"The reality is that we don't expect that we're going to be able to find anyone alive," said Giuliani. Some of the victims may never be identified, he said.

The process of obtaining death certificates began Thursday. By Saturday afternoon, 946 people had filled out forms at the family assistance center, where hundreds of grief counselors and volunteer lawyers stood by to help them.

'Cry and laugh'

Giuliani said he planned to end his day with an appearance on "Saturday Night Live."

"It's going to be a short statement about the seriousness of this, and then we're going to ask people to laugh," he said. "We have to be able to figure out how to cry and laugh at the same time."

In another development, former President Bill Clinton and former presidential candidate Bob Dole announced in Washington Saturday they would spearhead a campaign to raise scholarship funds for young survivors of the attacks.

Last week, New York Gov. George E. Pataki announced a similar benefit, though it is restricted to relatives of the dead and missing who want to attend New York institutions.

Elsewhere in the city, the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building, New York's tallest skyscraper after the twin towers' destruction, reopened to the public Saturday morning, a day after a bomb threat prompted officials to evacuate the building's offices.

People lined up outside the door and down the block to get in, said Giuliani.

"They want to show they're not going to be stopped; they're not going to be afraid," he said. "That's very typical of New Yorkers."

Traffic began to return to normal, too, as police lifted traffic restrictions that had been in place earlier in the week for motorists heading into Manhattan.

However, the requirement that private vehicles entering Manhattan below 63rd Street contain at least two people will be reinstated Monday at 6 a.m., Giuliani said. He credited the car-occupancy restrictions for a 38 percent drop in traffic across the Queensborough Bridge Friday.

Economic hit

Statisticians continued evaluating the attacks, too.

In a preliminary analysis of the economic impact of the attacks, the New York City Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO estimated 108,500 jobs will have been lost by October 11.

The estimated wages and compensation lost was put at $6.7 billion, and the estimated total output lost was $16.9 billion.

Giuliani acknowledged that the city has taken a "significant" financial hit since the attacks, but said he did not know what the total impact would be.

"We are coming out of it," he said. "There were a lot more people in the streets today. More tourists today than yesterday, and more yesterday than the day before."

Commercial traffic "seems pretty much back to what it was," and schools report 88 percent attendance, he said.

According to latest accounts, the amount of rubble removed from the site, rose Saturday to 139,782 tons, carted off in 9,403 truckloads. Among the thousands who slowed to view the rubble was Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who met late Saturday with Giuliani.

"The Canadian people are with you," Chretien told the mayor. "We have to work -- all the nations together -- to make sure that terrorism is destroyed."