Austin, Texas--If you look southeast over the Austin skyline you cannot miss Austin's rising star. A sleek new 20-story Air Traffic Control Tower now peers over the former site of Bergstrom Air Force Base, slated to be Austinís new airport in May 1999. Today Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) representatives and local officials celebrated the "Topping Out" of the FAA Tower at a ceremony held in a former "hush" hangar, once used to still the noise from revved up Air Force jets.

The "topping out" ceremony marks the construction milestone of placing the final steel beam at the top of the FAAís $9 million Tower and TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) buildings. In a tradition dating back to 700 AD, when Scandinavians placed evergreens on the ridge poles of newly framed houses to ward off evil spirits, a crane today hoisted a 20-foot mesquite tree to the top of the 227-foot high Air Traffic Control Tower at the New Airport.