Business returned to 2 World Financial Center Monday for the first time since the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Software developer Authentidate is the first company since the attacks to move its entire staff back into 2 World Financial, which is adjacent to "Ground Zero" in Lower Manhattan.
Authentidate has been operating out of a temporary location on

36th Street

since September 11, but executives say they always planned to return to their headquarters.

"It’s a statement for us and it allows us to show world they can't beat us. If we would have gone someplace else, we would have de facto said, 'Hey, we give up.' But no way," Authentidate Vice President Barry Bergman said Monday.

The company's CFO, Patrick Lang, added, "It's good because we're the smallest company in here, and we're the first ones back. So that speaks highly for the ingenuity of high-tech America."

Authentidate employs about two dozen people. Its offices are on the 43rd floor of the building, directly overlooking the cleanup at the World Trade Center site.