New York ( CNN ) -- For more than 200 years , it lay hidden beneath the ground upon which New York City 's World Trade Center once stood . Now , four years after its discovery , scientists say they 've solved the mystery of the ship hull found in the wreckage of the former World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan . The hull , originally found by archeologists monitoring the site 's excavation , has been traced back to colonial-era Philadelphia , according to researchers at the Tree Ring Research Laboratory at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University . `` An old growth forest in the Philadelphia area supplied the white oak used in the ship 's frame and ... the trees were probably cut in 1773 or so -- a few years before the bloody war that established America 's independence from Britain , '' according to a statement from the scientists . Researchers used a process known as `` dendroprovenancing '' to determine the hull 's origins , whereby tree rings from wood samples were analyzed and referenced against several other historical tree chronologies . `` Trees respond to climate each year and that pattern of rings created within the tree produces a signature for that species in a forest or region , '' said Neil Pederson , a research scientist on the study . `` We took oak samples from the World Trade Center vessel and made a record of growth through time . We then compared it to independent records of white oak that we had . '' Researchers looked at oak chronologies from Boston through Virginia , but their analysis found that the samples had the greatest compatibility with trees in eastern Pennsylvania , particularly in the Philadelphia area dating in the latter part of the 18th century . Scientists also found that the same kind of oak trees used to build the ship were also likely used to build Philadelphia 's Independence Hall , where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 , the study said . The ship was found approximately 6.7 meters , or nearly 22 feet below ground , just south of where the World Trade Center towers stood before they were toppled in the September 11 , 2001 , terror attacks . It was not detected during earlier construction . `` It 's such an intense site already based on its recent history , so to be in the midst of this urban , modern , very fraught location , and then to be sitting on what was a river bottom , with clams and fish , and the smell of low tide , was really an amazing juxtaposition , '' said Molly McDonald , an archeologist with the environmental consulting firm AKRF , who was among those who discovered the ship 's hull in the wreckage in 2010 . Archeologists typically perform basic research to determine whether a construction site could be sensitive for archeological reasons , said McDonald . She and her colleagues had been at ground zero to monitor construction for any potential finds . `` Early one morning , we were monitoring and suddenly saw this curved timber come up , '' she recalled . `` It was clear to me that it was part of a ship , so we stopped the backhoes and starting hand digging . '' The ship has been tentatively identified as a Hudson River sloop , which researchers say was designed by the Dutch to carry passengers and cargo over the river 's rocky shallows . After being in use for 20 to 30 years , the ship is believed to have sailed to lower Manhattan , where it was eventually sunk , either deliberately or by accident , and ultimately buried by trash and other fill materials purposely used to extend Manhattan 's shoreline . `` Abundant fill materials such as rocks , earth , and refuse were placed behind wooden barriers or within wood structures to create new land . Earlier wharfs and abandoned merchant ships were often a component of the fill in newly constructed land , '' according to the study . The majority of the ship remains are currently being stored at Texas A & M University , said Jason Conwall , spokesman for Empire State Development . The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. , created in the aftermath of 9/11 to help plan the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan , is a subsidiary of Empire State Development , owns the ship . `` We 're working on potential options for the future which could potentially include preservation of the ship , but right now , set plans are still being determined , '' Conwall said . For Pederson and fellow researchers , the ship 's discovery and the investigation that followed has provided data that may prove useful for further research . `` The beauty of dendrochronology is that we can actually use those same samples to understand past climate change and the ecology of forests . The response to our work has been really big , bigger than we expected , '' Pederson said . `` For us , we have this really rich data set from the World Trade Center ship that we can use for future work . In a way , the ship lives on . '' A U-boat and its American prey haunt Gulf of Mexico . Explorer : Underwater pirates looted what he says is likely Santa Maria . After 125 years , ship rediscovered at bottom of San Francisco Bay .
Scientists say hull found at the The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. site likely originated from a forest in the Santa Maria area . Vessel likely built around 1773 and believed to have been a the Declaration of Independence ship . Scientists analyzed and compared tree-rings on wood from the ship with wood samples to determine probable age . Ship 's hull was found by archeologists at ground 9/11 site in 1773 .