Posted by Kristi on November 21, 2001, at 11:33:21
In reply to New York, New York, posted by Adam on November 20, 2001, at 23:54:23
Wow Adam..... I just have chills beyond belief right now. I haven't heard it described in such detail... and I picture it often. I grew up in Upstate NY but lived with my mom in Manhattan in the summers...
I have every day mourned that city's landscape, and obviously the people who died..... wanting to go see it, but in too fragile of a state to handle it. I agree with you..... I also hope they don't build anything over it. It is part of history now... but also the thought of them possibly building on top of people,.. it's unsettling.
Anyway, I wanted to thank you. You put me there without having to go there! Kristi> Well, since some 'Babblers live in NYC, and what happened there has been all over the news, most of what I have to say about my trip there will not reveal much that is not already known. But I did visit, as planned, and, in some spare time, went down to "Ground Zero" to see what I could see...
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> I went downtown last Saturday, which would be the 17th of this month. I had spent all of my time earlier in midtown or uptown Manhattan, and, just two months after the attack, things seem remarkably normal in those parts. On Fri. night the SO and I went to a show ("Proof"...it was OK). Times Square and vincinity is still a busy mob. But not as busy. After the show, we grabbed a ride on this rickshaw instead of a cab, since the weather was so beautiful, and asked the poor guy pedaling us to Columbus Circle how the business was. He said things were about 2/3 where they were at the same time the year before, and that felt about right. Maybe a bit optimistic.
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> I got up pretty early the next day, and while my girlfriend was busy with work, I set out to gawk at the destruction with all the other tourists. I first got on the C train to High Street, Brooklyn, to go to the Heights and the Promenade, to take pictures where I had almost a year before, kind of a "before and after" experience. It was my first real glimpse of that part of the Manhattan. It was even more creepy than I thought it would be. The highrises of the Financial District and Lower East Side are big; they could stand as peers of the highest buildings in Boston, and there are many of them. But the Twin Towers loomed half-again as high at them, at least, and in my mind's eye, the uninterupted blue where they once stood really was astonishing.
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> The Promenade had scattered about it, either on the rail above the road below or on the fences behind, withered bouquets of flowers that people had tied there. There were also signs with various slogans or prayers here and there. In heaps at corners of the fencing were the broken or burned-out remains of candles, still there after all this time. I guess this was all the remains of one or many vigils, and it is a perfect spot for such a thing. It seemed strange to think, though, of all the people that must have been up there, mourning a hole in the sky. On one part of the rail was hung a nicely-framed, black-and-white photo of the Manhattan Skyline, taken from Brooklyn. All I could do when I looked at the photo was shake my head.
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> Getting to the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero was easy: Just hop back on the C and get off at the World Trade Center stop, near Fulton St. I walked right by Trinity Church and Wall St. before I turned toward where the towers used to be. While passing Trinity, I could see the grass in the graveyard behind it was till covered in places with grey dust.
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> You can only get so close to the destruction. You catch glimpses of what's left of the towers and the other wrecked buildings that were near them between other buildings, past fences and road-blocks beyond which one cannot go. Having said this, I was suprised how close I could get, in places. You can clearly see the remains of the Twin Towers in a couple of spots, most strikingly the few remaining floors of what I guess is Tower One, and the jagged sort of piece of exoskeliton of the other tower that juts up many stories above the wreckage. Yes, the wreckage is still burning, and you can smell it. It is an acrid smell, the smell of all kinds of artificial things when they burn. It was never all that overpowering, but it was certainly disturbing. Also, there is still a membrane-thin layer of the grey dust on everything. You can see it on the sides of buildings, and clinging to everything tenaciously, even though most of it has been washed away. I remember especially, as I made a circut of the what is left of the World Trade Center, how struck I was standing in front of that great glass atrium, just beyond where the bridge over West Street (and West Street, for that matter) used to be. The glass is dusty, but still reasonably transparent. The side facing the water is intact. The side facing the towers is in ruins. Through it, you see some of the destruction beyond. Gazing up above the glass gate, I could see the boarded-up windows of the AMEX and Merryl Lynch buildings. A chunk of the corner of the AMEX building had apparently been broken off. All around where the towers stood are very big buildings, now empty and derelict. The only people down there now are the workers removing the rubble, and the voyeurs like me. That spot, while I was there, was very quiet, with few people around. Without the crowds, it was easier for the sense of desolation and destructiont to sink in, and I remember distinctly that is was a very, very sad feeling. I remember quite vividly wishing I had taken the opportunity on a past trip to go up the Twin Towers, which I had never done and just figured I would get around to. I really wished, in that moment, somebody would just build them again, the same buildings, in the same place, like none of it ever happened. It really did feel terribly sad. In the quiet, in the sunlight of a gorgeous, brisk day, I found myself, as it really finally was comprehensible to me, before grave of 5,000 people who died in unspeakable horror.
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> But, now that I look back, I hope no one does rebuild anything there. I think someone should leave that big, jagged bit of framework standing, if it is not too dangerous, and make a tomb of the rest, once the rubble is cleared. The destruction really is awesome in its dimensions, and, like it has been said on the news, you have to see it to really get a grip on it. I think anyone who goes there in the future should have some glimpse of something there that is a fitting memorial and testament to the fates of the innocent people who died there, and the grand structures that were brought to ruin. It should remain, as it is now, one of the saddest places on earth.
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> > I know we have been lucky in the U.S., but this is terrible. Terrorists attacks, wherever they occur, always sadden me. But to fly airplanes into buildings holding 40,000 people -- and causing one to collapse (I'm sure a goal of the terrorist) -- I'm sure the terrorists of the world will salute this act. I've always felt another's pain pretty deeply. I need to make sure this does not trigger me -- my t is going out of town, I'm having surgery, but this is awful -- I'll never understand why anyone thinks death brings answers. I'm terrible saddened, terribly saddened.
> >
> > akc
poster:Kristi
thread:11115
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011117/msgs/14158.html