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Ground Zero

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Jehcekah
Jehcekah
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4 out of 5
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Editor Pick

A Must for Paying your Respects to 9/11

A Must for Paying your Respects to 9/11

This was definitely on our 'to-do' list for our trip to NYC. Even being from the UK, 9/11 affected us all around the world and it was important that we learned more about it and paid our respects to those who died.
When we got there, what was the site of the destruction before, is now a building site. They have finished building one or two of the 5 buildings they're putting in the space where the twin towers were, so I couldn't really feel the eery-ness like I expected. There is a big long plaque under the scaffolding with all the names of the people who died printed on it. To the right of the site, there is a Tribute Center. You pay like $10 and you get a little tag to wear so you can go outside for fresh air or make a call, and they know you've already paid. There are pillars with information about the day's events and snippets from NYPD calls i.e. for help etc... and objects taken from the rubble... a burned slightly crumpled plane window, a woman's work shoe, a teddy bear, a name tag, firefighter's helmet, gas mask, jacket which had been ripped right down the back. Over at the back of the building, there are 3 walls completely covered with photos of the people who died and a New York woman giving a truly moving and genuine talk about the events that day. She speaks with feeling and later on, we discovered that her son died in the tragedy. He was the firefighter who had worn that same ripped jacket that now sits in a box for everyone to see. She picked out certain people and told a heartfelt story about each of them.
Downstairs, you could see scrapbooks full of messages of support and grief, accounts of what everyone was doing that day in 2001 and where they were and how it made them feel. I wrote a message and put it in the box.
Leaving the Tribute Center, I had accomplished something I'd wanted to do since it all happened. And I would go back again.
Editor Pick

Ground Zero

  • February 5, 2008
  • Rated 3 of 5 by Safiri from Decatur, Georgia
It's hard to say if this counts as a sight at the moment. Until the city of New York finally finishes wrangling and builds something at Ground Zero, what people go to look at there is an absence: a huge hole in the ground, several hundred feet deep, surrounded by a chain-link fence.

For people who saw the Twin Towers while they were standing, the sight has to be impressive: they were enormous -- not very beautiful, but very large, and their absence is shocking; the volume of material that had to be carted away is staggering. For people who never saw the Towers, the size of the remaining hole gives a sense of their scale: larger than most city blocks, several stories deep, with, at least last time I was there, rubble still in evidence. It's a distressing sight, a vision of waste and destruction.

There's a timeline posted on the fence around the hole, detailing the order of the events of September 11th, 2001 -- the one day, not the events leading to it or the events which followed, which would be impossible to put on a public memorial without stirring up endless controversy and outcry. That absence, too, is striking: for a moment, the former site of the Twin Towers ceases to be a symbol (of American supremacy, paranoia, innocence, or guilt; of terrorist perfidy or power; of the Bush administration's confidence, incompetence, or impotence; of the city's failure to protect its citizens or of its duty to the future; of the casus belli or the locus of misinformation; of all the myriad things for which Ground Zero is constantly invoked) and becomes a plain reality.

Twenty minutes of staring at the hole and contemplating your mortality should probably be sufficient, though visitors passionately interested in geopolitics, nationalism, or seismic architecture might take longer.

Any subway to Lower Manhattan will take you there, though some stations remain closed for reconstruction. The 4, 5, J, M, Z, 2, or 3 to Fulton Street or the A, C to Broadway/Nassau St all work.

From journal Big Attractions in New York

A New Yorker Visits

  • December 5, 2007
  • Rated 5 of 5 by MojoGoes from New York, New York
A New Yorker Visits

It's a must. That's all I can say. It took me six years to build up the courage and despite the construction site where once there was such destruction, I still found it moving. Make the time to come to this site.

To read more about this trip, please visit The Window Seat.
Editor Pick

Ground Zero

Ground Zero

I’ve taken several trips into New York since September 11th, but have managed to avoid this area. Like most people that day fills me with more emotions then I can put into words. I lived in Pennsylvania and remember listening for the sound of the lost plane that was lost over my state. I remember sitting in graphic design when the department secretary came in to tell us that a plane hit the World Trade Center. I remember when it wasn’t an accident and it became an attack. I remember trying to track down friends who were to be in the towers that day. I remember sitting with my career counselor as she got the call that her son missed his flight earlier that day and wasn’t on Flight 93. I listened to my teacher describe the sight he saw as he stood nearby the towers. I remember being in New York a month later and witnessing a funeral for three police officers who were never found. I remember as the limos drove to the church a small toddler hanging out the back holding a picture of his father. I remember the street was so quiet that I could hear a conversation on the other side of the road. I remember my friends telling me the ground zero was still full of smoke. During this trip to New York I realized that I needed to put my demons to rest.

Once the tallest buildings on Earth after they were built in 1972, the Twin Towers were built to bring back companies to the financial district. It worked. On any given day 50,000 people came to work at the World Trade Center and 200,000 visitors were in the building making a grand total of 250,000 people on any given day.

Today the sight of ground zero is nothing more then a dozen cranes rebuilding the area. A fence surrounds the construction sight leaving very little to be seen. A few holes in the tarp give a view of what is happening on the other side. If you cross the street and go up the stairs to the building on the other side there is a small, decorative platform about three feet tall. Standing on this platform gives a great view into the construction area. Other then that there isn’t much to see. People walk by with only a few tourists stopping to look. When leaving my grandmother commented on how she was surprised that nothing was built there yet. I know that they are working to finalize plans, but what memorial can be placed there to properly pay tribute to the events that happened? Ground Zero isn’t a site to go see to say you were there. It is a place to reflect; a place to let go. A place where life can be put into perspective and leave everyone with a new understanding of the world that we live and a reason to look for the good.

From journal New York, New York

World Trade Center Site/Ground Zero

  • May 23, 2006
  • Rated 5 of 5 by guide42 from Tucson, Arizona
World Trade Center Site/Ground Zero

Unless you saw the twin towers when they were standing, I wouldn’t recommend a trip to ground zero, because to the untrained eye it just looks like a huge hole in the ground. I, however, had very strong memories of the building from my trip to the city the summer before 9/11. The gaping emptiness of it all is striking. Gone is the beautiful courtyard in which my family stood in awe of the towering towers. Gone is the professional New York lobby, lined with flags. Gone is the TKS booth where we bought our amazing tickets to my first Broadway show, Beauty and the Beast. And gone is that magnificent and terrifying (I’m afraid of heights) view of New York from the top platform. It wont take long a lot of time, 15 to 20 minutes just to look down and mourn for the greatness lost, and the memories that will forever live in our hearts.

From journal New York : Hillel Style

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