September 11, 2001

Everyone has a 9/11 story.  It's just one of those horrible and memorable events that makes you remember exactly where you were.  The entire day is burned into your memory.  My day was spent in complete shock and extreme worry about my cousin who at the time worked in the financial district a mere few blocks away from the WTC buildings.  Fortunately, my 9/11 story has a happy ending.  Her building was unaffected, and she made it from the area safely only to bravely return and help with aid efforts, distributing food and water to the first responders and survivors.  Of course, so many people's stories did not end so well, and I think about them today.

I will say that living in NYC for the 10th anniversary is a little surreal.  Ten years ago I never anticipated living here.  Frankly, ten years ago I was not thinking about ten years hence.  I was thinking about whether that boy from downstairs and I would ever get together (spoiler: We totally did).  But here I am and I have to say that the raise of the terror threat was more than a little disconcerting.  I still did things that I would normally do on a Sunday (brunch with girlfriend, be lazy around the apartment, meet up with a friend for drinks), but I did them with a little more apprehension than normal.  On the subway up to the UWS, I definitely was anxious but consoled myself with the fact I was heading uptown and not to a big NYC landmark.

Yesterday when E and I were touring Brooklyn, we were able to get a good view of what the new NYC skyline will look like when WTC #1 is rebuilt.  We also were able to get a view of the security around the city.  We saw at least 5 police boats (of various sizes) and helicopters/ small military planes patrolling the air.

I'd been waiting to do a write-up about WTC since my book does cover it.  I was waiting for the right time.  Today seems as good of a day as any since I'll be able to share with you some recent photos of the sight.  (I wish I could find more photos.  I definitely have some of Ground Zero shortly after 9/11 of all the memorials people put up but they are not on this computer and may just be printed out in a box somewhere.... (See 30 Before 30 list for the item to remedy this situation.)  I also don't have more photos because to be brutally honest, there wasn't much to see for the last few years.  It looked like a construction sight with a huge fence around it and large holes in the ground).  To see professional photos of what the sight looks like now -- click here.

From July 2011
Construction of the original complex was complete in the early 1970's
and each floor of the original towers had approx. an acre of usable space. (Ch. 170)

From Brooklyn.
That's the Brooklyn Bridge on the right and you can see the tower construction
to the left of the Gehry building.

September 20, 2011
I actually didn't know this, but all 7 buildings in the
World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11 (Ch. 180)

Memorial Ribbons at St. Paul's Chapel.

There was a private event going on (I assume it was for victims' families).