Please tell us about your experience there? Hard to believe that 2 years have passed.

I was in NYC 6 weeks after the attack and the reminders were inescapable - the burnt smell in the air wherever you went in lower Manhattan, the posters, candles, impromptu shrines, etc. It was so sad that I couldn't bring myself to go the the actual site.

BTW, I was at the Oklahoma City bombing site last year, it was very peaceful and moving.

I never had a reason to want to go there. I used to go there every day when I worked there, and I would prefer to remember it that way, back when it was unblemished and full of the normal everyday hustle and bustle, rather than have an image of a big black scar.

In fact, my favorite memory of the WTC is from that documentary "The Cruise", where the crazy NYC tour bus guide laid down on the ground between the twin towers so he could have a perfect view of both buildings on either side of him. That's the way I'd rather remember it.

im not sure i could handle going there...

its just to horrible

justkelley said:

Yeah, horrible, just horrible.

jackflash said:

I don't live anywhere near NYC, I can't even watch the Footage about it on TV. It's just too much for me.

I haven't been there yet...but, I'd like to go...not out of any gross curiosity, but because I feel like the people who died there deserve for others to see and try to imagine what they went through...so that they'll never be forgotten.

applekisses said:

Now that I think about it, I would feel honored to go. If I 1was overcome with emotions -- I would not be the only peron there with tears.

No I haven't. Not sure how anyone would be able to stomach seeing that. I have great respect and admiration for the people who wake up, work next or walk by it everyday. I don't think anyone who doesn't live there or has witnessed it first hand, can imagine the enormity of it.

Chico319 said:

I think like that too.

I was there in June 2002. By that point, it was pretty much all cleared out, and looked like a construction site. Walking to the site I felt a sense of dread that deepened the closer I got to the area. It was very moving to see all the tributes on the fences surrounding the area, and pretty weird to see vendors in the area as well. There was a hush among the thousands of people who swarmed the area that reflected the reverence for the destruction and loss of lives. I didn't anticipate going when the trip was booked, but some of my colleagues invited me to go with them, and it felt right. I didn't go on the observation decks that were built, but I'm glad that I did see it.

I try to avoid it. It's too depressing.

I went there in November 2001. It was quite a sight to see. Words fail.

Ye, twice..
Feb 2002
Feb 2003

yes, on August 20.



ver sobering.

I drove by it June of last year and actually stopped to walk around the site last month.

In the middle of all the craziness, it's a very peaceful and quiet spot.

I have a much greater appreciation for what happened that day now that I can get a sense and scale for the area.

Walking down 6th Ave. in the Village the Towers were quite visible. It was strange not seeing them there.

I wasn't close to Ground Zero until year later. I remember coming out of the subway (think it was the City Hall station?) and my breath being taken away.

This morning I thought about how the victims probably started their mornings just as I had: thinking about the day ahead. It's so horrible to think that thoughts about little things like what to have for lunch would be superceded by thoughts of whether or not to ambush hijackers; or, whether to leap, succumb to asphyxiation, or perish in a raging fire? So horrible.

A pastor friend of mine is also an emt. He went following the attacks and worked in the morgue for a month, giving last rites and blessing body parts...unspeakable.
In the shock of it all, with all the heroes that served and those that died that day, I think of him and the heroic work he did in the aftermath. Its a privilege to know him.

I was there this June and I can't find words to explain my feelings. I never saw the WTC (as I never had been to NYC before), so I think it must be even more unreal when you had known that place before Sept. 11th