September 11, 2006 - Five Years Later...

John and I visited the site of the World Trade Center while we were in New York last month. It was an emotional and surreal experience for both of us. I had not completely understood the scope of this disaster until I stood on the ground where it took place. We took the subway to the World Trade Center site and when we exited the subway and I saw the sign(above)I knew this was not going to be easy. What struck me the most looking around me at the memorial was all the "regular" people walking the streets. People going to and from work, shopping and siteseeing. The people in NYC are no different than in any other city and if it happened there it could happen anywhere.

There was a man standing at the memorial preaching facts about the incident that I found fascinating. I don't know if he does this everyday but he was extremely passionate about getting his message out to everyone who would listen. I learned alot about the WTC site from listening to this man. I learned that not just two buildings collapsed that day but seven. The World Trade Center consisted of seven building (two towers, four smaller buildings and a hotel) which all imploded on September 11th.

The WTC site covered 16 acres of land. One hundred and sixty four (164) buildings had to be demolished before construction commensed and during peak construction 3,500 people worked at the site. A total of 10,000 people worked on the towers; 60 died during its construction. The twin towers each had six basement floors which housed two subway stations and the largest shopping mall in lower Manhattan. The WTC had it's own zip code.

The temporary memorial is very basic. It consists of a plaque with all the names of the deceased on it. The title of the plaque is "The Heroes of September 11, 2001". There were three large signs which provide a timeline account of the days events. The mood at the memorial was very somber. People were standing, reading and listening. Listening to the different languages being spoken around me I was reminded that this not just an American tragedy. The entire world has been touched by this and have come to pay their respects to the lives lost. We stood and read every name on the memorium and the timeline signs with the sounds of construction in the background. From what I understand they are still working on building up the ground from the huge crater the implosion created.
I took this picture (left) looking up at the sky where the twin towers once were. I cannot even imagine the fear, the pain, the loss and the disbelief the people of New York experienced on this day five years ago. We will all talk about the tragedy today on this Fifth Anniversary and remember where we were the moment we first heard that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Tragedies like this make us think about life and humanity differently. When such a horrible event occurs, it's easy to believe that the world is an evil place. We must remember that in the face of difficulty people do pull together and good does prevail. We must live life to it's fullest each and every day....
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