P2 June
New York day three
Today we want to go to Ground Zero and pay our respects. We ask the concierge the best way to get there and he said 25 mins in a taxi or we can get the subway just around the corner and it will take us all the way there. So off we go checking we take the correct line, we need to go North, we work out how to get a ticket out of the machine, admittedly with a little help from a young lady from Montreal who had been here just two days! And jump on the next one to Fulton station. It was a really hot day with little wind, we found the Tribute shop and went in and bought our tickets for the next tour. While we were waiting we looked around the displays of memorabilia, there was a window out of the plane which was twisted and burned.
there were graphic scenes of people as they fled with the descriptions of what was happening.
Our guide was called Vic and he was a survivor, he had an elderly lady with him and her daughter was murdered there on that day. She was to tell her story later. Vic told us a little bit about himself. He was a firefighter in the building operations area of the Fire Department and was about to end his shift early on that day. I can't remember the details but only a handful of his unit got through the day, he lost his best buddy.
We put in earphones and moved outside, he pointed out the new tower 'One World Trade Center' and the proximity to the FD building we were now stopped at.
There is a mural on the wall 35 ft long, to the left are the twin towers on a normal day, and as you look along the mural the scene changes to smoke and then debris and fallen constructions and ends on the right with rubble and the few girders that were left standing. As this is a tribute to all Firefighters 'May we never forget' there are no numbers or names on the men and machines depicted on the mural as the catastrophe worsened. No one person or station is highlighted.
He then carried on with his story and as we made our way across the road, passed the building sites regenerating the barren business areas, we reached memorial park where just about everything is special with story of its own. The newly planted trees are identical except for one which was the only survivor that day. When it was discovered under the rubble it was nurtured like no other and when sturdy enough was planted in the park and 'roped' to withstand the wind, and the branches the same. It is not the sort if tree to have a long lifespan, so it is cared for with kid gloves.
The 'Survivor Tree' - Callary Pear tree.
His story was long and poignant and I think he lets go a little bit more every time he tells it. He tells of employees taking that day off for various reasons and so the death rate although horrific, could have been far worse, of not believing the emergency calls when they first started to come in as the buildings - like the Titanic - had been proven beyond all doubt to be safe . He decided to stay on after his shift finished. He was in the FD across the road and he could feel the shake and rumble and then he put out an alert for all firefighters to report for duty.
His story was bravely told and made all the more real because he was caught up in the thick of it. Then it was Lorraine's turn, and for an old lady she spoke quite firmly, determined to let us know how her daughter was murdered. Her daughter was not well that day and her family tried to make her stay home, but she had to finish a job so went in. She never came home. She has never had a funeral because insufficient body parts have been found to make a definite identification. So sad.
Wikipedia: "The names of 2,983 victims are inscribed on 76 bronze plates attached to the parapet walls that form the edges of the Memorial pools. This includes the names of 2,977 victims who were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, Arlington, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, as well as the names of six victims who were killed in the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing."
We wandered over to the memorial waterfall and on top of the wall around the square are the names of the 437 firefighters who were murdered that day etched through.
There is an occasional white flower stuck into the etched name and that is in remembrance of this persons birthday. Each night the flowers are removed and the next days birthdays done. It is very moving and so wonderful to see that these brave men will never be forgotten, and not just the firefighters, but the police, the medics and everyone who served and died in the line of duty that day.
And so we moved on to see the new museum that opened just this month. It is shaped like the first Tower, had it fallen on its side. It contains more unbelievable items that have been exhumed, and had we had more time we would definitely have made a visit there. However it would have been hard to take in another half day of sadness.
"All gave some
Some gave all
Some had to die
And some stood tall"
We said goodbye and thank you to Vic with the reflections of the new One World Trade Centre in the museum wall.
And so with a heavy heart, but a lightness in our step knowing that these brave people will never be forgotten we headed for another trip on the subway, this time on the red line to 34th St, Penn Station.
No problem finding the Empire State Building, all you do is look up to the sky and head in that direction. On every street corner there are touts trying to sell you tickets, "Express Pass, ma'm, save yourself a 2-hour wait in the queue, 50 bucks and includes the IMAX experience, you don't know what IMAX is? etc,etc". Just doing their job, fortunately we already had tickets, but it would be easy to think that was the way to go as everywhere there are long queues.
Wikipedia : "The Empire State Building is a 103-story skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 feet (443 m) high. Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years, from its completion in early 1931 until the topping out of the original World Trade Center's North Tower in late 1970. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York (although it was no longer the tallest in the US or the world), until One World Trade Center reached a greater height on April 30, 2012."
Once we had circled the block to find the entrance we were able to go straight in, through the inevitable security checks of course and then walked through the 'maze' of roped queue lines, with no queues! We did however have to queue for about 10 mins to be guided into the lifts. Everywhere there are uniformed guides, all very smart and all very helpful so I guess when it's peak time they will have their hands full.
It takes less than one minute by lift to get to the 80th floor, which contains a gift shop and an exhibition detailing the building's construction, and my ears popped twice! From there, we took another lift to the 86th floor, and stepped out of the lift into the observation lobby and through the door to the exterior platform. Wow what a view, 360 deg, just spectacular, so incredibly high and it was such a beautiful day, in the far distance the horizon looked grey.
The Manhatton skyline in the distance
A close up of Central Park
We stepped back onto the lobby and back down to the 80th. Checked out the souvenirs and bought a much more up-market fridge magnet! Back again to ground level in one minute, rubbed our ears and stepped out into this wonderful lobby and then into the heat of the day, having taken more photos of the Art Deco architecture of this famous building.
We wandered back to our hotel and put our feet up for a while, sipping on a very nice red and indulging ourselves with cashews and chippies!
Refreshed we went looking for a nice restaurant to have dinner. It was still very warm and most restaurants had their doors shut to conserve the air conditioning inside. We tried peering in the windows, but they were darkened glass, so in the end we saw a pub that looked promising called Muldoon's Irish Pub! The bar was quite busy and at the back were these old fashioned high booths, we were ushered into one and we had a really enjoyable night. David had a huge tender and juicy steak and I had a big lamburger both came with Parmesan chips and salad. David washed his down with a Guinness of course and I had a light lager. Just the way to end another interesting day.
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