9/11: The World Trade Center Blogs: 2023 Commemoration
2023 An annual commemoration. Twenty-two years. Sift through the posts, you will find something or many things of interest. đź“ŚThe series index is here.
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The Annual World Trade Center Blogs
On This 9/11: 2020
We Remember 9/11: Sixteen Years Later
On This 9/11 …
The new, beautiful NYC skyline renews hope, masks pain Since 9/11, September has never been an easy month. In fact, the reality of the events get harder to face each year. Something which never should have happened, did, and the world changed forever. Each year I post links to a series of blogs about the history of The World Trade Center to the present. We New Yorkers left to survive that day will never forget. đź“ŚYou can find the series here. [note: the photos posted are not mine] Astronaut Frank Culbertson recalls seeing the attacks from space. … Continue reading →
The WTC Blogs: Part 6: The New World Trade Center, Its Story And Incredible View
We’re back! Click here to get to the TIME Magazine article with the incredible 360° GIGAPAN panorama of New York City. If you are not a New Yorker, you will get a better idea of the scope of the city, it’s hugeness, and the incredible job that was done to make lower Manhattan whole again. If you are a New Yorker, the same goes for you. Feel awe. Video: The TIME making of the gigapan photo:
Continue reading →9/11. The World Trade Center Blogs: Index to Multimedia Series (updated)
This series has been updated several times. It was originally posted in 2008. [9/13, 9/14, 9/15, 9/16* 9/18, 9/21, 9/22, 9/23] The posts have audio and visual components. They are best viewed on a large screen with audio on. *đź“ŚLead-in: From Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan/A visual essay and a prelude a visit to the area triggers memories *đź“ŚPart 1: Windows on the World Video: Building the World Trade Center Introduction George Willig, the wire walker Memory: dining at Windows On The World *đź“ŚPart 2: Audio Walking Tour: A thousand pictures from the sounds (Narrated by Paul … Continue reading →
[293.] NYC Photo Journal: From Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan: A visual essay and a prelude…
Red Hook, Brooklyn. Labor Day, 2008. This area had been neglected, was run down, seedy, and not very visitable. It’s main landmark was a city housing project. And then something wonderful happened. The Swedish home furnishings company know as IKEA, stepped in and did wonders. In return for its waterfront property it created Erie Basin Park, a free water taxi service to lower Manhattan (to lure over Manhattan-ites). The great thing is, anyone can use the taxi service, and they do, to go to work or to get to Manhattan. Many people forget, including the city government, that New York … Continue reading →
Guide to The World Trade Center Blogs
Index to the 4-part series which will run from 9/8-9/11. *Lead-in: From Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan/A visual essay and a prelude a recent visit to the area triggers memories *Part 1: Windows on the World Video: Building the World Trade Center Introduction George Willig, the wire walker Memory: dining at Windows on the World *Part 2:Audio Walking Tour: A thousand pictures from the sounds “Featuring voice messages, interviews, eyewitness accounts, live music, audio artifacts–the elevators, revolving doors, the piano in Windows on the World…stories and sounds from the world Trade Center and it’s neighborhood.” Follow the map 102 … Continue reading →
The WTC Blogs: Part 5b: A Visit to the WTC Site and Lower Manhattan
Click the photos to enlarge. Before our 4:00 pm appointment to view the site, we walked what felt like miles, in the heat to Battery Park; I wanted to see the atrium, an arched globe of glass that was virtually destroyed. It had opened onto the WTC plaza. We rested for a while and then hauled ourselves up and walked almost for a half hour to the site. There is so much construction going on that it is difficult to walk directly. There is a subway overpass and the amount of stairs was exasperating. Luckily we found an elevator. … Continue reading →
[586.] NYC Photo Journal: A visit to the WTC site: Part a: The Guide
On July 11, 2012 I visited the site of the World Trade Center; I had visited before when one could only peer through the fence and shudder, when foreigners would line up and take photos of one another against the background of devastation and restriction. I watched over the years as the debris was cleared. I watched every memorial, listened to every name. I cried for people I never met and for the families that will forever miss them. But visiting at this point, with the dust gone along with the shards and blood stains, was a surreal experience. One … Continue reading →
587. New York City Photo Journal: Part 2: Observations and Photographs
In the preceding post, I replicated the guide to the World Trade Center Site. It contains a lot of fascinating information about what was, is and will be. The story of the survivor tree is one to be remembered. Just so you understand the sequence of the photographs there are three groups: A: a walk around Battery Park City and a visit to the atrium that has been reconstructed B: the visit to the WTC site: as you view the photos, just keep reminding ourself of the scale of the people against the buildings and the pools C: and Zucotti … Continue reading →
[58.] The WTC Blogs: 1. Windows On The World
The world, and how it was. 9/11 Memorial series originally posted on Yahoo 9/07 Introduction to The WTC Blogs In the early ’70s, from the classroom window where I taught, I watched as the World Trade Center started to peek above the buildings in my view. Gradually it ascended, higher and higher, two towers that became beacons, compasses, lighthouses.They were gigantic. Unless you’ve been to New York City, it is impossible to imagine how they loomed over everything, how they called to you. How you could take them for granted.They weren’t gorgeous, not in the minds of … Continue reading →
[59.] The WTC Blogs: 2. Audio Walking Tour: a thousand pictures from the sound
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” I will give you the sounds– from them you will have a thousand pictures. Today I am posting the World Trade Center walking tour of Paul Auster, who is a New York City poet and screenwriter. “In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Auster added his distinct and original voice to NPR’s Peabody Award-winning Sonic Memorial Project, a nationwide collaboration that came together to chronicle and commemorate the life and history of the World Trade Towers. Now, from the vantage point of Ground Zero, Paul Auster leads us through streets and time … Continue reading →
[60.] The WTC Blogs: 3. The Names~Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate
The Names by Billy Collins, United States Poet Laureate 06 September 2002, New York photo taken from the roof of his school, 9/12/01 by Mr. Souci; you can still see the smoke . Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night. A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze, And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows, I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened, Then Baxter and Calabro, Davis and Eberling, names falling into place As droplets fell through the dark. Names printed on the ceiling of the night. Names slipping around a … Continue reading →
[61.] The WTC Blogs: 4. Personal Response: The Aftermath
. . . . . . . . . . . . The Falling Man No one is sure who he is, but it is believed he was a worker from Windows on the World; he was one of many who fell or chose to jump to avoid the inferno I The morning of September 11 I awoke from a dream, a strange dream. It was later than I would normally rise; I was on a teaching sabbatical and taking courses during the ’01 and ’02 school year. It was wonderful not having to get up at the usual 5:15 … Continue reading →