Hi to all:
As the title implies, we visited Ground Zero today. We took a tour of the area around the site. The actual site is a construction area and we couldn't get too close. There were places that you could look down from across the street and see a big hole. The site is about 14 acres. Some of the subways had gone right next to the site and were closed after 9-11. They are now building a major subway hub in the lower (underground) level before the rest of the reconstruction begins. That part will not be completed until 2010. We did see a drawing of what the reconstructed tower will look like. One thing I did not remember was that there was a third tower (50 story's) that collapsed. It was damaged so bad that it fell down later on. I am assuming it collapsed the same day but I am not sure. Everyone got out of it OK. The building where the 2 firefighters recently lost their lives is right next to the site on the south side.
There were two ladies giving the tour. One of them had been a volunteer with the Salvation Army and was there from 9-12 and for many, many days thereafter. Her job was to help the workers in any way she could. There was so much soot and dust in the air, all she did on the first day was wash rescue workers' faces and flush out their eyes with eye wash. She said that during the first day she worked (9/12), all of the sudden people started running and she had to also. She had no idea why, but she had to run or get run over. She later found out that there was fear that a building close to the site was going to collapse and that was why people were running. That happened 6 times before it was determined that the building was OK. She recounted seeing the video on TV of people running from the site and that she had gotten a little taste of the fear that they were going through.
The other lady worked at a hospital not far from the site. She said that they had went through drills many times to prepare for a disaster and all the victims that it would bring. In this case there were no victims to treat. (Her Words) I would think there would have been a few.
This was all very sobering to look at and to hear about. It is hard to imagine what the people went through. There are two memorials that were shown to us. One is to the firefighters, paid for by a law firm who lost an employee and and the other company (we can't remember the name of firm) who lost 11 employees in the disaster.
The area is beginning to recover. The third tower that collapsed has been rebuilt. It is now 80% occupied. The twin towers were about 110 stories tall.
After leaving the WTC site, we took the subway to Central Park. We have heard stories about the park and didn't know what to expect but found it to be very nice. It was Sunday though and there were a lot of people in the park. We were comfortable with the surroundings as we walked around, but at 10:00 PM on a Friday night might be a different story.
It is about the same with the subways. We were not uneasy on them but the time of day could make a difference. We were able to get right on and go where we wanted to go. They listed the trains by their final destination, and we were unfamiliar with the names. That wasn't really a problem, the worst that could happen is you might end up going north when you were wanting to go south, for example. As long as you had a sense of direction, you were OK.
Tomorrow we are planning on getting up early (about a 60 mile ride on the trains and subways)and checking out the "Today Show" on NBC. We may even get a chance to wave at you. We will see if we can get out of bed that early. Big Question?
We will write more later. The plans are right now to leave the Big Apple on Tuesday and head for Boston. Baked Beans anyone? Bye Bye
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