Remembering memories of 9/11

Since Monday, September 11, 2006 will be the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it is time to start collecting and recollecting memories of that day, like where I was, what I was doing, how it felt at the time, what seemed to be going on at the time, and how it all looks in hindsight. I don't know how much I'll actually pull together, but at least I'll try to post something. Meanwhile you can read some thoughts that I wrote on my web site at the time, from September 11, 2001 into October, mostly while I was in Washington, D.C., but also when I back up in New York City. I had apartments in both cities at the time.

Here's a very eerie photo of the Palm trees inside the Wintergarden atrium of the World Financial Center just across the street from where the north tower of the World Trade Center had stood.

The trees survived the collapse of the towers, but somebody I met down at the trade center site a few weeks later told me they saw them being cut down. They put a large scaffolding inside the atrium to keep the undamaged half from collapsing and over the next two years they rebuilt the damaged half and then planted new trees that look just like the old ones. The river-side of the atrium was mostly undamaged, as I could see as I took the New York Waterways ferry boat from the east side of lower Manhattan over to Hoboken, New Jersey and back eleven days after 9/11.

Just a few weeks earlier I had stood not more than 50 feet behind where the photographer was probably standing and looked up at the north tower through the atrium glass.

I used to talk around lower Manhatan on Saturdays and stop in the atrium to rest for a few minutes in the afternoon before heading back to my apartment.

The atrium is now completely restored, "as good as new", but feels a bit lifeless even though physically it is every bit as good as new.

-- Jack Krupansky