I work for a division of Marriott. I am praying for the associates and guests of our hotels as well as everyone else in the towers. I hope Mr. Marriott makes some sort of announcement soon as to what’s going on. I know the WTC one has to be gone, but I don’t know how much damage there was to the Financial Center hotel.
This has been the wallpaper on my main PC for years. I’ve seen it so many times that it really didn’t register with me all day yesterday as I used my PC to post here, check news updates, etc.
My sister pointed it out to me this morning as I was getting ready for work.
Like Billdo, I was in law school at the time of the first bombing; in fact I’d just made my first trip to the top a few weeks before.
Some random memories:
I was in law school at NYU, which is about 2 miles north of the WTC. One day in late 1991, I was crossing La Guardia Place at Washington Square when a heavily accented guy in a van waved me over: “Excuse me, where is World Trade Center?”
To myself: “Oh, you mean the two enormous goddamn cracker boxes right in front of your face, which are only in every photograph of New York City taken for the last twenty years?”
I just pointed, wondering if his question was some sort of weird code like “What’s the frequency Kenneth?”
Actually, they really did remind me of crackers - they were about exactly the same proportions as a single packet of saltines in one of those 4-packet boxes.
What saddens me most is that over the last several years I’ve seen the trade center area come alive. When I first started practising, in 1994, I worked for a small firm on Broad Street. The WTC was about the farthest I could walk for lunch and still get back in a reasonable amount of time - only at that time there really wasn’t much to eat or do there. The underground shopping plaza was a dark, depressing holdover from the mid-70s. What I remember really surprising me was that it was closed on Sundays, and barely open on Saturdays; it seemed like such a waste.
That all started to change in about 1996-97. Several old office buildings in the area were converted to apartments (my heart goes out to their residents, who probably can’t go home right now), and suddenly there were people about on weekends - and not just tourists. Century 21, the discount department store facing the WTC, started opening 7 days. The Port Authority started upgrading the mall. Borders opened a huge above-ground store in WTC 5.
Shortly thereafter I remember hearing a report that for the first time ever, the WTC was actually full. Most people had dismissed it as the PA’s ego-driven white elephant, accusing it of flooding the downtown office market with millions of square feet of unneeded space. But by 1999 it really started to look like a jewel. It helped that mid-century architecture was finally starting to earn some respect - people now looked at the WTC with some affection, realizing that Yamasaki’s design had given an enormous building some genuine grace.
I started to see the most spectacular views of it when I began working in Newark in 1997, reverse-commuting to Manhattan via NJ Transit train to Penn Station. At sunset, I’d be headed east, watching the WTC (and adjoining World Financial Center) come aflame in the most stunning scarlet I have ever seen.
Ironically, just a few weeks ago the PA closed a 99-year lease of the building to the Vornado Realty Trust, an megalandowner here in NYC. I suspect Vornado’s balance sheet is going to take quite a hit.
God, that sounds awful - like I’m minimizing the carnage. I’m not, honestly. When I say the WTC had come alive, I’m referring to the people in it. And it’s all gone.
“Forgive us our trespasses, and forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.”
I work in CT, but have several clients in NY.
Exactly one week ago today I went to visit one client, whose offices are on the top two floors (floors 52 and 53) of the building right across the street from 4 WTC (one of the annexes) and only two blocks from the two towers.
We arrived early and I recall distinctly from ground level looking up and noticing how difficult it was to tell the differences in height between the various buildings (they’re all “TALL”). Our meeting was on the 53rd and top floor, in a conference room facing the two towers. It was then that I realized the magnitude, the size, the “awesomeness” of the two towers, because even with the great and stunning view we had, we were less than half the height of the WTC towers. I remember coming home that day and telling my wife and friends about my impressions.
I am stunned like the rest of you at what happened. I pray that my clients survived, as their building was directly in the path of the explosion and debris of the second plane attack.
God bless.
C.
My first one was when my dad, a NYC cop, was on them when they were being built. Still partially open, he spoke of the height. Several years later, when I wanted to see Manhattan more (I lived in Queens) I decided to go there before walking up to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. I went outside, 1350’ up, and admired the view.
Saturday, ** hampster ** was visiting from Toronto, and I was playing guide to him and ** True Pisces **, whi is still learning the city. We discussed going there for the view, but it was decided it would “wait for next time”
That time will never come.
It just occurred to me where I got this photo. I took it with the first digital camera I ever owned from the deck of the Forbes yacht, Highlander, on a media boondoggle trip around Southern Manhattan several years ago.
The skyline just isn’t going to be the same. I’m still watching the coverage and watching the planes slam into it, and it still doesn’t seem real to me. I’m still in shock.
Please forgive this post, which can help no one but will ease my heart.
About 5 years ago, I did a series of collateralized mortgage security offerings with law firm of Thacher, Proffitt as underwriters’ counsel. We closed all of these deals in their offices, Two World Trade Center. I stayed in the hotel between the towers (I don’t think it was a Marriot back then) and ate at Windows and Seasons(?) another restaurant in the Center. I remember some typical miserly disagreements over document language (and at least one real argument) in the conference rooms there. The offices of the most senior partners were small compared to our associate offices here in Chicago (real estate values, you know), but we overlooked the Statue of Liberty and the teeny ferries going back and forth.
Gone. All gone.
This morning I have been talking with an attorney at one of our insurer clients who spent the night doing the mundane and heart-emptying task of gathering the relevant policies and caluculating the insurer’s exposure. What can we do, but go on?
I’ve heard the question, “You’re mourning a building?” And the answer is, basically, yes. Those towers were a very powerful symbol of our nation, which is why they were attacked, both in 1993 and now.
I can’t wrap my mind around the idea of thousands upon thousands of dead bodies, and we’re not even going to know for a long time just how many people were lost yesterday. But the sight of those enormous towers collapsing into rubble and dust makes real the true horror of what happened. The gaping hole in the skyline of New York City makes it real.
I have this great sense of regret that the last time I was in NYC to visit SuaSponte, I didn’t bother to look at the WTC even though I was in the neighborhood. It just seemed like it would always be there.
My WTC memory is when my husband “made it” in business. He was being schmoozed by some big company or another, and he called me from his cell phone saying- I’m in the WORLD TRADE CENTER!!! Can you believe it? It’s beautiful and the view and (etc, etc). He stayed at the Waldorf also, which he was thrilled with. I remember thinking about the bombing when he said he was at the WTC but I just put it out of my mind.
So that’s my WTC memory. I was so proud of him, and he was just amazed that HE was in the WTC!
Zette
I’ve only been to NYC once, about three years ago. I bought my half price ticket to Miss Saigaon in the tower lobby before going up to the observation deck. We don’t have tall buildings to speak of in Arizona, 20 stories is conisdered big. It was a bit hazy so it was hard to make out the statue of liberty but the views were incredible. A bit windy that day so I couldn’t go on the roof. Got all my kitschy souvenirs there including my NYPD fridge magnet (a cruiser) I use on the status board at work.
I went to Stuyvesant HS 89-93. In 1992 we moved to our new building, 345 Chambers street. The building is at the northernmost tip of Battery Park City, which was created with the outfill from the WTC construction. A quantity of parks, playing fields, and office buildings were planned for the area immediately south of the school (and have since come to fruition). However, at this time, there was just bare field almost all the way to the World Financial Center and WTC. Many classrooms offered unobstructed views of the towers and Statue of Liberty.
When the bomb went off in 1993, I was in my senior English seminar. The blast shook the entire building. We listened on the radio and watched emergency personnel arrive on the scene. They used the parks and vacant lots as emergency helipads.
In my painting class we did a section on landscapes. Each day, we’d spend 2 hours in the park next to BMCC and paint. My painting showed a fringe of green trees with the WTC rising above it. The semester ended before I got a chance to really “finish” the painting. I’d always meant to go down to BMCC and complete it sometime.
Whenever friends from out of town would visit, I had my patented tour, which I called “3 cheap thrills and 1 expensive one.” We’d ride to Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. We’d visit the New York Stock Exchange. We’d go into the lobby of the Woolworth building. Then hit the top of the WTC (the expensive one) for the unparalleled view. And I used to tell them “On a clear day you can see forever… or at least as far as New Paltz” (I’m corny).
One last one. When I was a kid we went on a field trip to the Towers. A girl in my class’s father worked for Port Authority. He told us each building had 99 elevators. I’ve remembered that my whole life. (Why not 100, I wondered?)
I’m living in Ann Arbor now. I’m not sure if it will sink in until I’m back in NYC.
Back when I was a nervous 15 year old Lad, I spent 2 weeks in New York. I did all the touristy things, and one of the many memories I will always have is looking over the most amazing view I had ever seen from the Windows of the World.
I can’t believe its gone 
When I was in high school, the gifted students program took a trip to New York. I’d been there a few times, but this was my first time as a reall, honest to the gods away from home TOURIST.
I was on the observation deck, and I was standing next to this really pretty brunette. She had an ID badge around her neck; so I figured she worked in the building. She said, “Beautiful, isn’t it?” I said it was and that the only thing I’d seen prettier was her smile. HEY!!! I was 16, give me a break on the cheesey factor.
She smiled bigger and said, “First time seeing it?” I said yes. She kissed me. Nothing swoop over passionate, just a soft little five second or so kiss, and said, “Welcome to New York,” turned and left.
I can’t believe no one is ever going to get kissed on that deck ever again.
When I was a little girl, my dream was to live in new York City. I don’t know how I got it in my head, but I always knew that I wanted to grow up, become a(n) astronaut, pilot, psychiatrist, social worker, artist, writer, famous novelist, and professor in New York City. When I was five, I have a very vivid memory of tagging along on a trip to the Inner Harbor with my brother’s Boy Scout troop. Somewhere along the way I decided that we were actually going to New York City. Even though we traveled about twenty minutes from my home in Baltimore City to get to the Harbor, I was convinced we were in the Big Apple and I was so excited. When my mom told me it was just Baltimore, I cried for an hour.
On my sixteenth birthday, my dream came true: my mom was taking me to Manhattan for the day. We arrived on May 21, 1997, at about 10 am, hailed a cab and headed to the WTC. We waited in the wrong line (one for theatre tickets) for twenty minutes before making our way up. I was so incredibly excited and ecstatic: there is a hilarious picture of me posing cheesily in front of a giant patchwork tapestry that was hanging on one wall. We went out on the roof that day, and I was terrified, but the sky was so beautiful, with layers and layers of sun-drenched clouds overhead, and I took an entire roll of film just on the roof. Nearly all my pictures from that day are taken from the WTC, or have the WTC in the background. It was certainly a symbol of what New York represented to me.
I also went to New York for my Senior Week, while everyone else went to Ocean City, MD. The second day we were there, we went to the Statue of Liberty, got lost trying to find the Brooklyn Bridge, and basically got tired, cranky and pooped over the course of the day. We ended up at the WTC, but we couldn’t go up on the roof because of high winds. So we sat in the inside Observation Deck for two hours and watched the sun set. My best friend, Lili, who is from Italy, was overjoyed to run into a distant cousin there. Small world, huh? I will never forget how beautiful that sun set was; it was etched in my mind even before Tuesday.
I still want to live in New York City. But it just won’t be the same.
I visited New York about 7 years ago with my Uncle Dan and Aunt Marilyn. I remember being up on the top floor and being scared to look down. And when we were on the top of the building, I remember seeing a place at the edge of the building where someone had written their name or something, despite the barbed wire fences. And I thought that there was no way I would ever go near that edge, because it was such a long way down…
I’m not completely ready to speak of the WTC in the past tense yet - I’m convinced they’ll be rebuilt almost just as they were, with some engineering and code updates, and that they’ll open once again for business, in less than 10 years. Not only will insurance cover most of the cost, but the federal and other governments will take care of their share to restore a national symbol. Besides, the space is needed.
That said, I only have a tourist’s memories - the cold wind on the observation deck on even a hot summer’s day; the just-perceptible sway; even the signs on the TV’s in what was then the Vista Hotel apologizing for poor reception because of being right below the antennas.
When they were built, I thought they were a lost opportunity architecturally - just a couple of boxes on an empty code-required plaza, built just high enough to snag some meaningless “record”, with no real interest to them other than their size. But over the years, they did seem to soften a little, and take on a grace and beauty of their own. If they were sitting in the middle of some suburban office park, I’d still think they were a waste, but as a part of the unique lower-Manhattan skyline, they were the crowning glory, just like Empire crowns midtown.
But no matter what, dammit, they were ours. And they will be again. Soon.
BTW, there are great, detailed satellite pictures, both before and after, suitable for wallpaper, here.
What a beautiful idea. Phantom towers until the rebuilding can start.
Oh, Elv1s…damn. I like that.
My story is so lame I’m afraid to post, but what the hell. This IS MPSIMS, no?
Went up to NYC for New Years in … '93? '94? Stayed with my co-workers aunt out on Long Island…the aunt worked at the WTC. No clue for who, or which tower, and I can’t remember her name. But she was such a sweet lady - I hope she’s all right
The aunt dropped us off to catch the ferry across to Liberty Island, and over this past weekend I pulled out my photo album from one of my unpacked boxes and…Damn. Those buildings were HUGE!! Twice the size of the surrounding skyline. My sis and I were talking about this last week - we’ve both been to NYC and Chicago. The Sears tower is taller than the WTC, but the buildings SURROUNDING the Sears tower are commensurate in size - if the Sears was gone you really wouldn’t notice, skyline-wise.
Anyhow, back at the ranch…so we take the ferry over to Liberty Island and I take some shots of the view behind the Lady, towards Manhattan…just taking in the view.
We go up the Statue of Liberty which, to me, was very important - my grandmother was near death when great-gramma held Ruth up to see the New World from the deck of their ship.
Did the tour, went up to the crown, then went to the WTC. Aunt told us we HAD to go to the top. But the observation deck was closed, and the restaurant had a dress code. At which point I glared at my companion - she was in jeans.
Like others have said, though…I knew I’d have a chance again. KNEW.
Damn those people who took that certainty from me.
I remember taking midnight trips to New York, just to drive around. We always made a point to drive by the WTC. I never went in them, but they were always part of the trip, just to drive by and see how huge they were.