PHOTOS

The sale signs serve as evidence on how true Jim’s comment was to me in Washington, “Patriotism has peaked”. The exit ramp for the platform, where people wait several hours just for a glimpse at the World Trade Center rubble   A tourist shows his support for New York. The signs memorializing the World Trade victims cover a city block.   More memorials Cold weather does not keep people away from Ground Zero.   Memorials line the fence near the site. That empty hole is where the World Trade Center stood.   At one point looking into the empty area where several buildings stood prior to 11 September 2001, I heard a little girl say to her mother, “But there’s nothing to see.” I thought to myself, “That’s the point. This area of nothingness was once crammed with some of the world’s tallest buildings.” People of all ages from everywhere form the lines waiting for a view of wreckage left after the attack on 11 September 2001.   People queue for many blocks, and four hours at a time, to get a better glimpse from a recently completed wooden platform, of the site where the World Trade Center once stood. The subway stop at the World Trade Center remains closed almost four months after the 11 September 2001 airplane tragedy.   Tower shots Around the site of the former World Trade Towers, entrepreneurs offer photos of the Towers.   My first view of Ground Zero, where the World Trade Towers stood until 11 September 2001.     PAIGE'S NOTES   6 January 2002 – The first thing I wanted to do upon returning to New York was visit Ground Zero and view the destruction that took place on 11 September 2001, as Jim and I were in southern Peru on 9/11. I hoped seeing the gaping hole, in person, would solidify my mind’s picture of reality versus a television image, played non-stop by networks in the aftermath. I was not prepared to share the destroyed Twin Towers site with thousands of tourists, especially those posing, mindlessly with smiles, for photos before the wreckage. Nor was I ready to see scores of men and women hawking souvenirs – photos, paintings, and hats – on the streets surrounding the devastation. The several-block long, four-hour queue rambling its way to a recently erected, wooden viewing platform sent Jim and me back home. Still, without peering from an above-ground vantage-point, I witnessed the massive opening where the Towers once perched like watchmen over downtown, where today the overcast, wintry weather left a fitting film of dampness and gray. Walking away from the rubble, we passed a closed, boarded-over subway stop and out-of-business shops. Signs proclaiming half-off sales dotted the windows of surviving neighborhood stores selling hats and t-shirts adorned with NYPD and NYFD. Even with a four-hour wait to look at the aftermath, I believe the fervor has peaked.