New York trip shows new life rises from Ground Zero
<Author’s Note: I could not know as I wrote the beginning of this column that, on Sunday evening, President Obama would announce the death of Osama bin Laden. Seeing the massive crowds at Ground Zero that night, at the place where my daughter and I had been just two weeks ago, reinforced my views reflected in this column, one that I had intended to write anyway.
When we booked reservations at a New York hotel for my daughter’s spring break from middle school this April, I knew, based on the address, that it had to be located near Ground Zero, the former Twin Towers. What I did not know is how close.
The World Center Hotel, built after the events of September 2001 and open for only a year and a half now, is impressive in its modern, fresh, green and modest style. My thought on seeing it for the first time was that this is where we are now in a world terribly stricken by the events of 9/11 but recovering and recreating ourselves. We survived and grew. The visit became an appointment to see ourselves as Americans joined with other Americans.
As Alisa and I exited the taxi at Albany and Washington streets to enter the World Center Hotel, we glanced to our immediate right and saw, steps away, the tall wooden fencing surrounding the Ground Zero site. We looked up and viewed cranes. We heard men at work and the pounding of construction equipment. You might have thought this would have been depressing or distracting. It was not.
It felt inspirational. In a strange sort of way, this place, next to where so many people had died in the mindless terrorist attacks almost 10 years ago, seemed a holy place. The hotel was uplifting and filled with life, people moving about, greeting each other, making plans. In the lobby, the WiFi access to everywhere gave guests the opportunity to connect. Service was efficient and friendly.
In our room, which was not large but gave us all the room we needed and was spotlessly clean and new, we gazed down at the concrete areas that will become the reflecting pools for the memorial and we saw the now young trees surrounding them. We had lunch in the rooftop dining room that overlooked the site. We were not just near Ground Zero but actually there or as close as we could be without clearance and a hard hat.
Where New York is today impresses me. Alisa and I had four days to explore the city and what I saw was people connecting, chatting with each other, even on the subway. In a place that had experienced both the physical disaster of greater loss of life than Pearl Harbor and the financial disaster of Wall Street unfolding, people were genuinely friendly and helpful, more than they had been as I recalled on prior experiences with New York. The resilience of Americans after tragedy, despite grief and pain, amazes me.
Stumbling through Lower Manhattan with maps in hand, we encountered the World Financial Center buildings, the home to many of the remaining world financial conglomerates, with its Winter Garden Atrium, beautifully reconstructed after damage from the attacks. Large groups of people, many socializing, engaged in earnest conversation or laughing, probably many on break for lunch, filled the Atrium where shops and restaurants were doing a brisk business.
For several blocks around the barricades that surround Ground Zero, we viewed posters announcing plans for the memorial dedication on Sept. 11, 2011.
At Vesey and Church streets, people poured into and out of a structure we learned was St. Paul’s Chapel. George Washington attended services there but its significance was different on the date we entered, Good Friday, April 22, 2011. As we entered, we were told this is where Ground Zero relief workers came, exhausted after working, to be refreshed.
Stations told the story. One had photographs of people killed in the attack. Another, teddy bears sent to the children of New York to comfort them. There were badges and commemoratives to the NYPD and Fire Department personnel who gave their lives. A cot demonstrated how workers had slept at the chapel while they worked.
We saw the standard things — the Statue of Liberty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others — but the images we took back of those days will remain with us, I think, for a long time. As we look behind, we look ahead.
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About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.