From: SandyTesha@aol.com
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 01:21:35 EDT
Subject: Tuesday October 2nd, 2001

Hi all,

My sister Sarah visited this past weekend and we went downtown Saturday to
see the disaster site where the World Trade Center Towers used to stand.
We were blown away. Standing on the west side, on Greenwich street, looking
south, there was just a huge pile of... of... well, building rubble. It
looked like a waste dump site, the way it was mounded up in a huge, and I
mean HUGE, pile.

Coming over to the east side, we walked down Broadway, and every cross
street we came to showed more and more views of the horrible, awful wreckage
to the west. It was stunning. Inbetween we noticed the walls and glass of
buildings and shops still covered with gray dust and "ash". It looks like
what a post-flood scene might, with gray goop "dried" everywhere - although
the clean-up crews have tidied up the streets, all the facades of the
buildings are gray in color. None of the glass reflects. On bus shelters
and phone booths the matter was just stuck in crevices where joints met.

Some delis were opened that morning, but very little is usually open down
there on a Saturday anyhow. One Levis/clothing store did have its doors
opened, but the entrance cordoned off - because they were assessing the
damage (there were insurance-photographer types inside talking to the
owner/manager-looking guy). All the jeans, ALL of them, neatly folded and
on shelves, or hanging from hangers on walls, had a thick coating of gray
ash. The store must have had it's door open when the building collapsed.
Everything inside just looked like color TV set when the color is adjusted
way too far to the left.

Ironically one of the best (?) views of the WTC site was from a little
street named Liberty Street. The shell of the one tower still stands, but
they are slowly deconstructing it. You could see several cranes on top of
the pile of debris; they looked so small compared to what they were trying
to clear away. One building to the north of the towers was being
intentionally demolished because it was so severely damaged. When the
wrecking ball hit, the ground just shook. I wondered what the ground must
have felt like when the towers came down three weeks ago. The reports say
it was registered as a "small" earthquake.

All of the TV news reports have been saying that they are not allowing
photographic equipment down there. We got asked once, quite nicely, to not
take photos - but we were no where near the site at this point. The closer
we got the, the more people there were, the more cameras we saw being used.
One National Guard soldier was yelling at poeple to not take pictures, and
he was giving everyone the evil eye, but on the whole they weren't enforcing
this rule, which was established because a) they want to keep people moving
through the area (you really can't help but stop and GAPE in awe at the
scene before you) and b) they are still bringing up bodies and body parts -
I heard on the news that in the past few days they have brought up more
bodies than in the first 10 days combined. Even though we weren't THAT
close (about 2 blocks), I guess out of respect they wanted to keep the
"tourist" factor to a minimum.

We also visited the NYSE - they have hung the biggest US flag over the front
of the building. Down Wall Street, Trinity Church, founded in 1696 and
rebuilt twice, still stands, as does the graveyard nestled behind it. Oh
yeah - the Woolworth Building (1910), 3 blocks uptown, is also fine. (I
dragged Sarah into it to make sure all the mosaic tile and gold leaf were
still there - they are. :)

We came back uptown and visited the Wall Of Prayers at Bellvue Hospital on
the East side. It is a huge blue construction wall that family of victims
sort of claimed as theirs and put up photos, pictures, momentos, flowers,
poems, etc. I have to say that for me, all of the missing persons flyers
and photos all over the city have become a part of New York's landscape. I
certainly don't mean any dissrespect to the dead and missing; my roommate,
Michelle, suggets that maybe this just means I've *finally* accepted what
has happened.

The clean-up downtown is still the first news story on any given channel
here. Interviews with the workers and of victims loved ones are a staple of
the nightly news. Rudy has been awesome, he addressed the United Nations
today, and slipped in a good NYC tourism pitch, but what the hell. We need
all the help we can get (although the Empire State Building reopened its
observation deck and was packed the first day!). I'll say it again: He has
been great during the past 3 weeks. I doubt they will let him get
re-elected as mayor for a 3rd term, though.

People are still generally nicer and kinder here. Once in a while you get
the exceptions to the rule, like the old lady who cut in front of everyone
at Fairway, but maybe that's just her way of "business as usual". Michelle
said she was looking at a table full of b/w photos of the old skyline set up
on 53rd Street, and an obviously touristy couple joined her. The Asian man
selling the photos grabbed a framed shot and shoved it in their faces
saying, "These the towers here! The planes come here... and crash here!"
Michell was so disgusted she just walked away. Street vendors are also
selling tshirts that say "I SURVIVED 9/11/01"... I think they meant that in
a "NYers can take anything" sort of way, but it just seems a bit tasteless
if you ask me.

Sometimes you do forget it happened though, and when you are reminded of it
it still is like a slap in the face, like seeing clouds in the sky or
hearing a low-flying plane or loud crash or police siren in the distance.
My favorite is listening to the good old MTA and their cheery announcements
about subway service that you hear while waiting on the platforms for the
trains: "...due to an ongoing police investigation in lower Manhattan,
service on the N and R lines are affected... " and you think "hmm I wonder
what happened downtow- ....oh yeah...." and remember it all over again.

That's it for now... stay well,

Love,
Sandy