New York, New York Part 1

Start spreading the news, we left for home yesterday, we were a part of it, New York, New York.  Ok, enough of that...
Jackie and I spent a long weekend in New York to attend Kathy's daughter Nicole's wedding in Huntington, NY.

We had no plans for Friday so decided to spend the day in New York City.  My sister in law, Lynn assured me that we would have no problem driving into lower Manhattan so we gave it a try.  Lynn had given me a listing of 6 parking garages, with discount coupons and earlier in the week I had created maps from LaGuardia to each.  I had planned on these maps being my back up plan but since I left my GPS in my car at Mitchell Field in Milwaukee, these maps were our main source of information.  There was some medium traffic but the directions were spot on, and soon we were handing the car keys to the Parking Garage attendant, and visions of Ferris Bueller played in my head.  We were leaving behind a Ford Escape, not some hot convertible so I doubt this guy was going to take it out the back to party on the streets.
We took a few steps and the first thing we see is the new construction of One World Trade Center.

We had to cross West street by the pedestrian enclosed bridge, so entered the World Financial Center and checked it out.

 Then made our way to Greenwich street, where we had lunch at O'Hara Irish Pub.  Great food, small restaurant but a favorite of many since there was a steady stream of customers and no tables were ever empty for long.
Then it was time to view the 9/11 Memorial.  About a month ago I went online to see what ground zero was going to look like.  A free visitor pass is required to view the Memorial.  I was able to choose either Friday at 2:15 pm or Sunday at 10:15 am.  Everything else was already taken and if you check today, nothing is available until November.
As most everyone knows, on September 11, the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, 9/11 Memorial opened.  It consists of two pools, named Reflecting Absence, 30 foot waterfalls and all the names of those that perished during all the acts of violence that day.  The names are arranged on the counter top of the pools, by affiliation, by employee, by Responder Unit, by Flight Crew.

If you want to find a name there are kiosks that when you enter a name, they give you a location.  The pools are wonderful, its quiet and you can't help but feel in awe of the names listed there.  There will be a Museum that will be completed in 2012.  At this time you can look into the tinted glass and see the original footings from one of the Towers.

It was time to go but I left wanting more.  There is also a Visitor Center.  It has a short film clip, and some books that show the destruction, the people involved that day, the eventual clean up.  But they only covered a thin layer of what happened that day.  I wanted to see more, learn more.  I wanted to see what the surrounding buildings looked like that day and those that were struck what they look like now.  I heard people asking questions to each other...How many towers were there, How many are they rebuilding, what will it look like, how tall were the towers, how many people were trapped inside, how did they clean it all up?    Maybe New York is so close to this tragedy because they are living it and they know all those things...but outside NY it seems like what happened took place in another world.  I really wanted to know more so when I got home I checked online and here is some information that you may or may not know.

There were 7 World Trade Center buildings.  The North tower was 1,728 feet tall, 110 floors and was the tallest building in the world.  It was struck first by the American Airline flight 11 which hit between the 93rd and 99th floors stranding or killing 1,344 people above the site.
The South tower was 1,362 feet tall, also 110 floors and contained the "Top of the World" Observation deck on the 107th and 110th floor.  The United Airlines flight 175 crashed between 77th and 85th floors but because it struck off center a stairwell was left in tact and able to be used because of this only 700 people were left stranded or killed on contact.  The South tower collapsed at 9:59 am followed by the North tower at 10:28 am.
7WTC collapsed later on September 11th.  3WTC was destroyed when the two towers collapsed onto it.  The other three WTC buildings sustained heavy damage and were demolished.

Clean Up:  Debris was transported to a sorting island 24 hours a day for 8 months.  Clean up was officially completed on May 30, 2002.

Future:  The World Trade Center will be rebuilt with 5 skyscrapers.  One is already completed, 7WTC.  It is 52 floors and was completed in 2006.  Currently 1WTC (though the name probably will be changed) is at 80 stories.  4WTC is around 38 stories and the foundations for 2 and 3 are becoming visible with 3WTC expecting to be completed by 2014.  The area will also house a transportation HUB along with the Museum that I mentioned earlier.

1WTC and 7WTC

4WTC

A rendering of what the future World Trade Center will look like

We then walked to Battery Park where a structure that used to be in front of the WTC is now housed.  It somewhat survived the destruction.

 
                    I smiled as I saw this family walk away after paying their respects to the Memorial.

 We checked out the Statue of Liberty (at a distance).  Tickets to the Island were not available until November.

Time to travel a bit more.  We wanted to take the subway but weren't exactly sure where to catch it.
We saw this woman and even though her dog seemed to read better than her,

she was very helpful..Go to Recter Street she said, take the #1.  Sounds easy enough.  We got to the subway entrance and four young ladies were in line to ride the subway for the first time.  They asked a lot of questions, some that I was wondering about, so when it was my turn I simply said $4.50 MetroCard please, as if I do this all the time.  Its $2.25 to go anywhere, so this card will take us to our next destination and later on, bring us back here.  What a Deal!!!

To Be Continued...