email382.xml

email382.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-19

Hello all,

I made it to work this morning, although it was a journey just to get downtown. The local train to South Ferry will be closed for the indefinite future because two stations were crushed in the fall of the WTC. The last stop on the 1 and 9 trains was South Ferry, my stop, so I will be taking another train for the next several months (or years). Even though the Express train was running to Wall Street, the trains were stopped at Canal (almost 2 miles north) and I had to walk to work from there. I had to pass through 2 police and U.S. Army checkpoints to prove that I worked downtown, one at Canal and one at Pine Street, just north of the Stock Exchange. The streets were eerily deserted of private cars, and roadblocks were all over the place, dividing the downtown into sectors that were alternately accessible or off limits. The few cars remaining were still covered with dust; one had its back window blown out and haphazardly taped over. The people were very docile, following directions, including bright blue signs leading the traders down to the Stock Exchange.

Walking down Nassau and passing Fulton and Liberty, I saw the burned out hulk of 5 WTC, a black building to begin with but now lacking any windows, and then the skeleton of 2 WTC, a twisted charred piece of metal rising up 50 feet where the tower once rose. There were such strange views in that direction; where once you'd see the towers rising, there is now an open space, surrounded by the much lower-scale World Financial Center. A few times I felt I should have found a face mask for all the smoke that was lingering -- all the soldiers and police men were wearing them -- but I figured they'd be outside a lot longer than I would.

The Stock Exchange had the biggest U.S. flag I've seen this week, stretched across its portico, with thousands of people milling around in front of it, presumably being checked before going in. I passed around the back of the building on New Street, usually filled this time of day with delivery trucks bringing in the traders' breakfasts (all of which had to pass through a metal detector, which I had always thought an unnecessary precaution, but the importance of which I now can understand). Today the street was empty except for mobile power generators. Walking up to Broadway, I turned south and passed through another checkpoint unquestioned (it was directed toward people arriving from the ferry terminal and the Bowling Green subway station walking north) and found my building as I had left it last Tuesday, but with heightened security at the base.

Now at work and looking out my window, I no longer see the Twin Towers, their bulk having been replaced by plumes of white smoke, as if they have floated away as dust. An Army HumVee sits like a sentinel in the middle of Broadway, guarding the Bronze Bull that stares up the avenue at Bowling Green. The pavement and sidewalks are all covered in a fine white dust -- there's no distinguishing black-top from concrete. U.S. flags of all sizes, which I have always enjoyed fluttering on the many flagpoles I can see outside my window, are all at half staff. Broadway is like a wall -- the work week is starting on the east side, which has electricity, water and telephone (but no internet) service -- the west side of Broadway to the Hudson, all part of the clean-up scene, is deserted. And above all this, a completely cloudless, gorgeous day.

Mon 9/17/01 10:36 AM

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