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New York City Sights – Ground Zero

By Brian | April 26, 2009 | Share on Facebook

For my recent visit to Yankee Stadium, I treated myself to a new digital camera (one that takes video), which means I now get to carry my old camera around every day, and photograph all those things I see in New York that make me think, “I should post that on my blog.”

I’ve tried weekly or monthly features on this blog before, all to eventual failure, so I won’t commit to any regularity, but when I see something worth capturing, I will post it under this heading – New York City Sights. Time will tell how regular it becomes.

Anyway, today’s edition focuses on the former site of the World Trade Center, known today as Ground Zero. I’m guessing that most people still think of Ground Zero as a big, empty pit, mired in political bickering and construction delays. And while it’s true that we’re almost eight years past the terrible events of September 11, 2001 and we do not have new, completed skyscrapers, there has been quite a bit of change since the day they finally emptied “the pit.” Behold:


The structure on the left is the beginning of The Freedom Tower (a.k.a., One World Trade Center). It currently stands at six stories tall, and will eventually rise to a symbolic 1,776 feet (including a rather large antenna). To the right of it (and behind the blue tarp) is the footprint of the South tower (the North tower’s footprint is behind the Freedom Tower at this angle). Those two pieces of now-sacred ground will eventually form the September 11 Memorial, currently scheduled to open on September 11, 2011 (the ten-year anniversary of the attacks).


Here’s another view of Ground Zero – this one from the Winter Garden, which is the building between the two towers of the World Financial Center (which survived the attacks). Here, you can see both tower footprints (hard to see unless you know where to look). Across the street is Century 21, a department store that has become a fixture downtown, the Millennium Hotel (to the left of Century 21), and One Liberty Plaza (to the right), which everyone thought might fall down immediately after the attacks, but turned out to be structurally sound.

Topics: New York, New York | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “New York City Sights – Ground Zero”

  1. Ilya says at April 27th, 2009 at 1:02 pm :
    The last time I physically set my foot in the area was September 6th, 2001, – I took a day off to give visiting friends a guided tour of the city, including the downtown financial district. Never worked up the nerve to visit it afterwards, given that I had studied and worked in the area for most of the 90′s.

    Happy to see the progress there!

  2. Brian says at April 27th, 2009 at 1:36 pm :
    I know how you feel. I didn’t get back there until October 22, 2001 and then, only because I had a meeting on Wall Street. My (rather depressing) reaction is documented here, if you’re interested.

  3. Ilya says at April 28th, 2009 at 1:22 pm :
    I believe I already read that post of your in the past, Brian. Very well put.

    I need to go visit and walk around downtown a bit when I’m back in New York.

  4. jason says at April 29th, 2009 at 6:13 pm :
    For the record, I like the new feature and look forward to seeing more New York Sights.

    As to the inaugural sight, thanks for choosing this one, Brian. I haven’t heard anything about the Freedom Tower in quite a while and believed it was still hung up in litigation and/or indecision. Good to see it’s finally underway.

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