Pope at Ground Zero

I spent my morning watching the Pope bless Ground Zero and some of the survivors of victims. It openned a lot of memories for me. After 9/11, I flew home for Christmas, and my Dad picked me up at Newark, he took me directly across the river to Ground Zero. It was a ghoastly, errily quiet, yet busy place at 10pm that night. I knew some guys who died there, i knew some guys who didn't. All of these thoughts and memories came back to me this morning. I'm not sure how to finish this, as i began writing it sort of stream of concionus. So there, I'm done.

I had a trip planned around Thanksgiving time to NYC to visit an uncle there for months before 9/11. The trip still went on, as I was going Greyhound. We visited ground zero once, around 11 in the evening. I remember a few very vivid details: coming up from the subways to an indescribable scent; seeing fires still burning and fire hoses putting them out; and overflowing dump trucks constantly leaving the gated site. I was in NYC a few summers ago, and didn't get a chance to revisit the site. Anyone been there lately?

I was just there a month ago. It's still a very somber place for sure. They have cleared both foundations of debris and are working on building the memorial site. Right now they have the plans laid out and the names of everyone killed on 9/11 and also in the bombings that occured there in the mid 90's. They are still in the process of tearing down two surrounding buildings that were damaged when the towers fell. They are being taken down floor by floor so as not to disturb any surrounding structure. Also WTC #7 which fell on 9/11 along with the towers is completely rebuilt and functional. I was actually fortunate enough to go inside of WTC #7 and see the view in to the two towers foundations.

Still to this day the whole thing brought back those terrible memories of that day and makes you re-live it as vividly as when it happened.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mikey-OH

Still to this day the whole thing brought back those terrible memories of that day and makes you re-live it as vividly as when it happened.

---

Yep, it definatly does.

I still remember turning on the radio that day. I had to pull over to the side of the road with my jaw hanging. I had just left the military some months before, so it was an issue I felt close to. I spent the day alternating between fury and a sinking feeling in my gut. I thought for sure we were going to wind up in a war against a country that had backed the action. Iraq, Iran, North Korea, or all of the above. It didn't escalate nearly as much as I thought it would. The WT center wound up being the pinnacle of their effort rather than a starting point for further horrors.