The 10 Anniversary of 9-11-2001

Please forgive the quality this grainy photograph. I took it many years ago, in 1972, when I was still a young teenager with my little Instamatic film camera. I was on the Circle Line cruise ship that circles Manhattan island with my sister, my brother-in-law, and my younger brother. It was an overcast summer day and were were enjoying the cooler temperatures on the ship and taking photographs as if we were tourists. I was excited to get a photo of this view of the World Trade Center Twin Towers that were almost completed. You can see cranes on the upper floors that were still under construction.  I never thought I'd see these buildings destroyed 29 years later on September 11, 2001.

This is a photo of my two children, taken in 1989, as they were standing in the glass tunnel that connected World Trade Center 7 with the plaza of the Twin Towers.  My husband worked in 7 World Trade Center, and I often took my son and daughter to meet my husband for lunch during their summer vacations.  We would often visit the observation deck on Tower 2 afterwards and marvel at the view we had of New York City at such a great height!  Building 7 faced Tower One, and it was the last building to completely collapse on September 11, 2001. Thankfully everyone from building 7 escaped without harm that day, but I am sure that, like my husband, those workers lost many friends and colleagues that worked in Towers 1 and 2, and perhaps even family members.  My older brother was a retired FDNY Lieutenant, and he knew many of the 343 firemen that perished that day.  The event of 9-11 touched us all very personally.




The video above is one of many that are on YouTube that show the events of 9-11.  I find these videos hard to watch, as my tears immediately begin flow. I do like the song that accompanies this video, however, as it's main theme is "I believe love is the answer."
Every year I feel an overwhelming sadness as 9-11 approaches, and for a few days afterward. I can't begin to imagine the sadness of those that lost a loved one that day. The attacks of 9-11 were not attacks on New York City or Washington DC -- they were attacks on the United States of America. We should all never forget that hatred was the core of these attacks, and that hatred in return does not bring back those who were lost and it does not help to change the world. 
Am I dreaming to believe that extreme love is the answer to extreme hatred?  Can doing good, being kind, promoting peace and understanding in our own lives help change the world? After 9-11 there was such an outreach of sorrow and love to all we saw--for days and weeks America pulled together as one.  I am sad to see much of that sensitivity has disappeared in the ten years since. On this anniversary I want to examine my own life to see if I have kept the promises I made to myself as I watched those towers fall.  Didn't we all promise we would appreciate our lives more, be kinder to those around us, and not take anything for granted? One of the things I decided on that fateful day was that I wanted to enjoy my own city more and go to all the places I had left for "someday." Seeing those towers fall made me realize that we can never take anything or anyone for granted. This blog has been an end product of going out and exploring New York City more closely

The following photos were taken by a co-worker of my husband, from a hotel restaurant window located across the street from the ground zero construction site. She graciously gave me permission to use them in this post. They have a wonderful perspective of the ground zero and all the new construction that one does not see from the ground.

Ten years later the new World Trade Center Tower is almost two thirds completed. One World Trade Center will be the tallest building in the United States, standing at a symbolic height of 1,776 feet.  It is scheduled to open in 2013.

This is a zoomed in view of one of the two one acre waterfall memorial pools that stand in the footprints of the destroyed towers.  The name of the waterfall memorials is "Reflecting Absence."

A view of both of the north and south waterfall memorial pools. Forty percent of the people that lost their lives in this area did not have their bodies recovered, so this area will also be a symbolic burial ground and place of remembrance for their families. The two square waterfall pools are the largest man made waterfalls in our country.  The names of all 2983 victims of 9-11, including those that lost their lives in the attack on the Pentagon and those lost of the plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as well as the six victims of February 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, are incised in bronze around the pools. 

The white triangular building that you see between the two pools is the Memorial Museum. The Museum is growing a permanent collection of artifacts, stories, photos, video and other material, that shape our shared history of 9-11.  Among the collection will be the World Trade Center Cross which  composed of cross shaped steel beams, and was found amidst the debris of the World Trade Center, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, by a rescue/recovery worker. I have previously blogged about this cross on this post.



The Reflecting Absence memorial pools are being surrounded with trees, and this area will 0ne day be a quiet place to listen to the waterfalls and reflect on those lost.  I highly encourage you to watch the following video that gives information about the new memorials.




I took the photos below of a beautiful memorial outside Saint Ephram's Church in Brooklyn, New York, in remembrance to the nine parishioners that lost their lives on 9-11.

The statue is called “Jesus taking the Towers to His Heart,” made by the The Demetz Art Studio.

A close up of this remarkably touching sculpture.

The scripture on the base of the statue.

 Please say a prayer for the innocent lives lost on 9-11. Do something good in your community in their memory. Be part of the September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance.  Learn more at the Understanding 9-11 web site.  

Never forget! Let love be the answer, not hate. 

I’m linking up today with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

September 11 - A Day of Remembrance

Every day in New York City we are reminded of the terrible events of 9-11. The gap in the skyline where the towers once loomed was most evident, but now there is the bustle of construction activity going on at "ground zero" where the World Trade Center complex once stood.

The construction of One World Trade Center, also known by the name Freedom Tower, has really begun to show progress as it rises into the sky, but there are many sightings everywhere in New York which make us all pause and remember.  I'd like to show a few formal memorials, community memorials, places and objects that have acquired memorial symbolism and homemade memorials made by individual New Yorkers in honor of the people that died on 9-11.

Three hundred and forty three firemen lost their live on 9-11 and many firehouses have a plaque on their wall that memorializes the firemen from that firehouse that lost their lives that day. This plaque was located outside Firehouse Engine 4 & Ladder 15, located in the Financial District, New York City at 42 South Street, in Manhattan.

The plaque is located on the wall to the left when facing the firehouse.

The 10 Truck Ladder recently on it's way to a call.  The Engine 10 Ladder 10 Company is located at 124 Liberty Street in Manhattan -- just south from where World Trade Center Tower 2 stood. It lost six firemen that day.

The outside firehouse wall  became the repository for a beautiful memorial 56 foot long brass plaque dedicated to the 343 New York City firemen that were killed in the line of duty on 9-11.

To read more information about this memorial and to see more photos of it, please read my prior blog post about it by clicking here.

Some of the companies that surrounded the World Trade Center complex lost employees in the attack and have memorials to them.  The American Express Memorial to the 11 employees the firm lost on September 11 is in the lobby of the American Express headquarters at the World Financial Center across the street from the World Trade Center site. A 600-pound, tear-shaped Brazilian quartz, carved with 11 sides (one side for each employee lost), is suspended at the center of the memorial. The quartz hangs from 11 thin cables over the center of an eleven sided black granite pool. The names of the victims are inscribed on the sides of the pool.

A close up of one of the victims name in memoriam.

This is "Angel's Circle" located in the NYC borough of Staten Island.  You can see more photos of this memorial and read the story about it on my prior blog post by clicking here.

A close up of the inscription at the bottom of the angel statue.

Staten Island was one of the hardest hit communities on 9/11, losing nearly 270 loved ones in the terrorist attacks.

I saw this touching home made memorial next to a private house in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Seeing the faces of the victims really increases the impact. 

A chunk of the marble facade of World Trade Center building 7, the last building to collapse from the destruction on the World Trade Center, and a lost fireman's photo attached to it, was also in the display case. The company my husband worked for at the time was located in WTC 7. Thankfully no one from his office was lost that day.

This is a memorial traffic triangle bound by Fillmore Avenue, Avenue T and East 57th Street in Brooklyn, NY.  It is one of the thousands of properties throughout the city called "Greenstreets," which belong to the Department of Transportation and are beautified by the Department of Parks. This triangle stands in testament to the life of Firefighter Gregory Saucedo. 

The plaque on the triangle explains that firefighter (1969 - 2001) lived his entire life in this neighborhood of Brooklyn, and played near this triangle as a child, often waving to the fire trucks that drove by on a call.  To read more about him go to this link.

This is another homemade memorial I spotted outside a house also in Brooklyn last 9-11. It contained 343 American flags in memory of the deceased firefighters. 

Many of the firefighters lived in the boroughs outside of Manhattan and after 9-11 there were many sad funeral processions that lined the streets while bagpipes played a mournful melody. Seeing and hearing that is a memory that I will never forget.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden contains two long rows of Liberty Scarlet Oaks, planted in memory of 9-11.

The informational plaque about the trees.

The World Trade Center Cross, also known as The Ground Zero Cross, is composed of cross shaped steel beams, and was found amidst the debris of the World Trade Center, following the September 11, 2001 attacks. It stood at "Ground Zero" for a few years but is now off site due to construction.

A informational plaque about the cross. You can read some more about it on this post.

St. Paul’s Chapel is located on Church St. between Fulton St. and Vesey St., opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site.  This Episcopal church, was home to an extraordinary eight-month volunteer relief effort after September 11, 2001

It became known by the nickname "The Little Chapel That Stood."  You can read more about the chapel and see the photos I took of memorials inside the chapel on my blog post at this link.

I saw this sign awhile ago attached to a fence of a house in Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan. It says: "If we all do one random act of kindness daily, we just might set the world in the right direction."  ~Martin Kornfeld 

I like to think of this as a response to 9-11.  Isn't it better to fill our hearts with love and positive purpose because of 9-11, than with hatred and revenge?  Wouldn't we all like to work towards making the world a better place?

That is why I am in full support of the September 11 National Day Of Service and Remembrance. This group actively encourage all Americans, and others, to voluntarily support charitable causes, perform good deeds and engage in other service activities in observance of the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. If you can't actively do a good deed or charitable work this year you can donate to a cause that you support by doing a search on this link.

We can all make a difference!  We can all do good in memory of those that perished on 9-11 and honor them in this way.

I'm linking with Beverly at the blog How Sweet The Sound for her 9-11 Memorial supplement to her usual Pink Saturday event.  Please join her on Saturday to see her post and links to all the participating blogs. Thank you Beverly!