I work just a little more than a block from the World Trade Center site. It's so close that one person in my office could see people falling from the towers on 9/11. That's what a couple of my co-workers said during our lunch break a week or two ago. They were also remarking that they found it strange -- maybe even disturbing -- that so many people treat the WTC site as a tourist attraction, peaking through plastic sheeting to take a photo of the construction.So it was with mixed feelings that I visited the site during my break Friday. Sure enough, tourists were everywhere, camera in hand. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the wreckage.
It's amazing to think how the area must have changed in the last six years. After it happened, I remember thinking that it might not be worth the worry to live in a big city. But here I am. Time dulls those feelings, for better or for worse.
I still remember seeing a New York Times photo of a man falling head first from one of the towers, and I still consider that the most powerful image I've seen from 9/11.
ReplyDeleteI saw the crash site for the first time in May 2005, I think, and I can't remember really wanting to take pictures, either.
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