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I wanted to share with you my visit to Ground Zero because I think that everyone should go. On December 29, I went to Ground Zero with my brother’s wife Stephany Wolfington Ziegler (class of 1990) and my good friend from my job at JPMorgan. Our office was located at 30 West Broadway and was partially destroyed when Tower 7 fell over. Since September 11, I have had an ache in my heart and felt like I needed to go there for closure. I commuted from Hoboken to the World Trade Center on the PATH train, got my coffee and paper, and walked through there five days a week for nine years. Growing up in Chatham, N.J., I had a view of the World Trade Center from my bedroom window. It felt like a part of me had died and seeing the destruction magnified that.
We took the ferry from Hoboken to Battery Park. I got the same feeling on the ferry as I did when my plane was landing in Newark. I looked and looked and could not see the Trade Center and then I looked and tried to figure out where exactly it should be. It made me sad to think that people who don’t know that the World Trade Center was there will never be able to picture it standing in its glory because it is gone without a trace. I felt a little sick to my stomach as the ferry approached lower Manhattan and was very shaky and nervous as we walked down Broadway, panicked at what I might or might not see. It was far worse than anything I saw on television. Everything on that block is gone, not just Tower 1 and Tower 2. I remember when the Vista Hotel was there and my friends and I would pass through there to catch a bus to Newark Airport or go to the World Financial Center for lunch or drinks after work.
You could not get too close because there was fencing around the circumference of the area. And I am not just talking about any old fencing. This fencing was adorned with photos, letters to missing family and friends, flowers, banners, posters made by schoolchildren all over the country, Christmas decorations, and even gifts. It made me proud to be an American. As I looked down, I saw a book entitled “Prayers to NY from Georgia.” What amazed me most was that nobody stole those things that were left in memory of the missing.
The American flag was draped everywhere and I watched as people around me hugged and complimented the police officers and firefighters who were guarding the area. It all made me cry. There are viewing ramps now that allow you to see down into the destruction. They opened the day after I was there. What I could see from my old office building was the two-story pile of rubble from which they are still pulling bodies today. When the towers initially fell, the rubble was at least 10 stories high. The thing that upset me even more was the destruction surrounding the Trade Center block. Partial buildings and blown-out windows surround the pile that once represented the World Trade Center. Bankers Trust Plaza was severely damaged with windows blown out and destruction on the lower part of the building, but stretched clear across the top of the building was the largest American flag you have ever seen and many little ones waving from the construction trucks as they worked. The most horrible thing was to see family members coming out of the secured area…they are supposedly allowed access at any time. It was Christmastime and it was so sad.
The whole day I never once felt like someone would take my pocketbook and it has been stolen twice in New York City. There was actually a woman passing out markers so that you could write your feelings and prayers on one of the banners stretched across fencing alongside the photos and endless letters. This is where families and friends come to pay their respects to the missing and it is such an emotional tribute.
Being home in Atlanta, I feel very sad for the loss of life, the destruction of such a beautiful place, the displacement of so many people, and a personal loss for not being able to walk down memory lane again. I bought a few framed photos of the World Trade Center which are now hanging like a shrine in my house along with a copy of the painting of the firefighter hoisting the American flag after it all happened. I will never forget and I feel everyone should go to see what has happened so that we will all be strong in our resolve to wipe out terrorism and prevent something like this from ever happening again. I wish for everyone that terrorism will be wiped out sooner rather than later. God Bless America!
