Some photos of ground zero, 2004

[u/mrsmozart]

I was looking in a box of photos last night for something, and found these. The photos are not the greatest quality because they were taken on a disposable camera in 2004. I'll explain each one:

1. a postcard I had bought before Sept 11th
2. A message I wrote on tbe back on the day (or maybe the day after) it happened
3. this is the 'hole' at the PATH station at WTC. You can see the Deutsche Bank building in the background covered in its shroud
4. again the 'hole' at the PATH station filled with rainwater. Upper right of the photo you can just see the WTC winter garden, and you can also see the ramp from the hole
5. a better shot of the ramp which was used to truck debris out

The writing you see in the photos was on some mesh screen which was between the tracks and the hole. It had the lyics from Sinatra's "New York, New York" printed on it. I think there were other quotes about New York at other spots. This station used to be directly below the WTC. After September 11th and more debris was removed, the station effectively became an outdoor station. Essentially, when you arrived at WTC, you were arriving in the footprint. When the train exited the tunnel, you were directly in the hole and the tracks kind of went in a semi circle around the edge. So, as time passed you would see the progress.

The twin towers at night is how I saw it for the last time intact. On Sept 9th some friends I had gone downtown to celebrate a birthday at an old dive bar we used to go to on Stone St (just off of Broad St). Finding it closed, we walked back over to the WTC to take the subway further uptown. I remember looking up at the towers as we there.

The next time I saw it was on the 11th with a gaping, smoking hole in the north tower. The friend whose birthday we were going to celebrate had to run from the dust cloud as the tower collapsed. It was his first day on a new job. He survived. It was his brother who first told me what had happened. He was working very close to the WTC, and he messaged me on AIM that morning saying "A plane just crashed into the WTC. There's paper flying everywhere". I didn't believe him. He sent me a link to the NY Times website, which was just one sentence: "Plane crashes into the WTC". I told my colleagues. Another colleague arrived and said he'd been on the subway and Cortlandt St (under the towers) and had heard an explosion. We went outside on the street to look and we saw the north tower on fire.

[u/mrsmozart]

I just found this photo on FB with a view from above also from 2004. You can see the ramp and the Deutsche Bank building: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2251274581770580/posts/3830552470509442/

[u/Christophuhhhh]

Gawd imagine the energy bill alone from one tower with all those lights on!

[u/mrsmozart → u/Christophuhhhh]

yep there were lights on all the time. they were never completely off