Subject: NYC Ground Zero
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 11:11:16 -0500
From: "Byrkit, David -FWDC.CON"
To: ALL

Class mates:

Sharon and I have not talked to many of our Brooklyn friends about 9/11. Sharon did know a chef who died on the 107th floor (she had his kids at Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn). We had other friends who worked in those buildings but they either got out or weren't at work that day. We have many pictures of the towers taken from our roof (affectionately referred to in Brooklyn as "Tar Beach"). We used to watch the July Fourth fireworks from up there (the years that we weren't in Peoria for the fourth).

Like many people that I've heard quoted who left NYC just before the tragedy we don't gloat over the move and we've felt a bit helpless with respect to our friends who remained.

I went to Ground Zero and Park Slope last week for the first time since July of 2000. It was eerie. The skyline was the biggest shock to me (as viewed from the New Jersey Turnpike). Sharon and I never thought the World Trade Towers were great artistic pieces; however, they grew on us and were such a central focus of downtown Manhattan. I commuted twice per day through that complex during the entire '90s. Having walked around the bomb damage in 1993 and seeing how well the towers took that bashing I was completely shocked to see the towers fall.

Guiliani (sp?) and many of the design engineers involved in the building had made a big deal about how strongly built the towers were back in 1993. I think that this is why the commentators on live television the morning of September 11th couldn't believe the towers were collapsing any more than I could. Now we know all about jet fuel, heat, and the effect on steel structures.

Our last year in NYC my wife Sharon worked in one of the buildings directly south of the south tower (across a parking lot). Her view was dominated by the south tower. Her building is still standing but uninhabited. A very large (and tall), more modern building next to hers is destined to be brought down.

I was at Ground Zero around 10:00 PM (a week ago this past Wednesday) and the site looked like a baseball stadium sunk into the ground (due to the lights). The memorials at the base of the hill at St. Paul's Chapel graveyard are overwhelming.

Would Fraulein Ziggler say "Such is life" to this (Auf Deautsch, bitte!)?

Dave Byrkit