THE MOOD DOWNTOWN
Just got back from a trip down to the Financial District. Some friends are in town and I opted to join with them as they trekked down to see the Woolworth Building and a bit of the site. The mood down there has definitely changed. It is no longer somber. The respectful whispers are gone. We saw one guy - who must have been around 30 - up in his buddy's shoulders, laughing and trying to see over a fence into the rescue zone. Even when a cop came over and asked them to stop, they kept laughing and trying to get a better view. We passed the line snaking toward the new viewing platform. Apparently it's a 5-hour wait. The platform is at the back of the St. Paul's cemetery, near where the Border's Bookstore used to be. That building, by the way, looks as though it's now been torn down altogether. It was still standing about two weeks ago when I came home from a doctor's appointment.
At one point we walked up Fulton toward Broadway, a route I used to walk everyday I left work and headed for the subway. As I looked up today, I got something like a reverse vertigo. Kind of a seasick feeling because the towers weren't there. Now you can see sunlight at the end of the street.
As we headed back past City Hall, we saw the new mayor walk out of one building with his entourage and head toward the front of City Hall, which is all decked out in red white and blue bunting for the inauguration.
We also made a stop at the J&R Music World so I could buy Civ III. That's how I'll be spending my New Year's Eve while my husband has to work, about a dozen floors above Times Square tonight.
- posted by Amy @ 12/31/2001 03:56:00 PM