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911 slideshow

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Peter McKay
Peter McKay

The document describes the author's experiences visiting areas around the Brooklyn Promenade and lower Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11. They saw memorials for victims along the Promenade with views of where the Twin Towers once stood. In lower Manhattan, they passed firefighters who had lost colleagues on 9/11 and saw debris where WTC 4 once was. Security was tight near Ground Zero and the military had a presence in Lower Manhattan. Impromptu memorials and missing posters were placed in areas like the post office as the desperate hope for finding missing loved ones still persisted at that point in the recovery.

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After getting off my train on 9/17, I walked along the Brooklyn Promenade before getting on the bridge. The promenade offers a great view of the Manhattan skyline, which included a visible smoke cloud in place of the Twin Towers. The smoke would continue for more than a month as the massive debris pile smoldered.
I walked through some of the residential area near the Brooklyn Promenade, passing by the neighborhood firehouse. Some of the firefighters there responded to 9/11 and never came back. I left a donation there in the boot of one of the survivors after reading this sign. Among both civilians and emergency workers, the desperate hope that loved ones were merely missing still persisted at this point. But, rationally, most people knew there was little likelihood of that. Regarding the recovery effort at Ground Zero, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had already candidly said at a press conference that, if a particular person hadnt been found yet, he or she was unlikely to be recovered alive.
Some people placed memorials for their loved ones along the promenade, with its view of Lower Manhattan. Here, a bouquet in the fence has a note in both English and some Asian language that I cant quite make out at this point. Perhaps Korean or Chinese.
Another memorial on the promenade...
As I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, I got another wide- ranging view of Lower Manhattan from a more elevated vantage point. Again, keep in mind that most of this cloud is smoke and dust, not Mother Nature.
Just before reaching Manhattan, I came across this French TV crew interviewing relief volunteers in town from a Tennessee church. As New Yorkers, were often used to being disliked by the rest of the country. But in the post-9/11 world, the outpouring of love for our city from other places was unabashed.
Once in Manhattan, I tried to get as close as possible to Ground Zero. From one of the nearby side streets, I could see the wreckage of 4 WTC, which sat at the base of the Twin Towers. The building was home to the New York Board of Trade, one of the markets I covered for the Journal. To outsiders, NYBOT is most famous as the spot where Eddie Murphy traded orange-juice futures in the movie Trading Places. Pre-9/11, the Twin Towers would have been in the light- colored, U-shaped area of this photo, tall enough to stretch way past the top of the frame.
Eventually, police stopped me from getting any closer to Ground Zero. I headed north instead to Canal Street, the dividing line above which security was a little more lax. I wanted to see if life was closer to normal there. Police barricades like this one were at every cross-street intersecting with Canal, which runs east-west across Manhattans Chinatown. Nothing but official vehicles was allowed past these checkpoints, to guard against a possible truck bomb. For a Monday in New York, this sort of shutdown was unheard-of. Lower Manhattan was back open for business, but only to a point.
In addition to a large contingent of NYPD officers, state troopers and heavily-armed national guardsmen were also patrolling streets throughout Lower Manhattan. This martial presence was striking. Until that day, Id only ever seen such a thing in restive foreign countries on television.
The post office on Canal Street was one of several popular spots for people to put up missing posters of loved ones. All the local hospitals saw similar impromptu collections spring up, but that effort was futile, really. The violence of 9/11 was so sudden and catastrophic, people near Ground Zero either survived or not. Emergency rooms were eerily quiet after. Note the diversity of the victims in this small sample.
More missing flyers at Canal St.
More love from out of town. United we stand, was a widespread sentiment/slogan at the time. Imagine. This item was mixed in with the missing flyers at the post office. People just left behind impromptu expressions of support and condolence, a practice that would continue for years after Ground Zero re- opened to pedestrians, even when it had no proper memorial.
Mark Fichtel, CEO of the New York Board of Trade, speaking to members during a weekend test run of the exchanges backup facility in Queens prior to resumption of trading on Monday, Sept. 17. Though it wasnt nearly as famous as the NYSE, the little NYBOT was distinct in two ways: (1) It was the only public financial exchange whose headquarters were destroyed on 9/11. (2) It was the only one with a physical backup facility.
Pat Gambaro, NYBOTs executive v.p. of operations. After the 93 bombing of the World Trade Center, he pushed to establish a backup center. Some members complained about the expense over the ensuing years, saying it was unnecessary, especially as memory of the 93 attack grew distant. But after 9/11, Pats persistence paid off in a big way.

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911 slideshow

  • 1. After getting off my train on 9/17, I walked along the Brooklyn Promenade before getting on the bridge. The promenade offers a great view of the Manhattan skyline, which included a visible smoke cloud in place of the Twin Towers. The smoke would continue for more than a month as the massive debris pile smoldered.
  • 2. I walked through some of the residential area near the Brooklyn Promenade, passing by the neighborhood firehouse. Some of the firefighters there responded to 9/11 and never came back. I left a donation there in the boot of one of the survivors after reading this sign. Among both civilians and emergency workers, the desperate hope that loved ones were merely missing still persisted at this point. But, rationally, most people knew there was little likelihood of that. Regarding the recovery effort at Ground Zero, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had already candidly said at a press conference that, if a particular person hadnt been found yet, he or she was unlikely to be recovered alive.
  • 3. Some people placed memorials for their loved ones along the promenade, with its view of Lower Manhattan. Here, a bouquet in the fence has a note in both English and some Asian language that I cant quite make out at this point. Perhaps Korean or Chinese.
  • 5. As I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, I got another wide- ranging view of Lower Manhattan from a more elevated vantage point. Again, keep in mind that most of this cloud is smoke and dust, not Mother Nature.
  • 6. Just before reaching Manhattan, I came across this French TV crew interviewing relief volunteers in town from a Tennessee church. As New Yorkers, were often used to being disliked by the rest of the country. But in the post-9/11 world, the outpouring of love for our city from other places was unabashed.
  • 7. Once in Manhattan, I tried to get as close as possible to Ground Zero. From one of the nearby side streets, I could see the wreckage of 4 WTC, which sat at the base of the Twin Towers. The building was home to the New York Board of Trade, one of the markets I covered for the Journal. To outsiders, NYBOT is most famous as the spot where Eddie Murphy traded orange-juice futures in the movie Trading Places. Pre-9/11, the Twin Towers would have been in the light- colored, U-shaped area of this photo, tall enough to stretch way past the top of the frame.
  • 8. Eventually, police stopped me from getting any closer to Ground Zero. I headed north instead to Canal Street, the dividing line above which security was a little more lax. I wanted to see if life was closer to normal there. Police barricades like this one were at every cross-street intersecting with Canal, which runs east-west across Manhattans Chinatown. Nothing but official vehicles was allowed past these checkpoints, to guard against a possible truck bomb. For a Monday in New York, this sort of shutdown was unheard-of. Lower Manhattan was back open for business, but only to a point.
  • 9. In addition to a large contingent of NYPD officers, state troopers and heavily-armed national guardsmen were also patrolling streets throughout Lower Manhattan. This martial presence was striking. Until that day, Id only ever seen such a thing in restive foreign countries on television.
  • 10. The post office on Canal Street was one of several popular spots for people to put up missing posters of loved ones. All the local hospitals saw similar impromptu collections spring up, but that effort was futile, really. The violence of 9/11 was so sudden and catastrophic, people near Ground Zero either survived or not. Emergency rooms were eerily quiet after. Note the diversity of the victims in this small sample.
  • 12. More love from out of town. United we stand, was a widespread sentiment/slogan at the time. Imagine. This item was mixed in with the missing flyers at the post office. People just left behind impromptu expressions of support and condolence, a practice that would continue for years after Ground Zero re- opened to pedestrians, even when it had no proper memorial.
  • 13. Mark Fichtel, CEO of the New York Board of Trade, speaking to members during a weekend test run of the exchanges backup facility in Queens prior to resumption of trading on Monday, Sept. 17. Though it wasnt nearly as famous as the NYSE, the little NYBOT was distinct in two ways: (1) It was the only public financial exchange whose headquarters were destroyed on 9/11. (2) It was the only one with a physical backup facility.
  • 14. Pat Gambaro, NYBOTs executive v.p. of operations. After the 93 bombing of the World Trade Center, he pushed to establish a backup center. Some members complained about the expense over the ensuing years, saying it was unnecessary, especially as memory of the 93 attack grew distant. But after 9/11, Pats persistence paid off in a big way.

Editor's Notes