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A Walk Around The World Trade Center
Yesterday seemed an apt day for a stroll around the long-resurrecting World Trade Center—somewhere I haven’t purposely been avoiding, but also haven’t spent much time at since the weather turned dreary. If you haven’t visited in a while, you’ll be surprised at the sense of place that now exists there.
Walking down Church, you’ll see that 3 World Trade Center is indeed coming along—I wasn’t planning on this post, so I didn’t take every photo that I should’ve—and that the fencing is down around the street level of 4 World Trade Center. The security measures take over a lane of Church, which is too bad. (All of these photos get bigger if you click on them.)
Then, assuming you can handle descending a few stairs, take the pedestrian alley between 3 and 4 World Trade Center. It ends at Greenwich, where you get a pretty view of 4 World Trade Center’s Greenwich Street entrance.
Naturally, I peeked in the lobby…. There’s digital video art in the rear—you can see it in the second image; look for the trees.
And then I stopped for an Instagram. If you have anything to do with 4WTC, please think about letting me inside. It’s only fair.
The Greenwich/Liberty corner of 4 World Trade Center has been unveiled for a while, but it still looks nice.
Turning 180 degrees, I took a photo of what will one day be Liberty Park (atop the Rudolph William Louis Giuliani Vehicular Security Center):
But the pièce de résistance is the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. I know you can see it looking down Church and Greenwich, but only when you get closer do you really absorb how it’s going to dominate the area. From Church Street:
The next two images are from inside the 9/11 Memorial. (By the way, when will enough time have passed to allow for garbage cans?) In the first photo, look closely at how it’s see-through at street level. I’m not sure I really have a sense of how one is going to interact, if at all, with the above-grade part of this structure; is it just windowed to allow in light to the mall below?
And from Greenwich and Barclay.
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Seems only right to take a second to acknowledge and thank you for all the legwork that goes into running and maintaining this site. Great service, one of the first things I check every morning. Cheers!
Why, thank you! I’m so glad to hear it. The fact that people read the site regularly is immensely rewarding for me.
As another regular reader, thank you Erik. This is one of the best blogs out there and essential reading for locals.
Ditto
During the week, the security guards at 4WTC are very obliging about casual entry into the building and allowing photography. Alas, I have had only one opportunity to go up to a higher floor, but given the chance take it, it’s breathtaking.
Had a chance to go in while still under construction. The views are definitely quite something. Have tons of photos from up high.
*pièce de résistance
That’s what I typed, no?
Ok; I take every opportunity to write this: wander around the WTC site and you see the big new buildings, the weird PATH station; the great big “memorial” which is very nice but doesn’t actually commemorate anything (it’s purpose). Where’s the WTC Sphere, that though damaged, survived the attacks? It was carefully salvaged from Ground Zero and installed in Battery Park as a “temporary” memorial. With the full intent to return it as the centerpiece of the future “national” WTC 9/11 memorial. And where it still sits today. Forgotten and unseen – except by tourists hurrying by for the Statue of Liberty ferry who barely give it a glance. In public forums back in ’03 the general public overwhelmingly called for its return; thousands have signed online petitions calling for that, including hundreds of downtown residents. Yet the “National Sept. 11 Memorial Foundation” will not permit its return. I mean, what’s going on here? The Sphere, embraced as an “enduring icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country” doesn’t belong back on the memorial plaza? Restoring it wouldn’t enhance the visitor’s understanding and appreciation of 9/11? This is like the USS Arizona Memorial rejecting the USS Arizona. What sense does any of this make?