Ground Zero from the Ground

Sunday, March 10, 2002

I was way downtown Friday night. Hanging out at a bar I sometimes go to down there. When I walked out, I couldn't help but to see the gaping hole in the skyline downtown. Work continues around the clock at Ground Zero. At night, the place is briliantly lit by stadium power lighting. It isn't possible not to see this.

I've been down there before, and not gone near the place, figuring there wouldn't be much to see after dark. "The Platform" a huge ramp that offers an elevated view into the hole, is closed at 9 pm. But I was awake, and resonably sober. So I walked down to see what could be seen. I have not visited Ground Zero before, for no reason other than I had no real reason to.

The first thing I noticed was the number of assorted other construction/utility sites. Ground Zero messed up utilities in that area in a huge way. There are holes in the streets and sidewalks for blocks in all directions, many also with men in them working around the clock. Cops abound, controlling access to areas still deemed too dangerous for non-essential people.

Ground Zero has been worked on enough so far, that is isn't so much a pile of rubble any longer, as it is a hole in the ground that could be any construction site in the world. Except that this construction site can never be just any construction site. At this construction site, what was being excavated from the hole was not earth.

I did not have a good view. The site is ringed by a canvas covered cyclone fence. Inside the fence are a large amount of mobile trailer offices with "GE Capital" signs on them. But there are some breaks in the fence where a veiw can be stolen of the works. Those views were of a hole in the ground, filled with rubble, with a scoop shovel operating in the middle of it. The rubble looks like you've seen on TV. Only idividual peices of it are very large, even still.

The scale is exceptional. The WTC took up a huge plot of land. It is magnified by all the other building that surround the site. They are all tall in their own rights. And the outline they form is very regular. The only break in the ring of buildings around a perfectly square city block is where 7 WTC fell down. All the remaining buildings, on all sides, bear scarrs. Some look to have suffered only cosmetic damage, some of which is or has been fixed. Some look pretty messed up, with huge, multi-storey, gashes that look deep, and terminal.

It is not natural to see a blank spot like this amonst a bunch of sky-scrapers. No matter how tall a building is (or isn't), it blocks the view of things more than a half a block away. But here, there is only this fence, and a few construction trailers. The fence does a good job of blocking the hole that is now Ground Zero. It doesn't block the buildings across the way.

The remaining buildings stand facing this huge open spot. In my slightly inebriated state, I couldn't help but to see the wounded looking down at the fallen. I can't help but to liken this hole in my city, to the hole in the American soul left after 9/11.

I was misty-eyed the whole time I was down there. Thinking thoughts. Dealing with it.

It was good to finally go down and see this close up. To see the work that has been done, and the amount of it that is going on, even at 4 AM, is heartening. We will recover. We will rebuild. And while things have changed... well... things always do change. The secret, as they used to say in westerns, is to get back on the horse.

I think we are well on our way.