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Democracy's Line
By David R. Zukerman, NYC and Winsted
 | | The observation ramp at Fulton Street and Broadway opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m.—but the line is cut off at 5 p.m., to allow for the waiting time of those at the end of the line. |
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Last January 2, Simon Fraser and Angela Nichols, on a New Year's visit to New York from London, went to the World Trade Center—but they soon left, deciding that the line was too long to wait for the observation floor. Returning to New York for this New Year's, Mr. Fraser and Ms. Nichols waited, on January 2, 2002, more than two and a half hours, on a very long line indeed, to view the site where the Twin Towers once stood, so proud, so tall. For Mr. Fraser, a "moral obligation" to visit the site of a "truly horrendous event" clearly transcended any thought of time waiting on a line of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people.
Ms. Nichols told me that the mood in London after the September 11 attack was one of "wondering whether the world was going to come to an end." Mr. Fraser indicated that he was so stunned by September 11 that he did little but stay by the television set for twelve straight hours.
The very long lines to the observation platform at Fulton Street and Broadway had been attributed to the holiday weekend, December 30 to January 1. A police officer thought the crowds of those three days would ease on January 2, a working day. But during the past week, the crowd to see Ground Zero from the Fulton Street observation platform was still forming lines as long as on New Year’s Day, perhaps even longer. In fact, there are now reports that the City will soon begin a process of issuing free tickets for access to the platform, in hopes of easing the congestion and long waiting times in the cold.
Random conversations I had on January 2 indicated, as did such chats the day before, that people are coming from across the ocean, as well as across the continent, to see Ground Zero. On January 1, I spoke briefly with a family from Bristol, England, and then with Todd Mousel, who was visiting New York from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He told me he was on the line because he cared about what happened, and he added that his father asked him to take a photograph to bring back to New Mexico.
 | | A view of the line, looking east on Barclay Street. |
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On January 2, I spoke with Bill and Christine Wesolek from San Francisco, and Sara Johnson from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and with Travis Townsend and Jolene McMahon, sophomores at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Mr. Townsend is from Phoenix; Ms. McMahon's home is in Poughkeepsie. This was Mr. Townsend's first visit to New York City, and he said he had to see the World Trade Center site. Ms. McMahon said that standing in line was part of paying respects to those who perished here on September 11.
I heard one police officer ask, while walking down the line, if there was any problem with line-crashers. But, as Ms. McMahon and Mr. Townsend suggested, the people waiting to see the site of the September 11 attack are respectful. I don't think it would occur to the very great majority to crash a line consisting of mourners. Indeed, the mood of this line suggested to me the mood of a very long line of people waiting to pay final respects to a beloved president or other great world leader.
One month after the attack, my Voice submission [October 19] included a photograph of the burned shell of 5 World Trade Center, visible at Fulton Street. The shell is gone now, and I made some copies of that submission, thinking that perhaps I might show it to people standing at the corner of Fulton and Broadway while they waited to go up the observation ramp. Well, my dozen or so copies were quickly grabbed up, and thus a few people, after waiting two and a half hours to see Ground Zero at Fulton Street, could see what the street had looked like on October 11.
To see these lines, in this cold weather, is to realize that this is a very special assembly of people, far greater in number than the phenomenon of last summer, The Seagull, but having the same root: a free people, expressing themselves freely, peaceably, in democratic communion.
 | | A tribute from students at Hill and Plain School in New Milford was among the memorials in front of St. Paul’s Church. |
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 | | Sara Johnson of Fayetteville, Arkansas (left) stood with Christine and Bill Wesolek of San Francisco in front of St. Peter‘s Church on Barclay Street. |
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|  | | Simon Fraser and Angela Nichols of London, England shivered in the cold as they waited in line. |
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 | | Travis Townsend of Phoenix and Jolene McMahon of Poughkeepsie, students at Northern Arizona University. |
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|  | | This family was visiting from Bristol, England. |
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 | | Todd Mousel of Albuquerque, New Mexico (in white sweater) walks in line on Broadway, past some of the many memorials that have been erected to the victims and rescuers in front of St. Paul’s Church. |
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