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March 11 — The Half-Anniversary
By David R. Zukerman, NYC and Winsted
 | | Standing at the northwest corner of the site, looking at the below-grade levels of the Customs Building. |
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I returned to the site of the World Trade Center on March 11, the half-anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers and other buildings by anti-American terrorists. This was the first time I had been at the site in two months, having gotten no closer during this period than the memorial tributes on the fence in front of St. Paul’s Church, along Broadway, between Fulton and Vesey Streets.
Church Street, one block west of Broadway, is now open to vehicles—and pedestrians, on the east side of the street. The west side of Church Street is the eastern border of those tragic sixteen acres now known as "Ground Zero."
There can be no doubt that this became a place of national commemoration—and consecration—on September 11. The memorial tributes on the fence at St. Paul’s are from all parts of America—indeed, from foreign lands as well. And thousands of people who come to the viewing platform daily, to look out across Ground Zero, are from all parts of America.
The half-anniversary was marked by placement in Battery Park of a sculpture taken from Ground Zero, and by the lighting of two banks of lights at Vesey Street and West Street, symbolizing the Twin Towers.
 | | From Vesey and West Streets, looking southeast at workers 70 feet below. |
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I returned to the area on the night of March 12 to see the Twin Towers of Light. They became visible to me about a mile north on West Side Highway. I left the area at 11 o’clock and happened at that moment to be looking at the Towers of Light from the corner of North Moore and West Streets—and suddenly they were gone. The lights are turned off at 11 p.m.; to look at them and then suddenly find them gone is an unintended reminder, I think, of the tragedy of September 11.
A member of the Police Department offers a brief statement to visitors at the Ground Zero viewing platform, including information that 300 people visit each half hour, for a total of 6,000 a day. The statement ends with the request that visitors be respectful. As I have noted in previous submissions on Ground Zero, visitors are somber, solemn and silent. The request for respect is understandable—but, I think, largely unnecessary.
Before I went onto the viewing platform, I walked along Church Street and took some photos of the platform. When I got onto the platform, I took some photos of the cemetery that is alongside the platform and behind St. Paul’s Church, a cemetery that faces Ground Zero on Church Street. Then I walked onto the eastern perimeter of Ground Zero, where I took photos looking across this national place of commemoration and consecration. One photograph shows the steel ramp that has been recently completed; the South Tower stood between the ramp and Church Street, and the ramp ends at the southeast corner of where the North Tower stood.
Another photo looks toward West Street and Vesey Street; in the rear is the Salvation Army tent for workers and fire, police and support personnel. I then walked along the northern perimeter and took photos of a platform and of the site below. I later learned that the platform was part of the Customs Building (6 World Trade Center), which housed offices of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI; one construction worker told me the building also had a rifle range.
 | | Standing on eastern perimeter of the site, looking west. The ramp is just beyond where the South Tower once stood; the North Tower was to the right, outside the view of this photo. |
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I talked briefly with a few other workers and one, Terry Brennan, told me that he works 12-hour days, from 6 a.m.-6 p.m., and except for six weeks, he has been at the site since he was called to work there on September 12. Brennan, an ironworker, indicated that he might be working at the site for another year to year and a half.
At the viewing platform, I noticed a man with a "Brewers" jacket and asked if he was from Milwaukee. He told me he was, and said that he had visited the World Trade Center two years ago, on his first trip to New York, and had planned this visit last August. He did not want to be identified, and I did not ask him to describe his thoughts when he looked out at what had once been a World Trade Center complex with two 110-story buildings, and which was now a place of tragic openness.
It is not possible, from the viewing platform, to look down into the excavation that is now Ground Zero. But the solemnity of visitors as they stand so close to this site indicates what brought them here—commitment, dedication, resolve, and reaffirmation of the essence of America.
 | | Standing on eastern perimeter, looking northwest. The North Tower would have been partly within this view, at the left edge. Part of the Salvation Army's white tent can be seen at the far end of the site, at Vesey and West Streets; this is also where the Towers of Light are positioned. |
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|  | | This subway entrance is just one of the stark reminders of September 11. |
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 | | Firemen walk north on Church Street, the eastern perimeter of the site; the public is restricted to the area to the right of the portable fences. To the left beyond the firemen is the Federal Building at the corner of Vesey Street, at the northeast side of the site. The viewing platform is ahead, out of sight, on the right side of Church Street. |
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|  | | People and memorial tributes line the sidewalk outside St. Paul's Church. |
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 | | The viewing platform, as seen from Church Street. |
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|  | | This cemetery is adjacent to the viewing platform. |
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