Vistas

Thursday, September 13, 2001 2:38:19 AM - Pride
        Try to understand the nature of the World Trade Center. I used to work at the Vista Hotel at the base of the towers. I used to have to walk through the underground plazas and malls to get to work. Even then would have to wind my way up to ground level and there cross through the south tower. Even though separated by a wide open court it was often easy to confuse the two. Indeed after weeks of working there I was ever a few minutes late for work because I got lost almost every day. It was a huge complex of buildings combined by central services and the underground levels. It was easy for the fires to spread as it was for the shock to spread damage from one building to the next. All the buildings were connected in some way or another. It wasn’t always easy to get from one building to the next but it was almost always easy to get lost. In talking to people as of late few realize the language of the newscasters; even took me a few times of listening to comprehend. Whereas most of the rescue workers first on the scene were genuine in their sacrifice to their service still there is the scary truth that some of those who had managed to find their way down hundreds of flights of stairs packed like sardines slipping down a processing chute were stopped at the bottom of the stairs... and told by officials to stop and go back. The officials thinking they needed to secure a crime scene. Fortunately no one listened as the crowd impulsively broke through the officers as many fled out into the streets, some smart enough not to stop or turn back.
        From my own experience with the complex I can only imagine the many who were just lost and could not find their way out. If they made it to the mall or plaza levels it is extremely confusing which way to go. We don’t know how much of it survived. I am as well surprised that we don’t hear of or see any rescue efforts from the subway tunnels under the complex. But of course with the level of crumbling structure above ground one might well understand avoiding any attempts to tunnel into the sight from below. Either the subway tunnels or security and utility tunnels may be intact but with unstable grounds above who knows what to expect or what risks are present to such options. Any number of persons may be trapped in small pockets with little more than your prayers and the efforts of rescue workers to recover them.
        On another note I do believe that while I worked at the location there had been an electronic and automatic counting system that would track the number of people in at least the two towers at any time. Understand that getting lost as many times as I did I got to know security well enough to learn even the elevators were able to count how many people went up to each floor and how many came down. (Keep in mind though that security personael may have just as well been playing with me about their efficiency to counter the confusion I presented them by continuing to get lost despite their efforts to set me right) Exit staircases there were the kind that if you entered the stairwell there was only one way out... that was at ground level... well actually a flight above then one flight down to the ground. Even if the accurate count were available to officials first on the scene those numbers mean little than to give some indication of how many people were in the building. There is no count on the emergency exit to count those who left in such mass or in such a hurry. Who is to say there was even time to secure the official numbers. Furthermore anyone experienced with clicker counts or other kinds of cattle counting methods know well enough that though the figures are close enough they are by no means accurate.
        One last note. My first visit to the World Trade Center was when a friend came from Boston in the early eighties. He wanted to go see the tourist sights. I was already a jaded New Yorker and yawned but went along. We went to the observation deck. We were fortunate enough that the roof top open deck was open at that time. We got out on to the roof and I started to point out landmarks and sights to my friend. "In that direction is Staten Island and that would be Ellis Island" "That would be New Jersey and over beyond all that cloud of toxic waste over industrial complexes is where I was born..." Just then a disheveled man in a dark blue blazer and wrinkled slacks started waiving his arms and shouting "I’m going to show you all..." or something to that effect. The man went up to the chain link fence surrounding the deck and climbed over the barbed wire top. The young black security guard fumbled for his gun or his radio. Another young blond female guard came running and they both tried to grab the man but he slipped from their grip leaving a shoe. He seemed to limp to the ledge and throw himself over. The young guards were in shock as I later learned they had orders to shoot rather than let anyone go over the edge. Being that if they wounded the jumper on the deck it would prevent any further death on the ground should he hit someone or several someones should he break up on the fall. As he went over the edge we heard him repeat his warnings then the eerie screech of his finger nails scraping on the metal siding. The parapet was a slopping wall from the flat roof to the outer glass walls of the tower. Then a sheer drop to the pavement below. A very long sheer drop.
        I turned to my friend his jaw literally dropped open in disbelief. "If you look up there you will see the Empire State Building... and come over here... that gold dome is the church right up the street from my apartment." Yes I was a New Yorker. I just continued with my tour of the Manhattan skyline as my friend doubled over gasping in shock. I think I stopped the tour long enough to remind him to breath. With in minutes security officials came up and secured the deck asking us to vacate to the glass enclosed observation deck below. There we tried to see if we could spot any signs of the jumper as helicopters came swarming around the tower. We were asked to go to the ground. There we looked around for any signs of the jumper or some signs of the incident below. As we got around the back of the tower and out to the street we followed the gaze of spectators to learn the man had caught himself somehow on a small lip of metal and dangled there till rescue workers were able to reach him and get him down. It seems that when he got over the edge and saw the drop he decided he didn’t want to fall and was struggling to get back up the slippery slope of metal.
        For many years this is how I most remembered the Twin Towers. We New Yorkers all have our Twin Tower stories. Each unique and individual as there are unique and individual New Yorkers. These stories are burned into our memories as is the image of their structure on our beloved skyline. To a New Yorker it is not so much any one building we call home but the united effect of every building into that famous New York Skyline we so preciously call home every time we see it.