Sept. 11, 2001

Shortly after the WTC attack in 2001 I removed an outdated personal site and replaced it with my own small photographic tribute to the twin towers, including photos taken before, during and after the attacks. I will be leaving this up for the time being.

 

Rooftop at 13 Park Row, circa 1998.

 

From Battery Park City, sometime in the spring of 2001.

 

The Plaza. The globe, damaged, survived the collapse. The building behind was damaged beyond repair and was demolished.

 

The view from my balcony after the second plane hit, which I watched happen from here. The poor quality of my digital camera CCD combined with its wide lens makes the towers appear further away than they really were; I could see the gaping hole in Tower 1 easily.

 

The same view later that evening - after returning from a long excursion as far away from Manhattan as my and my then girlfriend's (now wife's) legs would take us. No public transportation that day. We got about as far as Elmhurst.

 

Some of the damage...

 

...and some of the dust that used to be the Twin Towers. The papers inside the glass case were once inside the WTC - we could read the writing on them. They were from a financial services company.

 

"Ground Zero" about 6 months after the attack, a block away. God, I hate the term "ground zero". For me, it will always be known as the World Trade Center. It was and is a real place. It is not generic. It is not just somewhere something happened that could have happened anywhere. It is the WTC and it will always be the WTC.

 

A tower of light, showing its proximity to the WTC just a couple blocks away (left in this picture).

 

The Tribute in Light.

 

Light towers in the distance. I like the ghostliness of this picture. I believe this is exactly what the designers of this memorial were going for. I could stare at this for hours; it does not look real to me.

 

The grainy view from home, a couple miles away.

All images copyright © 2002 Jeff Williams. Unauthorized use prohibited by law.