Photo originally uploaded by: djgoldberg

It was last year, during Labor Day weekend, a week before 9/11 when I had a chance to revisit NYC. I grew up in NYC, went to school in Manhattan, and this trip meant coming to term with many things that I had been trying to avoid, such as, I had not seen my friends in 10 years, I had not visited ground zero since 9/11 event, I guess it was a trip of closure for me, we all need to make that trip in life, sooner or later.

We left Friday evening, and drove all night, my GI Joe sister who had been back dozens of time told us that the skyline was not the same, and her first time that she saw brought tears to her eyes. I stayed awake all night because I didn’t want to miss seeing NYC skyline, the view became clearer when we reached the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

It was still dark when we got there, might be about 4 a.m. she was right, the skyline didn’t look the same, and it was empty at the spot where the twin towels once stood. It felt eerie looking at it, the feeling of sadness overwhelmed me, and I was speechless. I had mixed feeling about visiting ground zero, but I knew it’s something that I had to do.

It rained the whole weekend, and I didn’t get to ground zero until Sunday night. I was surprised that it’s more like one of the tourist attractions in NYC, the shopping areas, office buildings, and stores were newly renovated, no trace of destruction in sight except for ground zero where the twin towels once stood. It was gated off, and there was a memorial area with photos of the horrific event, and below it is a path train station, which my sister said that it goes to NJ. I spent over an hour there, that eerie feeling was no longer there, there were many people that visited. I’m glad that I made that trip, the event seems more real.

More photos of my trip here.