Sunday, January 29, 2012

9 / 11

Sunday morning January 29th we took a taxi and ventured to the southern part of Manhattan island with a list of must sees in hand.
Kelly was interested in exploring the NY financial district. We checked out the Stock Exchange, the Federal building, and the Charging Bull.
We thought a good Sunday activity would be to see the 9 / 11 memorial. So we planned accordingly and got tickets in advance.

New York is an amazing place with tall buildings packed in on each city block unlike any city I have ever been to before. The memorial has been built down instead of up. This is a contrast to the rest of the city. The memorial is built on the footprint of the twin towers. It's now a wide open space set aside for family, friends, neighbors, sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers for people who have loved and lost. For people who's lives are changed forever. A place to pause and take a moment to reflect.

The names of all of the victims were machine cut into the metal of the memorial. There were several names followed by "and her unborn child" as seen above. This was emotional to see. Being at ground zero was a humbling experience. We have so much to be grateful for.
This sculpture was in between the two towers when they went down. They pulled it out of the rubble with not much damage. The piece was abstract art to begin with. It is now on display in Battery Park with an eternal flame.
After taking our time in the 9 /11 memorial and museum, we jumped onto a boat for a tour around Manhattan.
We saw Lady Liberty!
This photo is the south end of the island skyline. The buildings still under construction were buildings damaged in 9 /11 and are still being repaired. Lots of damage was done to this pore city!
The Brooklyn bridge.
Empire state building. The worlds first building to be made of steal.
Cool old sugar refinery on the other side of the river.
This photo is mid left side of the island. The two small buildings in the foreground almost perfect center are the buildings that the twin towers were modeled after. In a much larger scale of course.
It was a great first day in the Big Apple. --emily

2 comments:

Leslie said...

amazing Em! these have always been on my must see list! I'm glad you were able to see and do so much. How fun!

Wendy said...

Your trip looks like so much fun! You saw a lot of amazing sites. Jason and I went to New York City about 7 years ago, and we still talk about that trip all the time. Glad you had a great time!