Interesting article in yesterday's NYTimes about differences in reactions, responses, feelings, memories, etc of Sept. 11 between New Yorkers who were or were not living in the city at the time. No surprise that they could barely find 2 people to agree on anything. It was worse if you were in NYC. No, it was worse if you only watched it on TV. No one who was there wants to talk about it. No one who wasn't there can understand. And so on.
What I wonder is: people seeing the WTC site for the first time now, what do they see? If I go, I see what isn't there because I'd been there before. But if you never saw it before, what are you seeing now?
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I had probably seen the WTC in person. I must have, because I remember being inside the World Financial Building, next door. But I don't remember it at all.
When I saw the current site (about a year ago I guess) it looked like a perfectly ordinary construction site. The only thing that seemed at all odd about it was how much space it took up in the middle of downtown.
i saw it a year and a half ago, just as they were finishing up the removal of the debris. my opinion concurs with sarah's... it just looked like a construction site, except that i had to obtain tickets which allowed me onto a viewing platform which overlooked said construction site. more moving was the church next door, which still had tons of flyers and tributes posted about the missing/dead.
now, just last month, i 'accidentally' saw the site (i actually try to avoid any mention of 9/11 if i can) on my way to century 21. now it's just a fenced-off block. not even any memorial signage or anything. it's weird.
NYC Unveils 9/11 Memorial Hole: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52325