It's difficult to grasp that the World
Trade Center's twin towers are gone. It's two weeks past September 11, 2001 as I write. I
watched the events of that morning live on television as so many did, and saw them
repeated over and over, but some part of me still can't believe that I place I've visited,
a structure so monumental and iconic, no longer exists.
This is a trivial web
page, in that it is about lost buildings and about things rather than human lives. Of
course, I do not mean to trivialize the deaths of the thousands killed in the terrorist
attacks. I am saddened by the deaths of the victims and by the grief of their friends and
families left behind.
I keep inconsequential
items as souvenirs; things that are often meant to be discarded, rather than collected. In
the days following September 11, I looked up some of the ephemera I had accumulated from
time I had spent at the World Trade Center. I was grateful that the pieces had survived,
for they are now not only part of my personal past, they now signify a place that has
passed into our collective history.
I first visited
New York City on a high school trip in 1983 or 1984. I was more interested in
record stores and the girls in our tour group, but I dutifully went to all of the
proscribed destinations, including the observation deck of The World Trade Center.
I don't remember
whether the roof deck was open that day or not, but I know that I didn't go all the way
up. My only souvenir of the experience is a brochure from the 107th floor (see item #1 at
left) which bears the now-creepy slogan "The closest some of us will ever get to
heaven."
I made trips to NYC in
1988 and again in 1994, but did not visit the twin towers. In January of 1999, my job took
me to Manhattan for a large-scale computer replacement project, which ended up taking nine
weeks to complete. I was fortunate enough to split my time between two very nice hotels:
the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, and the Marriott World Trade Center (items #2 and
3).
On the evening of
January 12, 1999, I returned to the WTC observation deck (items #4 and 5). Though it was a
cold and windy night, my associates and I were permitted to go up to the roof. It was
a singular experience—scary, but stunningly beautiful—and now, sadly
unrepeatable.
— Fred Wheaton
September 25, 2001
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