Ann Ragus

Heading to NYC on June 8th. Any tips on getting tickets to view Ground Zero. What time should we be there? Weekdays better or weekend? Any help would be nice.

Ted

It's busier on weekends than weekdays. Show up at the South Street Seaport in the morning and you'll be given tickets for a viewing later in the day. Depending on the day/crowds, it could be 30 minutes later or 4 hours. The earlier you arrive, the earlier your viewing will be.

xxx

You can see as much walking around the block as you can see from the viewing platform.

Ted

I disagree. I've done both with tourist friends and the view is far superior from the platform.

For a better understanding of the economic devastation, visit the west side of the site. So many formerly thriving businesses & restaurants closed down.

Do be aware that there's not much to see at Ground Zero. It looks like a construction site now.

Donna

The ticket booth, which is the same ticket booth as for South Street Seaport Museum, opens at 11AM. Timed tickets are issued (max two per person). When all tickets for the day have been issued, they issue tickets for the next day, times starting at 9AM. We got there on a weekday a few minutes past 11AM. There was hardly any line and we got tickets within minutes for 12:30-1, which gave us plenty of time for a leisurely lunch. Agree that there's really not much to see - you can't even see the ground from the viewing platform. But, the expanse of space is truly amazing.

Judi

We're going to NYC (driving from Toronto)next month when school is out, primarily because our teens want to see Ground Zero. Even if all that is physically there now is what you say resembles a construction site. I'm sure you're right. However, the impact of that huge empty space will not be lost on them. They remember going to the top of the WTC a few years ago, walking in the underground mall, sitting in the plaza having a Krispy Kreme. They saw the attack on the WTC on TV. They know what was once there, and I think they will get much more out if it than simply seeing a big hole in the ground. I don't think anyone would be able to look at it and be 'disappointed' or underwhelmed, IMHO.

Jackie

Just back myself. I have to agree with previous posting that you can see just as much from the ground as from the platform, at least now that most debri has been cleaned away.

xx

At the risk of being blasphemous... the thing that struck me when I saw Ground Zero was how incredibly SMALL the footprint was for an event of such huge magnitude. That those amazingly tall buildings left such a small empty space was mind boggling.

sandi

Here's info I found right here on Fodors:

Ground Zero Ticket Information

Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis. They are good for half-hour time blocks and are given out in strict chronological order. You cannot choose a specific time to visit.

A maximum of two tickets per person is allowed; 250 tickets are distributed for each half-hour block between noon and 8 PM the same day or between 9 AM and 11:30 AM the following morning.

Tickets are available at the South Street Seaport Museum's ticket booth at Fulton and South Streets on Pier 16. The average wait for a ticket on a busy day is less than 20 minutes.

The ticket booth is open from 11 AM until 6 PM or until no more tickets are available for that day.

To prevent overcrowding on the sidewalks around the viewing area, visitors should not arrive at the platform more than 15 minutes before their allotted time.

Police officers stationed at the viewing platform will ensure that only ticket holders are admitted and that every ticket holder is given sufficient time on the platform.

Tickets are nontransferable and not for resale.

For more information call 212/732-7678.

BLAKE

We were there the 1st week of April and found out rather than getting a ticket to the viewing platform - which can be several hours later in the day. Was to ride the elevator up to the 37th floor in the Marriot Hotel and have a good view.
Just walk in and act like you are a guest - no problem.

Rudy

Why do you tourists still want to go to ground zero? After all, all of the bodies and debris have been removed! There must be some other fresher site of death and destruction to capture your imaginations, isn't there?

Greggism

Rudy - nice comments. I guess we should close the USS Arizona Memorial too, since all of the bodies are gone. I don't think people are going to Ground Zero to see roadkill.

zz

Rudy

Did it ever occur to you that a great monument has been lost? Many people are having trouble excepting the fact that the great NYC skyline has forever changed. People need to see for themselves that WTC is really gone and pay their respects to where it stood for closure.

Chuck

Rudy rules! You yokums from the boonies make us NYers sick. "
where can I go see ground zero, and where do I get Pizza " is not only callous it's almost un-american. Let us continue to grieve, and take the WTC off our list of summer attractions.

anonymous

Not an answer to the question, but simply a brief comment;

Ground Zero evokes such memories, and such emotions. I remember when I was a youngster and visited the WTC where my mother once worked.

As far as emotions go, my fellow Americans please see beyond the differences of race, class, and color, religious belief, democrat, republican, indendant, green, socialist, libertarian, etc. Remember that we do have our allies, our Canadian friends to the north, our Mexican amigo's to the south, and some friends across both the Atlantic and Pacific we sometimes do not see eye-to-eye with.

But for us Americans this is "our," pain & "our," torture view the site not only with sorrow, disbelief, and horror, but do not apologize for leaving the site with an unmitigated anger that will show our unyeilding resolve to PUNISH those like minded people who blew-up my buildings.

xxx

I agree with Rudy. There's nothing to see at Ground Zero. I'll bet most of the tourists who can't wait to get down there never saw the Twin Towers before they fell, so they have nothing to compare the current site with anyway. Find some other way to spend your time in NYC. Lots to do.

ihatetourists

To the WTC "visitors" -- glad you can
visit and still grab lunch afterwards. Maybe we here should visit your families' gravesites and have a picnic.

A Californian

New Yorkers don't own all the pain of what happened on 9/11. It was where OUR country was attacked. Guess what you guys.... it may be a way for all American's to pay homage to the lost, the heros, the victims, and to attempt to get a grasp on an event that changed ALL of our lives.

Judi

Our family is intending to view the Ground Zero site in the same spirit (and I don't mean like a cheerleader), that we have viewed, for example, the Vietnam Memorial, the Holocaust Museum, and Yad Vashem. It is not like the way we check out the fireworks at Disneyworld, for heavens' sake!

By the way - for those who "hate tourists" - I guess you never leave NYC? - Cuz if you do then that would make you a "tourist" too.

xxx

Yes, Judi, we travel. We just usually don't travel to fresh gravesites for our viewing pleasure.