jroth

>>Look I don't want to make a big deal of this. I said it was a preference. As a fellow "lifelong NY'er" who was personally affected by it (and perhaps you were too), I and many others I know prefer to refer to it as the World Trade Center rather than Ground Zero.>>

Nor do I want to make any sort of deal - big or small - about this - but note that in today's either the Metro or AM - that free newspaper -- in reporting on the controversy surrounding the installation of a mosque in the area notes it's location near "Ground Zero". We can well expect tourists referring also to it in that manner - and as far as being painful and distressful -- whether it's WTC or Ground Zero - the historic facts remain the tragic same.

bellastarr

I am a NYer who lived 5 blocks from the North Tower and was also personally affected (as were many friends who live in the immediate area. Most of us lost more than one person we knew. Many lost a place to live because of the toxicity that infiltrated the neighborhood.

I don't use the term "Ground Zero" myself and never did. But I do work with visitors to the city and I don't get worked up and offended by the use of that term, because people need a way to refer to the area, and it is no longer the World Trade Center I knew. I look forward to the day when the term "Ground Zero" will be transformed into a name that describes a space that is part of our lives again.

To the OP,
I suggest taking in the exhibits at St Paul's Chapel and the 9/11 Memorial Preview exhibit just across Vesey Street from the Church.

http://www.national911memorial.org/s...New_Visit_Page

I personally think the WTC Tribute Center on Liberty Street is a very worth while tour- the tours are conducted by volunteers, most of whom had a personal involvement with the events of 9/11- so they are part of the oral history of the event.

this blog is connected to the project and has current news related to the site:

http://shapingourfuture-lee.blogspot.com/

Another location (but not a museum) is in the West Village at the corner of 7th Avenue and Greenwich St- the fence called "Tiles for America" which was created by schoolchildren who bore witness to 9/11.

I'd also like to correct an innocent mistake- a bit of misinformation I saw in Froderick's post. Father Mychal Judge was not carried to ST Paul's, but rather to St. Peter’s Church on the corner of Church Street and Barclay where he was placed at the altar that day. Father Judge is documented as Victim number 1. ALong the side of the church is the temporary site of the "Cross" that was part of the South Tower and left standing during the moths of recovery efforts.

Another but of misinformation, or perhaps just a difference in perspective is the statement I saw in another post on this thread that the site is "just a construction site" now. It is easily overlooked, if one is at more of a distance, that to this day, a large percentage of the remains of victims have yet to be formally identified, so for all of us who knew people in the towers, this site can never be just a construction site. I am reminded of a statement that a person on a walking tour made one day (granted; English was not her first language) "Well, I thought Ground Zero would be much more entertaining than this!" Rather than give over to any anger, I suggested she might prefer Shopping at Century 21!

Also, the Irish Memorial Garden mentioned here is not located on Liberty Street, but rather at the end of Vesey Street:

http://www.inetours.com/New_York/Pag...sh_Hunger.html

Have a great visit, we welcome you to NYC!

Aduchamp1

Please do not buy anything from the vipers who sell 9/11 photographs, memorabalia, etc around St. Paul's.

I want to smack them upside the head.
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Here is something I posted reccently on Fodor's on the same topic.

As someone who saw the second plane hit the Trade Center, whose office building was engulfed in debris and humans remains twice, and had to leave the office as late as November because of the toxins in the air, I have an emotional reaction to it.

Ground Zero originally meant the bombing of Nagasaki. Now Ground Zero is used for all sorts of catastrophes and is akin to adding "gate" to every scandal.

It is detached from the World Trade Center and it does not accord the respect for the people who died and the destuction of the building. It was not a generic event, it was a specific event

bellastarr

re: "It is detached from the World Trade Center and it does not accord the respect for the people who died and the destuction of the building."

I would like to say, in a respectful attempt at accuracy, that it was not "the building". The following buildings collapsed:
WTC 1
WTC 2
WTC 7
St Nicholas Church

Partial collapse and subsequently demolished:
WTC 4
WTC 5
WTC 6

Others, such as Deutsche Bank and Fiterman Hall of BMCC, suffered related damage that would result in being dismantled, with some controversial events in the interim causing further loss of human life.