For all the posters who have wanted to visit Ground Zero and have been vilified by others on this board, NYC has opened some viewing platforms for people to respectfully visit the site. Apparently officials in NYC feel this is an important part of all of our lives and want to open it to all people, not just famous actors and politicians. I don't understand the people that don't understand the need to go there and see. I personally will not go, but am glad that it is open for all people.

Couldn't agree more Deb. In the beginning I could understand some people's request for tourists to stay away as they might have gotten in the way of the rescue workers. However, at this point, I think people should be able to go to the site to pay their respects and get some understanding of the magnitude of this tragedy. Even the mayor has suggested that the entire site become a memorial and a major tourist attraction.

I didn't understand it either. I could understand if people were treating it as a joke or something or were interfering in efforts, but they weren't, it's an important historical event and tragedy. Tourists take tours of concentration camps in Europe and Americans in droves go to visit WWII sites in Europe and they seem to think that's ok. There are always know-it-alls who think they own sites and history. I find it very ironic that NYC know is officially making it a tourist site.

Have found it odd that GZ was one of those places to which "tourist attraction" implied some kind of negativity. Of course it's not an attraction in the pure sense of the word, like Disney or the Empire State Building, but it's living history that everyone should be able to respectfully visit, tourist or not. I'm glad these platforms are being built.

I think the problem most people had with tourists coming to the WTC site was timing more than anything else.

Someone wrote: "Tourists take tours of concentration camps in Europe..." but there were no tourists tromping thru Aushwitz gawking while bodies were still being taken out of the ovens (to make a crude but necessary point).
I don't think any NYer had a problem with the site becoming a well-visited memorial someday. I think the problem was that only weeks after 9/11, while bodies were still being pulled out (as they still are today), people were posting about "touring" the site. You have to understand that to some NYers who were still in pain and shock that seemed crass, as if others didn't quite understand the depth of the horror.

Another reason for building the platforms is the safety issue...

Well said, Me..

Thank you for letting us know a viewing platform is available. We are planning a trip at the end of January and would like to pay our respects. Where is the platform located and what is the easiest way to get there.

The viewing platform is located on Fulton Street just off Broadway. It is a short walk from the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall subway station. We were there the day it opened and the waiting times were three to four hours.

t

We were also there the day the observation ramps opened. The crowds were enormous and the line was several hours long. But people who were there were respectful and just hoping to catch a glimpse of a part of this momentous event.

We were somewhat fortunate in that we went to my brother's office and could see the site of the South Tower thus avoiding the long line. I'm positive we would not have gone but for my brother. It is clearly painful for him to have to look at that site day after day. But it was important for us to go to help support my brother as he deals with the loss of coworkers and copes with the horrors he saw. It was important for him to show us where he was and what he saw.

Personally we took the opportunity to pray for the lost souls and to try to explain to our children what destruction anger and hatred can bring.

Its a personal decision that every visitor to NY will have to make. The observation ramps do seem to legitimize the choice to go there. Have to add that there is not much to see. It has all the appearances of an ordinary construction site.