WTC Site
 

Hello again! My husband and I would like to pay our respects and visit the World Trade Center site when we visit New York. Is there a place to leave flowers, or do people even do that? We really do want to be respectful and aren't going to just take pictures and walk away, so please let me know what's proper. Thank you in advance!

On Larry King the other night, he visited Fire Station 54; a lot of flowers, candles and memorials still left there. You could do that or other fire stations who suffered losses.

You'll frequently see flowers stuck into the fence at the World Trade Center site. There's a photographic exhibit on the fence along Church street, which is the east side of the site.

There's nothing worse than seeing people take big smiling portraits in front of the site. I would suggest quietly walking along the fence, viewing the photographs, and reading some of the exhibits. Many people take photographs, so I wouldn't worry about standing out or offending anyone. Just be respectful and use common sense.

I agree Lizzie.

I was there in December 2002. There was a mother with her daughter and another friend taking a 'grinning' photo in front of one of the globes in the park.

It was disgusting.

I know ppl are still doing that today but I can't believe people do not have a CLUE on how to act in public. I wanted to scream when I saw those women. I was not alone and that was pretty much the thought of our entire group of 12 people or so. We are in tears....and then here are these ding bats.

Agreed. I have seen such idiots several times - taking grinning group pictures as if they were standing in front of the Eiffel Tower.

I wish they could have been there in the first few days/weeks afterwards, seeing the weeping people still hoping against hope to find family members, the filthy search team members taking a half hour break for meals and all the regular New Yorkers (and supporters from other parts of the country) trying to help by handing out water, helping fix meals etc.

I've been tempted a couple of times to tell them to leave - not only the WTC site - but to get out of New York completely - but decided that people so insensitive and clueless wouldn;t even get the point.

What's scary to me is that these people are allowed to vote.

Or ask them how they would feel if people were taking smiling pictures next to their mother/father/brother/sister's grave.

TXGirl - thank you for your sensitivity and enjoy your trip.

Visit St. Paul's chapel across from the WTC site.
http://www.saintpaulschapel.org/

Thank you for the tip about St. Paul's Chapel. And thank you all for replying to my question. I also cannot stand people who view the WTC site as some sort of amusement park attraction. They forget so quickly what happened there. nytraveler, you're right-they probably wouldn't understand why you want them to leave. I have so much respect for New Yorkers and everyone who helped so much, and is still helping, after that horrible day, and I'm very glad that I will finally be able to pay my respects.

New York is the greatest city in the world (ok, Paris is pretty great, too), and I think the way people pulled together and the city didn't fall apart after 9/11 is just proof of that.

I second going to St. Paul's chapel at Trinity Church. Take a look around the courtyard too, not just inside. There is an old tree that was uprooted and thrown by the bldg. collapses, and it has now been made into a sculpture.

Also, you can go see the big "Globe" sculpture that was once in the middle of the WTC complex. It survived, but not completely intact. It is located in Battery Park now.

Also, the Fire Museum nearby in Soho has a two room tribute to 9/11. I highly recommend that.

These are other ways to remember what happened. They were more meaningful to me than the actual site.

The sculpture I was referring to as the globe is actually the "Koenig Sphere."

I second what nytraveler said. When I'm down there and I see people acting like idiots, I want to smack them!!

I used to commute through the WTC for about 10 years. When 9/11 happened, I was a stay at home mom in VA, but I still felt it so deeply and knew many still working there.
We went to visit the site about three years after, and I was disgusted by some many people trying to sell me a "knock off" designer bag while we walked around. There were all kinds of trinkets being sold about 9/11 and I found that rather distasteful also. I do not know if it benefited anyone except the vendors, but I just don't like the idea of someone making profits off of the whole thing.

The Winter Garden inside the World Financial center also has a tribute to American Express employees lost.

Speaking of smacking people, I wanted to smack the kid who solicited $ from me while I was at the site this past April. He said he was raising funds for something. I was standing there crying and he asked me for money!

How could anybody not feel the spirit that site exudes is beyond me.

Tess <----Californian who has a heavy heart for those who lost their loved ones at that horrible day.

My honest opinion is that unless you were there, people just do not understand how insensetive they are acting.

People also smile and take pictures at the Arizona Memorial. And at other memorials too (Lincoln Memorial, etc.). But these are public locations, so it's difficult to lecture anyone on how they should be feeling or acting in a public location.

To me, most deaths occur in hospitals. Yet I hear people talking and laughing in hospitals all the time. That's just life - people go on living, whether that's insensitive is in the beholder.

Obviously you know that most deaths occured at this location, so what's your point? I don't really think it's a lecture as the OP specifically asked how to act respectfully and properly.

No lectures should be necessary. People should know how to behave in certain, very obvious, settings. If I were in a hospital and people were dying around me, you certainly wouldn't find me laughing or posing and taking pictures with my pals. Nor would you find me selling t-shirts and hawking my fake wares. Nothing about the site says "Wow, this sure is nice! Let's have fun!"

The police museum has a great exhibit and a lot of other things to see. It's in it's own little building and it's on the way to the Seaport. The sphere with eternal flame is a little hard to see right now with the construction that's going on, but stop and see if you can get a glimpse. I like that better than anything at the site because it's real and a little piece of something that was.

Dohlice, will you please say more about the police museum in general and the 911 exhibit there? It was between there and the fire museum for us on our recent trip, but I would like to get to the Police Museum next time. There is very little info on this board about it. Thank you.