Hi:
It was announced on the local news this morning that time stamped tickets are going to be issued to view Ground Zero. The lines have been very long and the weather brutal! So to make it easier and more comfortable, the tickets will be time stamped every fifteen minutes for 100 people at a time. Not too rushed or too crowded.
As someone who was initally against "tourists", I have been heartened to see the responses from people who have stopped to pay their respects. Thank you.

I have supported people's right to see Ground Zero and as a New Yorker I've been a few times myself. However, having time stamped tickets sets me at odds. To me that says "tourist attraction" rather than a place to pay respect.

Will you people get over it already??? People from all over the world are coming to see the most horrible atrocity in American history for themselves. Can't it be a tourist attraction AND a place to pay respect???

Get a life there are still people buried inside. But hey you bring the camera I have the film does anyone have chips.

FYI:
Tickets can be gotten starting tomorrow 1/8/02 in the afternoon eat the South Street Seaport. The platform is open from 9AM until 8PM daily.

sss: what has people stilll being buried there have anything to do with it.
People go to cemeteries everyday.
No difference here, people just want to be able to mourn in their own way.

No one is buried at Ground Zero. The bodies have simply not yet been retrieved. Big difference.

Never, NEVER should a site where bodies are still being pulled out be deemed a "tourist attraction". If you visit, it is a place to pay solemn respect and try to come to grips with what the words "hate" and "atrocity" really mean. If you're down there, give a hug to a local NYer -- you'll understand why we need it.

Unfortunately, I'm sure some human pariah will figure out a way to scalp tickets.

I'm sure it'll be the same person that is selling the "Ground Zero NYC" hats.

I live in the NYC area and used to work in one of the buildings next to the WTC (130 Liberty Street - still standing).

I would like to remember the towers and the lives inside them they way they were and would rather I next see the site when I just happen to be passing through. I have paid respects to teh deceased through prayer at church and at home and would prefer not to see the money changers desecretating this site.

However, I respect the honest motivations of those who want to come see the site where so many perished.

I had the same urge to visit the Vietnam Vets memorial as a way of getting a sense of the loss we experienced in a time when I was too young to appreciate what was happening.

If you are going to the WTC, be prepared for a lot of sensory experiences you may not have expected.

Although i have very mixed emotions on this subject isn't it similar to Pearl Harbor?

Bodies could not be retrieved from sunken ships in Pearl Harbor. Those ships then became tombs or the final resting place for those sailors. Ground Zero is different.

The platform itself is actually beautiful and beautifully designed. The view it affords is from a great distance, like 1/5-1/4 of a mile. You are presented with an experience of the magnitude of the devastation, as you are looking across a big expanse of exposed ground (now mostly paved over, actually), but it is impossible to see anything of any intimate nature.

You would not be able to recognize a worker you had seen, any more than you could recognize someone you had viewed 1/4 of a mile away.

I've been down there for 3 overnights, 12 hours each, to volunteer, and three visits with out of town guests. I never saw anyone behaving in a way that distressed me. The mood of the crowd has always been deeply moving to me.

Also worked as a volunteer at Ground Zero and can tell you that the Red Cross had to send home volunteers that they flew in because they wanted to take pieces of wreckage from site or snap shots. This against implicit instructions not to do so as this was a crime scene. Volunteering is a great but you have to notice the lulus it attracts. I certainly did. I also have seen people acting disrespectful while viewing but this was closer to September 11 so perhaps the devastation has sunk in for some folks. I am a NY er and I think about the people (some I knew) lost every single day. I agree that the viewing platform is a bad idea I can’t imagine what the city was thinking. Perhaps they want us to move on but I think this entirely disrespectful to lives still buried once there out do what you want but not while they are still entombed.

I can imagine having curiosity I can I just know that remembering the individuals in your heart or at your place of worship is the right thing to do. Just imagine if your spouse, sibling or friend were in there would you want tourist making it part of their itinerary. It is not right. I had one English tourist say this to me yes we will make our way down to ground zero early then lunch then early to time square New Years eve festivities. He was not a jerk just someone not thinking as anyone here is who would argue with those of us grieving.

All these different opinions here show that people - as they have ever since Sept 11 - are continuing to respond to the tragedy in different ways and these should be respected.

As for us - we live just a few miles from the Pentagon and have had to drive past it many times since September 11 - but have never felt the need or desire to stop or to take photographs. We hope to return to NYC in the next few months, and what we want to do is to walk across Brooklyn Bridge, and to take the Staten Island Ferry, and to take photos from the same spots where we were in December 2000. Then we will have "before" and "after" photographs of the Manhatten Skyline - for us this will be a poignant reminder and we will not feel the need to go to any viewing platforms.

Not a cemetary: Whether they are tombs, cemetaries, etc. does not matter.
There are still people there buried in all that mess.
There are also going to be many that they will never find, as they are no longer there (dust due to fire, heat).
Whatever term you want to give it, ground zero will always be the grave for some.
It is a shame we now have this place, that people will always come to and never forget what happened now matter what they build over it, but we do.
I think it is only fair to let others see, many NY'ers seem to want to keep it all to themselves.
This place will become a memorial of some type and will now forever have people coming to see it, just as the many other memorial sites we have all over the US.

Starting at 11AM, two tickets to a person. Go to a kiosk at South Street Seaport.

While you have every right to do so, please do not buy merchandise that says "Ground Zero NYC" or "I survivied the World Trade Center" This soon after the vent, many people find that just completely offensive and inappropriate.

I work in the area and have seen vendors hawking this cr*p to tourists.

Make that "survived" and "event." I really need spellcheck.

xxx, maybe someday Ground Zero will be consecrated as a burial ground. However, it is not currently. It is, as many posters here have correctly stated, a crime site and a recovery site.

I am giving no opinion as to whether tourists should flock to it or not. It is an individual decision.