One warm mid-August evening my wife and I decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. The Twin Towers loomed up to our left and on a whim, we to visit the top. I don’t know when they closed, but we lingered there until 11 pm, I’m sure. It was magical: I could see Coney Island, the Wonder Wheel the Brooklyn Cyclone’s stadium, and smell the salt air off the ocean. Looking over Manhattan, the traffic appeared like corpuscles, pulsing up Broadway, the avenues, and east-west crosstown. We were so lucky to have that evening, as 9/11 was only weeks away.
Very apt description of the sights and sounds of another time, in NYC...and, even more poignant considering the horror and disruption to come. :-(
Wow. I’m glad you got to do that.
I’m scared of heights, but my BFF talked me into going up on top of the Empire State Building one clear summer morning when we were on a NYC trip. There had been a storm the evening before, ushering in a lovely summer cool front. We spent almost an hour up there, looking through the telescopes and taking pictures from all sides. Among the pictures are a couple of good ones with the Twin Towers in them.
When we got back down on the ground, I was so thrilled that I’d lasted that long up there without getting vertigo (I never looked down, of course, only out.) My friend said “World Trade Center next time?” I said “I think I just might!”
The date this took place was July 8, 2001.
(Sigh…)
Good for you! Sounds wonderful. These moments are what life is made of.
G-D BLESS!