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WTC 'Survivors Staircase' To Move From Ground Zero
Associated Press ^ | 10/31/06

Posted on 10/31/2006 1:12:06 PM PST by presidio9

It's the only piece of the World Trade Center still standing where it was before terrorists destroyed the twin towers.

But the "survivors' staircase," a path to safety for countless workers on September 11th, 2001, will be moved -- to build one of five planned office towers on the site.

Preservationists, including a group that named the staircase one of America's most endangered places this year, are lobbying to keep the only standing remnant of the destroyed trade center complex where it is.

A final home for the The 21-foot-high, 350-thousand-pound staircase, which once connected an elevated plaza to a street north of the site, still isn't decided.

Historians had hoped it would be returned to the same spot where survivors of the terrorist attacks found it in a debris-filled plaza, following the stairs from a bridge to street level just before the second tower collapsed.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: groundzero; survivorsstaircase; wtc
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To: durasell
I like MSG/Penn Station. Well, compared to Port Authority.

I was sad when they closed the Penn Station bowling alleys.

I also have to say, the WTC was an ugly, dull, and unimaginative pair of buildings. Very 1960s-1970s.

I love ESB and the Chrystler Building. I love the Woolworth Building (once the tallest building in the world, I think).

Pan Am Building - ugh. What do they call it now? The Met Life Tower? Sheesh...
61 posted on 11/01/2006 9:21:32 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV

The Woolworth is probably one of my favorite downtown buildings. Great lobby. Check out the images of the architect and owner by the elevators!

Also like the Chrysler Building and Grand Central.

Hate the IBM, Sony (AT&T) and Lipstick buildings.


62 posted on 11/01/2006 9:25:09 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: HitmanLV

p.s.

Not crazy about Citicorp either, but it gets a pass from me because idiots designed it and they didn't know any better.


63 posted on 11/01/2006 9:26:45 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell
I've been at the Woolworth Building many times and share your admiration for it. Elegant and sharp.

I love the Chrysler Building as I said, and Grand Central also. I was pleased when some effort went in to restore the GCT a bit a few years back.

MSG isn't so bad. I don't care for the Javits Center - looks like an architecture student's final class project design to me. Too 'busy.' I actually lamented the loss of The NY Colosseum. What replaced it, more condos?
64 posted on 11/01/2006 9:32:28 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: presidio9
Thanks for the post.

I hadn't ever read this:

The most heart-wrenching discovery was that a silver object melted onto the cross' left side was the remains of a firefighter's jacket who died in the blast. Firefighters say the fire-resistant jacket turned silver and took on the look and consistency of metal when it encountered extreme heat and fire. Now, it is wrapped around the left arm of the cross.

Amazing.

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man gives up his life for his friends..." - John 15:13

65 posted on 11/01/2006 9:35:17 AM PST by EternalVigilance ("Don't be a Nancy Boy, Vote Republican!")
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To: durasell
Citicorp is grotesque if you ask me. A building on stilts - just what the doctor ordered for the War on Terror 21st Century!

I saw a docu on public tv (of all things) about the construction of Citicorp. Turns out that well into construction of it a significant structural flaw was discovered using some kind of primitive computer models (the computers were primitive, not the models). Evidently if a good stiff wind hit the building over a certain speed at a certain spot, it would tilt over and maybe worse.

Sheesh, somebody forgot to carry a 3 or something when designing it. Ugly building.
66 posted on 11/01/2006 9:35:29 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV

Time Warner replaced the Coliseum. In truth, it's not a bad looking building. But being an old guy, it'll take me a decade to get used to it. BTW -- Coliseum Books is out of business. They couldn't sustain themselves in their new location, 42 by the library.

They're about to do an expansion of Javitz, adding sq ft.



67 posted on 11/01/2006 9:36:35 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

Sad to hear Coliseum Books closed. I used to like that place a lot.

I really miss Tony Randall, too.


68 posted on 11/01/2006 9:39:37 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV

the Citicorp thing is one of the great stories of modern architecture. It was a student who discovered the flaw and brought it to the attention of his prof. who brought it to the attention of the developers. They fixed the flaw after the building was built and occupied by, in part, installing a giant concrete counter-weight that slides back and forth on rollers near the top of the building.


69 posted on 11/01/2006 9:39:44 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

Yeah, that was it. I didn't recall it was discovered after the building started getting tenants. I should track that docu down again - amazing stuff, huh?


70 posted on 11/01/2006 9:41:11 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV

The Strand has gotten a face lift as well. The beloved crappy bathroom on the first floor is gone, replaced by modern bathrooms on the second floor with actual sinks. An elevator has been installed (sic!!!!) and the floors re-done.


71 posted on 11/01/2006 9:41:36 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

Wow, 'progress' hits the Strand! ;-)


72 posted on 11/01/2006 9:43:01 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV

- amazing stuff, huh?





I once dated a girl who wouldn't meet me at my office because it was at 666 Fifth. The developers (Tishman?) didn't do themselves any favors with those giant red numerals at the top.


73 posted on 11/01/2006 9:44:47 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: HitmanLV

I remember browsing the history section at the strand and these horrible, horrible noises and odor were coming from the bathroom. Very literally, it was driving people out of the aisle in disgust. Then a few moments later the door pops open and its a Pulitzer Prize winning author!


74 posted on 11/01/2006 9:48:53 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

Sounds about right! Hahaha! ;-)


75 posted on 11/01/2006 9:49:38 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV

I would have approached him to shake his hand, but...


76 posted on 11/01/2006 9:50:32 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: HitmanLV
I'm sorry to report that they really do have the last word on the WTC. We lost, they won. They won big, in fact. We lost huge.

Repudiated. Winners don't let losers have any say in who won and who lost. Winners make losers lose, and after they lose, then the winners make them agree that they never won.

So the right answer is, do you have what it takes to make New York look like Osama Bin Laden and his shower-buddies never existed?

Practicality be damned here. We're a rich country, and we can afford to exercise eminent domain, take the landlord out of the deal, pay him off, and do what we want with it.

We don't lose to semiliterate goat-rapists.

77 posted on 11/01/2006 9:56:32 AM PST by lentulusgracchus ("Whatever." -- sinkspur)
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To: lentulusgracchus

Amazing how an adult could consider the 911 attacks a win for the good old USA.

We will win the war, but clearly we lost the Battle of 911.


78 posted on 11/01/2006 9:58:48 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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To: HitmanLV
I don't understand how clear minded adults could talk about not giving Bin Ladin a win five years after he won.

Because he's murdering scum, and you don't give **** to people like that. No props for subhuman murdering scum. Can I be clearer?

Texas A&M University has an old tradition, kind of peculiar but it goes to the point here. They say that when they lose a football or basketball game, they were "outpointed" -- they never say of themselves that they were "beaten" or that they "lost". Get it?

A little bit Edwardian, but when your civilization is being challenged to the core, and everything you value, then you bring all your stuff, especially your spiked shoes and your great-granddaddy's 15" Bowie knife.

79 posted on 11/01/2006 10:06:47 AM PST by lentulusgracchus ("Whatever." -- sinkspur)
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To: lentulusgracchus

You're perfectly clear - you can't, or won't, distinguish between a win and a loss.

That Texas A&M thing sounds very liberal to me. Outpointed. Cute. How does getting 'outpointed' count in the standings?

Oh yea, its a loss. Get it?


80 posted on 11/01/2006 10:11:12 AM PST by HitmanLV ("If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed." - Jerry 'Curly' Howard)
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