On Wednesday, we decided to visit the World Trade Center area in the morning, and we had tickets (including a monument tour) to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the afternoon. On the way into the city, I took a picture of people going up an escalator after getting off the train from Jersey City. There are a lot of people going into and out of NYC everday!!
We had read on the Internet about a WTC Visitor Center where 'survivors' give guided tours of the WTC area. We checked it out and have a very good visit. The center has a museum with information about the WTC incident and its impact. We listened to two firemen, one of whom was not expected to survive with his injuries in the center before our tour. In the middle picture below, there is a 3000# chunk of building steel that they had on display........
For our tour, we had one fireman and one businessman as leaders. The tour took us around the WTC area and we viewed two memorials dedicated to victims of the incident. In addition to telling us how the incident affected them that day, they also took us into the World Financial Center to get a view of the 'hole' that is the construction site of the rebuilding. Here are the pictures, the first showing the tribute to the lost firemen and police, the second is the fireman that led our tour, the third and fourth show the heavy equipment being used to recontruct the towers, and the last is the memorial that the American Express Company donated to honor seven of their employees who were lost in the incident...........
The American Express fountain below has seven sides, one for each of the lost employees. Their names are each side, and a message from their families is in the floor of the fountain by the name. The crystal is seven-sided, and the wires supporting it have water droplets flowing down that drop into the pool, simulating tears!
Immediately after the WTC tour, we had to rush to Battery Park for our Statue of Liberty tour. Here are the pictures, with the first one showing the skyline at Battery Park as we headed away to the statue, and several shots of the Statue of Liberty:
Since we had a 'monument pass', we got to go inside the statue and see the museum. One of the things on display was the original torch. Here it is:
We did have a little bad luck, when we got into the statue, the elevator had stopped working. After the museum, we were given the choice........... climb the 156 steps or end our tour? We chose to climb!!!
In addtion to the statue, the tour included a trip to Ellis Island. Here are the pictures:
On our way out of NYC, we found the Wall Street bull, so we took a couple of pictures.........
No comments:
Post a Comment