In January of 1998 Jack and I went to New York City to see our daughter perform with her dance troupe at Carnegie Hall. While Jeanine was busy rehearsing for the Carnegie show Jack and I decided to go to the Trade Center in lower Manhattan to visit the Observation Deck of the Twin Towers. This week I found two old postcards that I bought on the Observation Deck. In the photo above you can see one of the towers and the financial district. I suggest that you might want to click on the picture to get a more detailed view. All the green in the foreground is Battery Park where you can catch a free ferry to Staten Island that gives you a wonderful view of the Statue of Liberty. You can actually see at the bottom of the photo the Staten Island Ferry terminal and ferries leaving the terminal. I think it is amazing that this is a free ride every day of the year. At the top of the photo you can see how the Hudson River flows along the shores of New Jersey and Manhattan and goes around Battery Park to connect with the East River since Manhattan is an island.What I remember about going to the Observation Deck is that it took forever to get up to the top----over 100 some floors to the top and to get there you had to switch elevators at some point. When you got to the Observation Deck you walked into this enormous room with windows on three sides. As you walked towards the windows for the view you noticed that the room was built with these low seats that put your nose right up to the glass window. So you basically came in the room, walked towards a window, went down two or three steps and sat down with your face up close to the window. I don't know why they did it like this except maybe a lot of folks like me almost feel faint when they see such a view from such a high place. They feel like they have to sit down before they fall down.
Well, to make a long story short it took me about five minutes to get up enough nerve to do this. Finally I was seated and looking thru the glass but purposely not touching the glass just in case the framing around the window was damaged from years of wear and tear. I pictured in my mind leaning on the window and the window glass falling forward with me going down, down too. Look at the postcard below to get a sense of the view I was encountering.
This is the static postcard view from the Observation Deck. In reality the view you encountered on the Observation Deck was far from static. The first thing I noticed were the tourist and emergency helicopters flying below me and some boats cruising along the East River. When I leaned over and looked straight down I could see cars moving in the streets looking like tiny ants and the people walking along the sidewalks looking like even tinier ants. The actual leaning over to look down gave me strangest weak kneeed sensation that I think I have ever felt. In this postcard photo you can see two bridges. The one to the right is the famous Brooklyn Bridge that many commuters walked over after 9/11 occurred to reach their homes in Brooklyn and the Bronx. The bridge to the left is the Manhattan Bridge that takes folks to middle Manhattan. Jack who is a very good driver once drove our family from Virginia to Manhattan and our hotel but we entered the island of Manhattan thru a tunnel under the Hudson River from New Jersey. After that driving experience Jack vowed that he would never again drive to the island of Manhattan. Way too nerve racking!Post Note: I posted this for the anniversary of 9/11 and for my sister Mary and her husband Jerry who are soon heading from Ohio to Manhattan for a five day sightseeing trip. It will be their first time to New York City and I can't wait to hear how they like it. It won't be anything like Columbus, Ohio that's for sure.
