Gary and I had an unplanned sightseeing trip to New York City on the way home from India. We landed at Newark around 4:00 a.m. Our layover in Newark was until 4:00 p.m. With our carryons we decided to spend the day in New York City. We took a bus to the city, not really knowing what we would be doing. It just so happened the bus let us out one block from Times Square.
The minute we got off the bus this very nice gentleman stopped us (we did look like confused tourists!) and asked us where we were from and what we were doing. I knew what would happen next but Gary kept visiting with him. Then, when it was obvious we needed to get going he asked Gary for some money so that he could get home. Yes, Gary has such a soft heart and he gave him some money. That set us up for the next person about seven steps away. No sooner had we started walking we were approached by another fine gentleman that needed just a little more money. Gary declined telling him that we had just helped out someone else. I was beginning to wonder how WE would get home if Gary kept giving away money!
This is what New York City looks like at 5:15 a.m. on a Friday morning.
Betsy outside the Good Morning America studio. We actually just stumbled onto the site. What luck!
Betsy is outside the studio looking in! Robin Roberts is preparing for the next segment.
They are preparing for the next segment. Josh kept doing something with his iPhone. Once he started laughing and nudged Robin to read something on the phone. Sancy told me that Josh twitters a lot during the show so I imagine that is what is going on. He did spend a lot of time on his iPhone. Robin seemed to be more serious between segments preparing for the next segment.
The lady Robin is talking to is a staff worker. She kept showing Robin some notes on paper.
Outside the studio and Gary and I are leaving to try to find the 9/11 Memorial.
We got to the 9/11 Memorial at 8:00 a.m. It doesn't open until 10:00 a.m. Gary asked some police officers where a good place nearby would be to have breakfast. They told us of the Essex World Cafe. This is a working-class cafe full of construction workers. It was wonderful! It is close to Ground Zero. You get the full flavor of New York City.
Wall Street.
Trinity Church, also known as Trinity Wall Street, is at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway. It is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. During the September 11, 2001 attacks, as the 1st Tower collapsed, people took refuge from the massive debris cloud inside the church. Falling wreckage from the collapsing tower knocked over a giant sycamore tree that stood for nearly a century in the churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel, which is part of Trainity Church's parish and is located several blocks north of Trinity Church. Sculptor Steve Tobin used its roots as the base for a bronze sculpture that stands next to the church today. Picture of the bronze sculpture is below.
Trinity Church Cemetery is the only active cemetery remaining in the borough of Manhatten.
Trinity Church.
Wall Street is the home of the New York Stock Exchange.
Street vendors.
Walking from Wall Street to the 9/11 Memorial. You can see a crowd of soldiers also walking toward the 9/11 Memorial.
The wall outside the 9/11 Museum.
There was a lot of construction surrounding the area. We are still walking toward the memorial.
Inside the memorial people are walking around going from the North Pool to the South Pool. Gary is in this picture below.
This scene moved me to tears. I had to take a picture.
Betsy standing next to one of the walls with the names enscribed.
Betsy reflecting. The nearly 3,000 names of the victims of the 9/11 and 1993 attacks are inscribed in bronze around the perimeters of the two pools. The arrangement of names is based on layers of "meaningful adjacencies" that reflect where the victims were on 9/11 and relationships they shared with others who were lost that day, honoring requests from victims' families for specific names to be next to one another.
Gary
Betsy in the picture below. When the entire site is complete, the surrounding plaza will include more than 400 swamp white oak trees. The trees were selected from nurseries within a 500-mile radius of the three attack sites.
The rebuilding of the World Trade Center. You can see construction of 1 World Trade Center just beyond the north pool, which at 1,776 feet, will be the tallest building in the United States. Just east of the south pool, 4 World Trade Center will rise 72 floors and stand 977 feet tall.
The pictures are out of order. We had to take the subway to go to the 9/11 site. We asked three people at different locations for directions on which subway to take. The options were A, B, C, D and E. We were given three different directions.
After getting off the subway it was now time to find the bus station. Thank goodness Gary had it marked as a pinpoint direction on his iPhone. This is just a random picture of the police horse.
Outside the NBC studio.
Gary heading back to the bus station.
The minute we got off the bus this very nice gentleman stopped us (we did look like confused tourists!) and asked us where we were from and what we were doing. I knew what would happen next but Gary kept visiting with him. Then, when it was obvious we needed to get going he asked Gary for some money so that he could get home. Yes, Gary has such a soft heart and he gave him some money. That set us up for the next person about seven steps away. No sooner had we started walking we were approached by another fine gentleman that needed just a little more money. Gary declined telling him that we had just helped out someone else. I was beginning to wonder how WE would get home if Gary kept giving away money!
This is what New York City looks like at 5:15 a.m. on a Friday morning.
Betsy outside the Good Morning America studio. We actually just stumbled onto the site. What luck!
Betsy is outside the studio looking in! Robin Roberts is preparing for the next segment.
People standing outside GMA studio. You can see me toward the front behind the first row. I have on the red Razorback shirt.
Robin and Josh getting ready to go back on the air.
They are preparing for the next segment. Josh kept doing something with his iPhone. Once he started laughing and nudged Robin to read something on the phone. Sancy told me that Josh twitters a lot during the show so I imagine that is what is going on. He did spend a lot of time on his iPhone. Robin seemed to be more serious between segments preparing for the next segment.
The lady Robin is talking to is a staff worker. She kept showing Robin some notes on paper.
Outside the studio and Gary and I are leaving to try to find the 9/11 Memorial.
We got to the 9/11 Memorial at 8:00 a.m. It doesn't open until 10:00 a.m. Gary asked some police officers where a good place nearby would be to have breakfast. They told us of the Essex World Cafe. This is a working-class cafe full of construction workers. It was wonderful! It is close to Ground Zero. You get the full flavor of New York City.
The Essex Cafe is about a block from Ground Zero. It served as the medical station on 9/11. The sign is displayed in the cafe.
We found our way to Wall Street and now we are seeing what all is nearby that we can visit.
Wall Street.
Trinity Church, also known as Trinity Wall Street, is at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway. It is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. During the September 11, 2001 attacks, as the 1st Tower collapsed, people took refuge from the massive debris cloud inside the church. Falling wreckage from the collapsing tower knocked over a giant sycamore tree that stood for nearly a century in the churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel, which is part of Trainity Church's parish and is located several blocks north of Trinity Church. Sculptor Steve Tobin used its roots as the base for a bronze sculpture that stands next to the church today. Picture of the bronze sculpture is below.
Trinity Church Cemetery is the only active cemetery remaining in the borough of Manhatten.
Trinity Church.
Wall Street is the home of the New York Stock Exchange.
Betsy standing under the Wall Street sign.
Street vendors.
Walking from Wall Street to the 9/11 Memorial. You can see a crowd of soldiers also walking toward the 9/11 Memorial.
The wall outside the 9/11 Museum.
There was a lot of construction surrounding the area. We are still walking toward the memorial.
Inside the memorial people are walking around going from the North Pool to the South Pool. Gary is in this picture below.
This scene moved me to tears. I had to take a picture.
On a clear Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, deliberating crashing two into the twin towers in New York City and a third into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth plane, Flight 93, launced a counter-offensive, and the plane crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania.
The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 people from more than 90 nations. The oldest victim was 85 years old; the youngest was two years old. More than 400 were first responders who died performing their sworn duties.
The 9/11 Memorial opened on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It consists of two pools set in the footprints of the original Twin Towers. These are where the towers used to stand. Thirty-foot waterfalls--the largest in North America--cascade into the pools, each then descending into a center void. The names of the victims are inscribed in bronze parapets around the pools.
Betsy standing next to one of the walls with the names enscribed.
Betsy reflecting. The nearly 3,000 names of the victims of the 9/11 and 1993 attacks are inscribed in bronze around the perimeters of the two pools. The arrangement of names is based on layers of "meaningful adjacencies" that reflect where the victims were on 9/11 and relationships they shared with others who were lost that day, honoring requests from victims' families for specific names to be next to one another.
Gary
Betsy in the picture below. When the entire site is complete, the surrounding plaza will include more than 400 swamp white oak trees. The trees were selected from nurseries within a 500-mile radius of the three attack sites.
The rebuilding of the World Trade Center. You can see construction of 1 World Trade Center just beyond the north pool, which at 1,776 feet, will be the tallest building in the United States. Just east of the south pool, 4 World Trade Center will rise 72 floors and stand 977 feet tall.
The pictures are out of order. We had to take the subway to go to the 9/11 site. We asked three people at different locations for directions on which subway to take. The options were A, B, C, D and E. We were given three different directions.
After getting off the subway it was now time to find the bus station. Thank goodness Gary had it marked as a pinpoint direction on his iPhone. This is just a random picture of the police horse.
Outside the NBC studio.
Gary heading back to the bus station.
For what little time we had in NYC, we had fun. I can't believe after two days of flying and landing in NYC at 4:00 a.m. we went sightseeing. Glad we did, though.
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