Check in if you visited Ground Zero in 2001. Wasn't it weird how they cordoned it off?

[HamdenRice]

Almost as soon as the public was allowed to visit "Ground Zero," I stopped by to take a look at the site. I remember thinking it was bizarre that they had erected a plywood fence around the entire perimeter of the site with no means of observing the site.

If you are a New Yorker, you will know that it's kind of a local cultural phenomenon of people standing around looking at demolition and construction sites. It's so time honored, that construction companies actually cut plexiglass windows into their plywood perimeters so that New Yorkers can stand around and watch and gawk and talk about their projects.

Ground Zero was the first and only demolition site I recall that had no vantage points for observation. I walked around the perimeter and there was one place where the fence wasn't yet complete and I could look at the pile and the destroyed buildings that were still standing.

The City actually acknowledged that the perimeter fence was constructed so that the public could not see the site. They said that because people had died there, they did not want people being able to see the site. Yet after a few weeks, they created a platform on Church Street overlooking the site from the East, but it was like a tourist attraction. You walked up these wooden steps, looked through a gap in the fence, and walked down the other side in just a few seconds.

I thought that was very strange at the time. Did anyone else have similar experiences?

[BeachBaby]

1. Strange? No, not at all....

When you think about it, "Ground Zero" is the scene of a mass murder - and at that time, there still were recovery efforts, as well as investigations. It was still a "cemetery" at that point. It was also a very dangerous place to be (debris and jagged pieces of glass and metal), I would think.

But after awhile (and I do remember this part), people started to complain that their loved ones had died there and they want to be able to go there and grieve, pay their respects, etc. Hence the conception of the Church Street observatory area.

[nebula]

2. Never been there personally,

But I think there was a legitimate reasons to shield it from pubic view.
For example, there could have been victims (or their body parts) at the
site that haven't been discovered yet.

[Mist]

5. I visited ground zero in May of '02--it was still cordoned off that way--I would

think any body parts would have been removed by then. The "viewing platform" was in place then, too.

[RedSock]

3. visited several times

went down on the west side to 14th street on september 12 -- that was as far as you could go then.

went a few more times in the next month or so.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. probably too much radiation!

couldn't have too many people exposed to it :evilgrin:

[Sweet Pea]

6. Radiation?

From what!?

[TheWraith]

8. Making fun of the people who believe nuclear bombs were used, I guess. NT

[TheWraith]

7. I imagine they didn't want onlookers gawking at the charred human remains. NT

[HamdenRice]

9. Uh ... have you ever been to New York?

The perimeter was Church Street. You do know that the twin towers were set back some distance from Church Street, right? Because you wouldn't be making such stupid claims without some firsthand knowledge of the layout, right?

By the time the perimeter was set up, the rubble was some distance from it.

[TheWraith]

10. And where do you think they were putting the bodies they took out of the rubble?

Or where they were loading debris onto trucks, or staging equipment? Are they supposed to do all of that right on top of the pile? You're trying to change the subject, which was why they didn't invite viewing via plexiglass windows.

[HamdenRice]

11. But they did invite the public to view from a platform on Church Street

So your (non)argument about the possibility of seeing remains from Church Street falls apart under the weight of its own stupifying lack of logic.

[AZCat]

12. I was in NYC in October '02...

but I wasn't interested in visiting Ground Zero. I don't understand how it has become like a tourist attraction. I can understand how New Yorkers would go - as part of the process of adapting to a change to their city - but why would any of the rest of us go, other than to mourn? It's not a fucking amusement park.