Ground Zero

I had heard that there wasn't much to see at Ground Zero these days. I had heard that all of memorials were taken down. I wasn't really planning on going, but when the tour bus stopped there, I thought I may as well go just to say I'd been there.

At first, I agreed that there wasn't much to see. I snapped a couple of pictures of the cranes working on the big hole that you couldn't see because of walls around it. Here is what Ground Zero looks like right now.

There was a little kiosk there with a little memorial. That was about it. Here's a picture of the kiosk.


After that I headed out to see what else there was to see. I turned around a saw a cool looking church. There were a lot of people going in it, so I decided to see what was going on there.

The grounds were covered in head stones. I wondered if these were the graves of those killed in 9/11, but I noticed that they looked way too old. Sure enough the dates on them were from the 1700's.

When I went inside the church I realized that I had hit the motherlode. This church was called St. Paul's. It was where many workers and families went for food and respite after the attacks. Inside is a huge memorial to the attacks. It was also interesting because it is the oldest church in New York. Apparently it was where George Washington attended church. They had a pew that was George Washington's pew. This church is right across the street from Ground Zero. It really should have been destroyed by the falling debris. Apparently, the blast toppled a huge tree. It's branches fell over the cemetary and acted as an umbrella protecting the church and the graveyard.

Here are some pictures of inside.

Children had drawn pictures for the policemen and firemen and posted them all over the posts inside. This is a sampling of some of those pictures.

Children in Japan made these boas of origami cranes to represent peace and sent them to the church.

Here's a sampling of the posters that people had put up all over town that said "Have you seen my loved one."

This was a small memorial set up for those that were lost.

On my way out I snapped these pictures of the graves. If you look in the background you can see the cranes working on ground zero.

It was hard to leave there with dry eyes.

As I headed back on the bus I realized that I had entered the church from the back. Here's a picture of the front of it.