The World Trade Center complex is the One World Trade Center building, sure, but it’s also a collection of memorials, museums, parks, a performing arts center, and this remarkable transit-hub shopping mall housed in a white-rib structure called Oculus (designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava).
The transit part is below ground, part of the PATH train system (Port Authority Trans-Hudson, the trains that go to and from New Jersey).
Since this was part of our epic Alyssa-led walk, we wandered through Greenwich Village and Tribeca on our way to Lower Manhattan. This is FDNY Ladder 8 in Tribeca, the station used in the original Ghostbusters movie.
And the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, considered to be where the gay rights movement started in 1969. At time, police routinely raided gay bars and arrested people, but one night the police transports took too long to arrive, and the would-be detainees (one woman in particular) grew restless and started to resist, then fight back. Within the year, the country saw the advent of pride parades and gay rights activism. (If you ever wondered why your local gay pride parade happens in June, it’s because the Stonewall riots happened on June 28.)
One World Trade Center.
We were there on September 10, and it felt surreal. (It’s closed on September 11 for the memorial service.)
Flowers at the name of Jie Yao Justin Zhao, a 27-year-old computer technician for Aon Corporation. His parents immigrated from Guangzhou, China, (with their two sons) around 1986 and started work as a waiter (father) and garment factory worker (mother) while their boys grew up. The family lived in a basement apartment in Queens. When the kids graduated from college and got good jobs, they were able to turn around and support their parents, allowing mom and dad to do things like take vacations and think about retirement.
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