9/11 in Manhattan

Four years later; it's another beautiful, clear day in New York City. I've been in town two nights on business, but last evening found myself unexpectedly at loose ends and ended up taking a long meandering walk from my Times Square hotel down to Washington Square.

The years have passed so quickly since I left, with far fewer return visits than planned or anticipated. So much changed, but so much not: I joke about feeling Rip Van Winkle-ish, but in the end it's the changes in me, not Manhattan, that are the most wrenching and disorienting.

Except when I turn a corner from the canyons of lower Broadway, and see in the darkening evening skies the two beams rising from the Trade Center site. They are so close yet so unearthly. As I traverse NYU, retracing one of my most well-trodden city paths, I keep glancing left, triangulating on that column of light.
So close. So untouchable.

All around, youth and energy: a warm Saturday night, the beginning of school. The freshmen of 2001 would have graduated this past spring. It's a new generation already.

I continue across to West 4th, noting an open firehouse door and a bronze plaque outside that didn't used to be there. Not quite ready to head back, I walk uptown past St. Vincent's and catch a train at the 14th St. station.
At the hotel I run across a group going out to eat. They invite me along, but I decline. I need some food, but they're heading down to the Village. It's too soon to return, again.

Posted by David on September 11, 2005 8:02 AM