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World Trade Center TributeCommentary on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Here are a few items that I found on the web or were sent
to me in chain E-mail related to the World Trade Center
and the ghastly events of 9/11/2001. Let us never forget
what happened that day.
Columns of light recall the locations of the former World Trade Center
towers #1 and #2 on the 6-month anniversary of the terrorist attack.
This has come to be known as the World Trade Center Tribute In Light,
and it has been repeated on several anniversary dates since the attack.
A crew hung a huge American flag at the Pentagon shortly after the
terrorist attack.
Workers sorting through the rubble with the American flag hanging in the
background. Ironically, the flag was stolen from a private yacht that
was anchored in the Hudson river on the other side of the World Financial
Center (which is next door to the World Trade Center complex).
The World Financial Center is just across the street from the World
Trade Center complex, sitting between WTC buildings and the Hudson River.
The building on the right, 2 WFC, is the Merrill Lynch HQ, while the left tower, 3 WFC, is the world HQ of American Express. These buildings were evacuated in
time, and no one was injured in the process. The buildings were rapidly
repaired and reoccupied. 1 WFC, which is off the photo to the right, the
HQ for Oppenheimer and Dow Jones, was largely undamaged. 4 WFC, also a
Merrill Lynch building, sits exactly behind the AM/EX building in this
photo. The glass commons area between 2 WFC and 3 WFC, called the Winter
Garden, was a total loss. After two years of reconstruction, it is nearly
finished and retail stores are starting to return to the complex.
This is the 7 World Trade Center building. It collapsed late in
the afternoon on September 11, 2001. This building was not hit
by aircraft, nor was it significantly damaged in the collapse of
the main World Trade Center towers. Its collapse remains a mystery
to this day, and it is the only steel frame building to collapse
strictly due to fire. The building was evacuated that morning,
and firefighters made the decision to let it burn and focus their
efforts on recovery of victims from the collapse of the twin towers.
Seven World Trade Center was somewhat unique in that it was built
above a Con Edison power substation, so it had a complex series of
braces in place of support pillars in the power substation area.
It is believed that this bracing was only marginally sufficient to
support the building, and these braces bent due to heat of the fire,
leading to failure of the building as a whole.
The former Deutsche Bank building, located on the south side of the
World Trade Center complex, took a direct hit when the south tower
collapsed. A large gash was opened in the glass curtain wall of the
building, exposing it to the elements. The sprinklers also went off.
As the building sat, it became contaminated with mold. Even after the
mold was removed, it was decided that the building was not worth saving,
and in June of 2003, it was decided that it would be taken down. In
this photo, the Deutsche Bank building is covered with black netting
supporting a huge American flag.
Tragedy continues to haunt this building. In August of 2007, a fire broke out as the building was being prepared for dismantling. Two firefighters became stranded in the building, and died when their airpacks ran out of air. Several days later, part of the scaffolding collapsed, injuring more firefighters.
Temporary memorial marks the location of the crash of Flight 93
near Shanksville, PA. We have had a lot of patriotic slogans over the
years, such as "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Pearl Harbor". I doubt
anyone said it more powerfully than the passenger who said "Let's Roll".
Many people consider this the first victory in the war on terror. The
actual crash site is located about 1000 feet to the southeast of this
marker, and it is off limits to all but the families of the passengers.
One proposal for rebuilding the World Trade
Center complex.
So, what part of B-52 Stratofortress and carpet bombing do the
Taliban not understand?
Baghdad during the shock and awe bombing. Payback is a
bitch, Saddam. Never mind that Saddam had nothing to do
with the events of September 11, 2001, but don't let that
fact confuse President Bush. As a result, Iraq was also
a tragedy of 9/11.
Here is the man himself, Osama Bin Laden, the most hated human since
Adolph Hitler, resurfacing after spending two years hiding in caves
in Pakistan. One has to wonder why so much of the terrorism in the world
comes out of the middle east. Is there something wrong with that part
of the world, or is there something fundamentally wrong with Islam?
Update — On Sunday, May 1, 2011, US Navy SEAL Team 6 put a bullet
through Osama Bin Laden's head and dumped his body into the sea, ending his
ten year flight from justice. Yes, payback really is a bitch. This is yet
one more death in a long string of deaths, showing once again that the only
real outcome of terrorism is death, destruction, and misery.
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Authored by John A. Weeks III, Copyright © 1996—2016, all rights reserved. For further information, contact: john@johnweeks.com
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