Charitable Gift Giving

It’s hard to believe that seven years have passed since that horrible day that changed everything.

From 1999 to 2001, I worked at 222 Broadway, one block away. For a few years after the towers fell, I refused to visit Ground Zero. I just wanted to remember the World Trade Center as it was. I wanted to remember sitting in the large open space on summer evenings listening to free concerts under the big globe fountain. I wanted to remember my favorite hot dog stand, who kept his stand right at the corner and served the best hot dogs I had anywhere. I wanted to remember my daily routine of going up the escalators on the right hand side of the North tower, walking through the pathway into the South Tower, and walking through the walkway to the World Financial Center, where I’d go to the gym every night. I wanted to remember taking the long escalators down to the downstairs mall area, with the Godiva (where I’d treat myself to a chocolate-covered strawberry every now and then), the Warner Brothers Store, the Borders bookstore…

I’ve finally visited Ground Zero about two years ago. I deliberately kept my eyes closed and could picture everything where it was for one last time, and then once I opened my eyes, the memories started to fade. I remember weeks, even months, after the towers fell, feeling that there was just a big “hole in the sky” whenever I drove the approach to Manhattan from New Jersey. Today, it all looks normal again to me.

This is a book which was published in November 2001. The 72 beautiful photographs were all taken before September, and show the towers from every angle imaginable. It preserves the memories of views of the World Trade Center from all over New York and New Jersey. It’s a perfect tribute book to September 11, but it’s not a picture of planes, or fires, or people running, or people crying. It’s a picture of a happier time, when the City and its skies were still complete.

A portion of proceeds is still being donated to the Twin Towers Fund to assist the needy families of the City’s police officers, firefighters, and other uniformed services.