I haven’t been to the World Trade Center area since September 11, 2002. The first decade I thought it would be too hard to go there, and the years since, I never made it a priority wondering how it would feel. I was in building 6 or 8 of the World Trade Center that day for a real estate exam. I got off the subway, headed to the building, heard ‘fuego” and saw a fire encompassing several floors of one of the towers. I immediately thought – how the hell is the fire department going to get that out? I saw someone fall. I attempted to call my at the time boyfriend on my new cell phone about this fire but the lines were busy. Not wanting to be late, I proceeded to the building and sat with four or five other people wondering where everyone else was – this was a sold out exam. We were eventually informed we needed to evacuate, but no further details.
Leaving the building I looked up again not realizing that it would be the last time and not realizing what had happened. It was early still, I was headed up town to my college for class. On the subway an engineer, who worked at the WTC informed all us in the car that the building was going to collapse. I didn’t realize I was probably on one of the last subway cars out. At school, we were notified that indeed the towers collapsed because of planes. The city was now in lock down. School was cancelled for the rest of the day. I wanted to Herald Square to my sisters office, passing through Times Square with the thousands of other people walking in the streets and saw for the first time what had happened on the big TVs. Stunned, I eventually made it to my sister’s office where we watched for hours the smoke and wondered how we would get home, and worried more attacks were on the way. For weeks I was in a small state of shock – curious about the deceased, the rumble, the attacks, the families.
But this year, I went back. I have been very curious about the new tower and the reflecting ponds. I was impressed by the two pools and thought it was nice and tranquil in such a chaotic city. I took time to really reflect on that event and offered my silent prayers. When I was done, I focused on the new huge tower and our evening up top. The line to get in was really long, but our ticket included the express lane – which probably cut about 30-45 minutes off the wait time which was good since we had a reservation time. The elevator ride (both up and down) were spectacular. They did an amazing job with the video in there. After getting off the elevator you watch a brief movie and the screen goes up giving you the first glimpse of the view. The view was really nice – we had a nice clear evening and were able to see it go from daylight to night while we were up there.
The dinner was so-so. Expensive, decent food, but very very loud. I would not recommend having dinner there. It was a pre-paid $100 per person for the pre-fixe 3 courses but that did not include tip or drinks which would be paid the night of – which was about $80 for a glass of wine, the two beers and the standard tip. The $100 ticket price did include the priority lane elevator ride and of course the view. The food…let’s see, I had the vegan barley bowl for my appetizer (my favorite course of the night), creamy polenta and the baked apple. Bucket Hat Rose had the iceberg wedge salad, the Rib eye (I thought he was going to have the duck), and the cheese cake.
Looking back, I think the $58 all inclusive Experience the Best ticket would have been better. It offers the priority lane, $15 food/drink credit so having a drink up there would be nice, and the iPad viewing thing (great if you wanted to know about more buildings) that is not part of the pre-fixe dinner package and we did not purchase it since I’ve been to NYC so many times and didn’t really care on this trip for that type of thing…but if it was included, sure I would have looked around a bit more.
One World Observatory Website
Location: 285 Fulton St, New York, NY 10006
Cost: several levels and add-ons.
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