Mission accomplished. The Tigger has landed.
If you want to see Ground Zero for yourself, go to http://www.jeanalan.com/jad_wtcplatform.htm for information on getting tickets for the viewing platform. Got to the South Street Seaport before the ticket booth opened at 11:00 a.m. but there was a long line already. Fortunately, the line moved fairly quickly and by 11:35 I had my ticket for admission to the viewing platform from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. Tickets are on a first-come, first-serve basis for visits to the platform in half hour blocks. The platform is located on Fulton Street, west of the intersection with Broadway, next to St. Paul's Chapel. Fulton Street is packed with street merchants hawking all kinds of WTC-related headgear, photographs, paintings, postcards, etc. - but the mood is very somber, particularly when you see the block-long makeshift shrine that has been erected along the front gate of St. Paul's. Got on the line for the platform at about 2:40 p.m. The line for the platform runs up Broadway from Fulton in front of St. Paul's and by the shrine. There were many rescue workers going in and out of the church which apparently is being used as a relief station for them. By 3:00, the police had collected our tickets and the line was progressing up the platform. The police move the crowds through fairly quickly - each group gets about five minutes at the end of the platform and then are asked (politely) to move along. The platform faces west over the site toward the Winter Garden and the World Financial Center buildings. Where once there was the entire World Trade Center complex consisting of seven buildings including the Towers, there is nothing but a massive hole in the ground. After five months, most of the debris has been removed except for one pile at the north end of the site. Most of the work is now in The Pit - a huge hole in the ground. They have been finding some more remains lately at the bottom of the Pit where the lower floors including the lobbies of the Towers were compressed and are now being excavated. The job is going faster than expected as New York is enjoying an unseasonably mild winter and they expect to finish the recovery stage of the job in the Spring. Many of the 2,800+ that perished that day will never be found however. There's also repair work being done to the buildings on the perimeter of Ground Zero which were damaged when the Towers fell. Seeing the site for yourself gives you a better perspective on the scale of the destruction rather than through the television. I picked up a Ground Zero black knit cap and will attach/include it with Tigger on his return trip to Seattle. I'll drop Tigger off in a cache next week so he can begin his trip home.