More in the series...
0645 hrs: The PATH train emerges from its tunnel into the base of the World Trade Center, riding tracks which were revealed to be mostly intact when over 1,000,000 tons of debris were removed from the site following the attacks. The "bathtub" foundation pictured here was designed primarily to keep the surrounding earth ( all of it landfill moved here to build the towers) from collapsing into the sub-levels, especially when the tide is high in the estuary and the water seeps into the soil. We're several stories below sea level, just a few hundred yards from the Hudson River.This structure also survived the building collapse relatively intact... note the many enormous rods which penetrate deep into the fill ouside to provide support...
The previous picture was taken opposite this point on the right; here you can see more of "The Pit". I've never cared to call this place "Ground Zero" (that phrase has a very different specific meaning to me: think Hiroshima and Nagasaki); for a while it was "The Pile", then "The Pit", and now that the station's open again and one of the complex buildings almost re-built, I guess it's the World Trade Center again. But it'll never be the same... That's the World Financial Center across West Street; did a lot of work there after they repaired that building in 2002.
0700 hrs: I transfer underground to the R Train, and get off at the Lawrence St. station in Brooklyn. My destination today is the new state Supreme/Family Court building; we've been installing A/V systems in over 70 courtrooms here over the last year and a half. I've just come onsite here full-time in the last few weeks; we're finishing up loose ends and testing the systems.
Finally, I'm up on the 15th floor... stepping into our "shanty" (feild HQ), which will be a judges' robing room once the building is handed over, I notice everyone's already set off to the various rooms.
I head up to 25 to snap some pics out the window... this is looking southwest. Visible (if not clearly) is the Statue of Liberty, a Staten Island ferry, and on the right, the southern tip of Manhattan island.
The view north: unfortunately, you can't see the Brooklyn Bridge from here (ugly building in the way on the left just outside the frame), but there's the Manhattan Bridge on the left, then the Williamsburg Bridge just beyond those smokestacks. The Empire State Building can be seen off in the distance...well, enough sightseeing. time to get to work...
NEXT:"Friday is For the Men!"
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