The Towers - then and now

 

It had to be from a helicopter, how else could that shot be made?               

Turns out, it was.

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One cold November day years earlier I met my sister at the World Trade Center (WTC) to take in the view from atop its towers. Although the complex of seven buildings comprising the Center was constructed in the 70s, neither of us had at that point visited the iconic landmark. The site included WTC 1 and WTC 2, Twin Tower skyscrapers which were the tallest buildings in the US. In the shadow of the these giant edifices, the Financial Center buildings below appeared particularly regal that gray day dressed with a pre-winter dusting of freshly fallen powdery snow. The enhanced contrast of the scene appealed to my eye. So from a North Tower (WTC 1) viewing perch, I composed this photograph.

Financial Center Buildings from the North Tower

Little did I suspect that to capture a similar image at a later 'pre-drone' time, a photographer would need to be in a helicopter. And that's just what happened on a sparkling September morning in the new century after terrorists hijacked a commercial jet and crashed it into the North Tower. There was a fireball .... then the tower came down. It was unimaginable; it was surreal.

Five days after the US suffered this second 'day that will live in infamy' a new version of my WTC composition ran above the fold on the front page of the Sunday New York Times. The North Tower had been transformed into a smoldering pile of rubble and mass grave. It took me but a moment to realize that what appeared like my pre-9/11 North Tower image was now a helicopter-enabled one. The previous photographic vantage point was lost forever.

But our collective true loss was yet to be felt. In the ensuing decades, we witnessed a brief episode of pan-American solidarity in the immediate 9/11 aftermath only to see it gradually collapse. Today's smoldering piles - political, racial, and economic - continue to attack and divide us, and add to our country's loss.

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Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade - circa 1970s
The Twin Towers appear ghost-like in the distance
© David Greenfield

For more of my images and text about the World Trade Center complex today, continue reading and viewing here: 9/11 Memorial

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