We walked another block south, to Cortlandt Street.
Passing grit covered buildings.
People wrote messages in the dust and children left letters and drawings which praised the rescuers and mourned loved ones. We passed a shoe store with a small crowd of people in front of it. We looked in the windows and everything was where it looked like it should be. However we quickly realized that all the displayed shoes were covered in the thick gray dust! The grit had settled on everything. It brought to mind a device used in many science fiction movies when depicting scenes of abandoned cities. But this was very real. And again, it was a moment frozen in time. Shoe boxes on the floor and papers on the counters.
Looking down Cortlandt Street, revealed the scene we were both afraid to see, but needed to see. There we saw the (now infamous) skeletal remains of the South Tower. The gothic arches of the main lobby were one of the few recognizable features in the whole site. Jenni was very moved by the familair image.
I believe this (above) is the sheared off remains of WTC 4.
We observed this unimaginable scene and realized that just a few months ago we were standing in line along those arched windows with the kids and Jenni's sister, waiting for tickets to the observation deck.
