Just got back from a 4 day trip to NYC with the fiance.  First time I'd been since the attack.  Planned the trip during the sniper incident to try and escape some of the palpable tension in the Wash. D.C. area.  We stayed in midtown Manhattan at the New Yorker hotel (where the East Coast Custom Knife Show was held this year).  Saw plenty of sights, great food and drink, and some shopping for the SO.  Even bought myself a leather coat - although I'm no gayer for it. [;)]

Main reason for visit was to see the WTC site, however.  Here are a few impressions for those who haven't been able to make the trip yet:

The site is mostly cleaned up now, but the hole in the ground is immense to say the least.  There are viewing areas on a couple sides with tributes to victims, fire fighters and police all around.  It is a somber experience seeing the names of all the victims on plaques around the site.  Like the Nazi concentration camp I visited in Austria, it also made me very angry.  It's hard to believe, looking down into that huge hole, that the WTC towers once stood there, complete with thousands of people.  The creme-de-la-creme of NYC.  Some buildings around the site were charred and beyond repair.  Others were untouched.  A friend of mine was working in 1 Liberty Plaza very close-by, luckily he was in midtown during the attacks.  He described the scene as something out of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film.  Dust everywhere with people streaming out of the city on foot, not knowing what was about to happen next.  Utter chaos.  No matter what foreigners may say, the people of NYC did not deserve this attack on its citizenry.  Nor did those here in Wash. or PA - or anywhere else around the country.  One visit to the WTC site would make this clear to anyone.  

I urge anyone who hasn't been to make the trip.  If anything, it will renew your convictions that we need to rid the world of terrorist scum.  God bless America.

I have been there four times since the attacks. The first two where the day after and about a week after to assist the red cross, and two times months later during the clean up. All I have to say is it was unreal. It was like being in a surreal nightmare, not quite beliving that it was happening.

Thanks for the pic Frank - exactly what the tribute looks like in front of the church.

did you also notice the street vendors selling baseball hats that read "GROUND ZERO 9/11/2001" and books about "TERROR!" ?  

I agree that many people need to see the site to really bring the destruction into perspective, but speaking as a city resident and someone who was down there that day, It sickens me to see some people treating it as a tourist attraction.

Please dont misundertsand me, the majority of the visitors show respect to what truly is a mass grave, it is the few posing with smiles for the camera that have simply missed the point of visiting such a place.

otto - yes I did, and it disgusted me.  We didn't take any pictures at the site either.

Those are the same people who went to the Oklahoma City memorial and tried to sit in the chairs when it first opened.
The absolute stupidity of some people will never cease to amaze me.