Memories Of Two Giants Struck Down Part 1

This time 5 years ago, I was enjoying myself at a local BBQ. My second daughter had just been born 3 weeks earlier, I was almost ready to come back from Paternity Leave and go back to my office in Manhattan two blocks from the World Trade Center.

Because our families lived over 50 miles away (and that was my daily commute by train also), my company allowed me to work remotely from home since July 1st. Quite frankly, I was looking forward to getting back to my office, the hustle and bustle of NYC, the great restaurants and bars, and a few close friends I had on the job. It was also going to be a great week because my boss was just going on Paternity Leave himself, and that usually meant *extremely* long lunches at our favorite watering holes The Full Schilling or Jeremy's Ale House.

The Schilling had one hell of a Cajun Chicken sandwich and made one of the best burgers around, especially with a couple of slabs of good thick Irish bacon. They also had two of the cutest twenty-something girls tending bar. Jeremy's had something like 40 different beers on tap and was just a block from the old Fulton Fish Market, so the seafood was always fresh and the Spicy Muscles Marinara were to *die* for. On a nice day, my buddy Jack and I would sit on the outside patio at Jeremy's which was just in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge and girl watch all the while sucking down the suds.

Often we would marvel at the fact that life was pretty good: at the time we were both 40, lived in the suburbs with the nice house and loving wife and kids. We were both professionally very successful having worked our way up the ranks to Vice Presidents. What's more, we worked in the greatest city in the world.

Things we often took for granted, we saw every day. The Statue of Liberty was in the middle of the harbor and just a 10 minute walk away was Battery Park where we could take in the view (the Statue and the ladies, of course!). One block south of us was Federal Hall, the place where George Washington took the oath of office as the First President of The United States. It was also the place where our Congress, Senate, and the Supreme Court first met. One block to our north was the Federal Reserve Building, where a good portion of the nation's gold supply was kept in vaults deep underground. The NY Stock Exchange was three blocks to our south.

And two blocks to our west were the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

I have always had a unique bond with those towers. My Dad used to work across the street from what used to be called Hudson Terminal, a railroad terminal for the old Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, which was a subway that ran under the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey's other Railroad Terminals and major cities of Jersey City, Hoboken, and Newark. It was also an office building that contained shops, restaurants and bars.

Somewhere in the early 60s, the H&M Railroad went bankrupt and was bought by the Port Authority of NY and NJ and renamed PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) who took over (and still maintain) operations of the line. They did this mainly because they wanted the Hudson Terminal property, tear down the old building, and put up not only the tallest building in the world...but TWO of them. The PATH would have a new terminal; there would be huge amounts of office space, and an underground mall with shops, bars, and restaurants.

My Dad used to work for JP Morgan for some 37 years, but during the early 60s, he used to do a lot of overtime just to make ends meet. That usually meant a lot of nights and weekends where I wouldn't see my dad, except of course for Sunday...when we would attend the Latin Mass in the Lower Church (this was just after Vatican II) and come home and watch our beloved NY Giants play football. Once in a while however, Dad used to take me to work with him on a Saturday. On those days, he would be at his desk, and I would spend the hours watching the construction of the World Trade Center.

I watched them dig the "bathtub", the whole time suspending the tubes that the PATH ran in (and kept running in!) as they worked around them putting in ramps, parking garages, plumbing, etc. I would watch for years as they began to erect the structure of the North Tower, the welders just outside my Dad's desk. After a while, I couldn't see the construction anymore except from the street. I didn't quite understand it then, but I was watching a miracle being created before my eyes.

Years later after the Towers were completed; I finally got my first look inside and on top of those magnificent edifices. Huge glass lobbies where elevators would whisk you floors in mere seconds; a shopping mall that had a couple of very cool bookstores and record shops; a great restaurant and bar called the "Market Bar" (best damned chili burger I ever had) that I often met my Dad for lunch at.

Oh, and then there was the observation deck...TWO of them in fact.

The decks were located in only one building (South Tower, iirc); an inside one and one outside at the very top. The inside deck had huge glass windows with etchings of buildings, roads, railroad terminals, bridges, and other points of interest on the glass so you knew what you were looking at. There were also the usual green binocular viewers that you put a quarter in and were able to see things up close with.

If the weather was nice, you just had to go outdoors to the top observation deck. It was a square placed safely in the middle of the roof for safety reasons. Not only on a clear day could you see forever, but you could actually see the curvature of the Earth.

I watched those Towers go up; I even worked in them for a few years. I commuted every day through them. They became my friends, reassuring and always there; they were beacons of hope, a gateway to the wonder of my beloved NYC, or a guarantee of a safe passage home after a long day.

And I watched them come down...and my entire world with it.

To be continued tomorrow...