World Trade Center memory: September 20, 1996, my diary entry

Tom Harpel - CC BY 2.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1773720

We walked back to the World Center, because I'd said I wanted to go to the top. Ed wanted to sing songs about flying when we got to the top. When we got in we found out, to our shock, that it was $8/head. However, we shelled it out. We waited in the rollercoaster-long line to go up.

Once we got there, I was very impressed with the height and also by having the vast view beneath me be intelligible, and not some meaningless jumble of buildings, streets and rivers. We looked first over the Bronx, Coney Island and out to the ocean. Then we sat for a long time looking uptown. That was where we saw the most to recognize. Ed pointed out the arch of Washington Square Park. Ed was kind of my own personal guide of the view.

Then, after being hypnotized by the view for a long time, it occurred to us to go up to the roof. That is what we did. I was amazed by what we found there. It was a calm, windless, slightly warm sundeck we found up there 1035 feet high, with the occasional clouds drifting right overhead. We walked excitedly around the rectangular walkway, taking in the view hemmed in by nothing but sky. We leaned there against the railing. Then we skipped around to the other side and parked ourselves on a bench facing the Jersey view. The moments were out of sight. I felt then and there that I was immersed in heaven. As we descended, the sun was setting.

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