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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Culture & Society

25 years after 9/11, New York builds its resilience on the former Ground Zero

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

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In-depth From a news agency Context piece

- Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, Lower Manhattan’s former Ground Zero combines memorial spaces, new skyscrapers and cultural institutions.

Peter Bitwinski remembers the World Trade Center as more than the Twin Towers or a financial center. It was where he worked every day, on the 69th floor of the North Tower.

“The plane hit behind me and threw me onto my desk. The next one or two minutes were the longest of my life, with the building shaking violently,” Bitwinski told EFE. He escaped the building after helping a paralyzed co-worker descend, reaching West Street at 10:15 a.m. The tower collapsed 13 minutes later.

Bitwinski now returns to Ground Zero every Tuesday to lead free walking tours and keep the memory of the September 11 victims alive. The two towers, which stood 415 and 417 meters tall, disappeared from Lower Manhattan’s skyline. Since 2011, two reflecting pools have occupied their footprints, surrounded by more than 400 oak trees and North America’s largest artificial waterfalls.

The plane hit behind me and threw me onto my desk. The next one or two minutes were the longest of my life, with the building shaking violently. There was no fire on my floor and, fortunately, I was able to get down. I was part of a group that helped a paralyzed co-worker descend. We managed to get out here, to West Street, at 10:15, and the tower collapsed at 10:28.

· Peter Bitwinski, former World Trade Center employee and Ground Zero tour guideBitwinski recalls escaping the North Tower and later returning to lead tours that preserve the memory of the attacks.

The site also preserves reminders of what stood there before the attacks. The bronze sculpture The Sphere, created by Fritz Koenig in 1971 as a symbol of world peace through trade, survived the collapses and returned to the World Trade Center complex in 2017 after a temporary stay in Battery Park. The Survivor Tree, a pear tree recovered from the rubble, has become another symbol of recovery.

The Oculus station, designed by Santiago Calatrava, follows the sun’s path on September 11 from 8:46 a.m., when the first plane struck, to 10:28 a.m., when the second tower collapsed. One World Trade Center, opened in 2014, became the main symbol of Lower Manhattan’s reconstruction. A further major piece, 2 World Trade Center, entered a new construction phase this summer and is planned to open in 2031 as American Express’s global headquarters. The area’s revival also extends into culture through the Perelman Performing Arts Center, opened in September 2023.

This will be a forest for years and years. And that is simply beautiful.

· Marie Howe, Florida resident and visitorHowe comments on the trees surrounding the September 11 memorial pools.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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