I would thank everyone for their concern, good wishes and sympathies. So far,
personally, it has been good news. My wife's secretary's daughter got out
from the 44th floor OK and my daughter's best friend's father somehow got out
from the 80th floor of the South Building (he left before the second hit).
I have gotten a number of messages asking about the World Trade Center in
general. The center is about 10 square blocks and consists of a single "base"
building. That base building is about 3 stories high and contains a park-like
plaza on top. Just below ground level (actually a few steps down) is a large
shopping plaza. On the south side of this shopping center is a small goumet
coffee shop that I usually stop at for coffee when I am going toward the Wall
Street area. In the center of this shopping area are about 10-15 escalators
that go down (and up) from the "PATH" subway to New Jersey. At the bottom of
the escalators is a large mezzanine level with a candy/newspaper shop, a
florist and some othe small stores and the turnstiles to get to the "PATH".
After passing through the turnstiles you go down another level to the train
station itself. The World Trade Center is one of the terminals of this subway
line.
In addition to the "PATH", the New York City subway also has a line that
passes under the WTC-this is the 8th Avenue Line- the famous "A" Train from
the jazz piece. The station is located just north of the buildings with an
entrance directly from the shopping mall.
Rising from the base building are several other buildings-the two main being
Buildings 1 & 2... the towers. These towers are each 110 stories tall and
there usually about 50,000 people working in the various offices. There is a
world class restaurant on the top of one of the towers... called "Windows on
the World" (I think this may have closed... I don't follow it much as it is
way too expense for me). The top of the South Tower has an observation deck
and the top of the other tower has most of New York's radio and television
antennas.
(please replace all present tense with past tense-it will take me a long time
to internalize the fact that this entire complex is gone).
Again, thank everyone for the sympathy and words of encouragement.
Fortunately, New York is a very tough city and I am sure will be back up and
running in a few days. I am already getting e-mails from people I work with
in New York saying that they will be working from home for a few days.
Jan Eyerman (in New Jersey-but in metropolitan New York area)
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