9/11 as a Tourist Draw

Eight years later, as New Yorkers got about their daily business, tourists stop to remember the anniversariy of September 11, 2001. By Sue Gloor.

By Sue Gloor

NEW YORK, Sept. 11—The darkening skies reflected the solemnity of the masses gathered at the gates surrounding Zuccotti Park in Manhattan this morning. Blustery winds tugged at umbrellas and rain spattered the hoods and faces of the somber observers as they huddled shoulder-to-shoulder along the wet sidewalk. Indeed, after nearly a week of clouds and threats of storms, the rain finally fell eerily on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 World Trade Center attacks.

“The weather makes it dramatic,” said Marcel Wehn, a German tourist visiting New York City for the first time.

Among the tourist sites to visit on Wehn’s list was the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero. Eight years after the catastrophe, the commemorative ritual of reading the victims’ names and marking the towers’ falls with moments of silence has become an event to which foreigners, more than locals, seem to respond.

“For me, as someone from Europe, this [ceremony] is how I imagined it,” Wehn said, specifically focusing on the weather’s unique reflection of the mood.

In person, he said, the observance bore little difference from the annual television coverage of the event beamed around the world. And the ceremonial components proceeded just as they have during the previous seven September 11 anniversaries: a beating bass drum and the steady roll of a snare sounded starkly at 8:40 am to lead up to 8:46—the precise time of the first plane crash and the moment that set in motion the chain of horrific events on that fateful day in 2001.

After the first moment of silence, a choir sang the Star Spangled Banner, emphasizing a defiant message of liberty by adding a second ringing chant of “o’er the land of the free” at the end of the song. The drums resumed until the speakers called for another brief period of silence to designate the second crash.

The relentless rain felt appropriate for the sober occasion.

For other observers, however, the environment and the crowd assembled there were somewhat different than anticipated.

“I was expecting to see more people [at the ceremony], common people,” said Marcelo Androetto, a journalist who traveled all of the way from Argentina with the assignment to cover both the U.S. Open and the September 11 memorial ceremony this week.

“I was in the subway, and it’s just like another normal day,” he said.

But even people who come from out of town for the observance recognize how much more the event will evolve over time.

“It’s still kind of new,” said Wehn of the attack on the towers. “It will change, and I’m interested in how it will be in twenty years, if it will be forgotten.”

That change is already underway.

With each passing year, the memorial becomes an outlet for tourists from around the world rather than an opportunity for New Yorkers to gather and support one another in remembrance of the attack that invaded their home.

Now, the majority of the people that gather at Ground Zero are either close relatives of the victims, direct survivors of the towers’ collapses or visitors looking to complete their New York City experience by an observance of the memorial. If they can make it there on the actual day to observe the September 11 ritual, so much the better.

As with past American tributes like Pearl Harbor Day and the Gettysburg anniversary, the significance of September 11 has begun to fade. Maybe eventually the annual commemorations will cease, and instead each passing September 11 will be marked with flowers laid at the site rather than a troop of firemen, police officers and solemn bystanders. Perhaps one day there will not be gates to separate the survivors from the rest of the observers; perhaps one day everyone will fit in the park at the base of Ground Zero.

For now, some foreigners still view the event as more than just a photo op and a story for their friends back home.

Andrew E. from Australia felt a deep draw to the site and the throngs of surrounding people as he stood resolutely by the gates in his uniform. Clad in full firefighter’s dress, he showed support and sympathy for his fellow firemen who were directly affected by the terrorist attacks eight years ago.

Though he had not known any of the New York City firefighters and had never been to the ceremony before, the anniversary this year carries just as much meaning for him as the first did for many Americans.

“It has always been something I wanted to do,” he said of the memorial ceremony. “I just wanted to pay my respects, that’s all.”

The international presence at the World Trade Center site this morning is proof that, though the memorial’s tone has shifted from that of community to tourism, both across the United States and across the world the effects of September 11 are still freshly felt.