Sunday, November 23
WE ARE NOT GEEKS!
Granted, we were on the first PATH train to go from Hoboken to the newly-reopened World Trade Center PATH station.
And, granted, we were in car number 893, the first car of that train, and, yes, we took a picture of the engineer.
However, we did not rush for the railfan seat, nor did we stand in the aisle and look out the front window. Not like these guys. These guys are geeks.
The new station is pretty good looking. Instead of the underground mall that used to be there, it's all open and airy. (Bonus points if you can find me in the picture.)
The new turnstiles take Metrocards! And they're wide enough for us Giant Ass NJ broads to get through without turning sideways. Hallefuckinglujah. (Maybe one bonus point for finding me in this one.)
Here's something you rarely see, shiny clean tracks with no garbage or urine or critters:
You can kind of see outside to the construction zone where the buildings used to be from the station. It's going to be awfully cold come wintertime, what with the whole lack of walls thing, but they say it's temporary.
From the outside, it's completely disorienting. The big entrance/exit here is kind of where the exit used to be that went up through the bookstore on the northeast corner. The exit we always used to go through would be around the corner, a little way down the street that faces the big beige building.
The place where the cranes and shit are used to be a RILLY TALL BUILDING. Like it would have taken up pretty much the whole frame of this photo. It's still extremely strange and surreal to have that empty space there. It's not a punch in the stomach like it used to be, but it'll never stop being really fucking weird, I don't think.
Granted, we were on the first PATH train to go from Hoboken to the newly-reopened World Trade Center PATH station.
And, granted, we were in car number 893, the first car of that train, and, yes, we took a picture of the engineer.
However, we did not rush for the railfan seat, nor did we stand in the aisle and look out the front window. Not like these guys. These guys are geeks.
The new station is pretty good looking. Instead of the underground mall that used to be there, it's all open and airy. (Bonus points if you can find me in the picture.)
The new turnstiles take Metrocards! And they're wide enough for us Giant Ass NJ broads to get through without turning sideways. Hallefuckinglujah. (Maybe one bonus point for finding me in this one.)
Here's something you rarely see, shiny clean tracks with no garbage or urine or critters:
You can kind of see outside to the construction zone where the buildings used to be from the station. It's going to be awfully cold come wintertime, what with the whole lack of walls thing, but they say it's temporary.
From the outside, it's completely disorienting. The big entrance/exit here is kind of where the exit used to be that went up through the bookstore on the northeast corner. The exit we always used to go through would be around the corner, a little way down the street that faces the big beige building.
The place where the cranes and shit are used to be a RILLY TALL BUILDING. Like it would have taken up pretty much the whole frame of this photo. It's still extremely strange and surreal to have that empty space there. It's not a punch in the stomach like it used to be, but it'll never stop being really fucking weird, I don't think.
There were a handful of protestors there, family members of people who died in the towers. They don't want the PATH trains to go under the footprint of the two buildings like they do; they want the whole area to be considered sacred ground and not built upon. I disagree. Seems to me the nutters who flew airplanes into those buildings wanted nothing more than to flatten them and for nothing ever to grow on that land again. And they got pretty close, even to the point of the towers getting edited out of all kinds of movies and TV shows as though they'd never existed. Fuck that. I think to not use the PATH tunnels, the same ones that were there and survived the attacks, would be another surrender. No, thanks.
6:24 PM
