Text and photographs by Stephen Harmon
There were many people who thought they were too big or architecturally uninteresting, even ugly, but I was a big fan of the Twin Towers. I thought they were important to the look of New York City and I tried to show their place in the city by photographing them whenever I had the opportunity. Here are some I hope you like and remember too.
Steve
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Thank you for sharing these lovely photos. I miss the Towers and wish that they had been reconstructed. We gave the terrorists a small victory by not rebuilding them.
Re: “We gave the terrorists a small victory by not rebuilding them.”
BUT, after years of in-fighting, though they were not rebuilt they were replaced by the much more architecturally-pleasing One World Trade Center.
On this 21st anniversary let us bow our heads, offer a prayer for the souls lost, and swear that such a disaster will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!
Great photos Steve! Thanks for sharing.
I miss the Twin Towers. I have fond memories of being treated to a visit to the unfinished observation floor before it was opened to the public by a friend’s father who worked for the Port Authority. My friends and I walked around wearing yellow construction hard hats taking in the views on a beautiful clear day.
Thank you very much for these photos, Steve: it was healing and lovely to see them today.
They are all terrific, though the black and white photo is outstanding. You should offer them for sale
I watched the Twin Towers being built from my office in One Liberty Plaza, ruing the fact that they were blocking my view of the rive. But once they were finished I celebrated the fact that they had an iconic look that made my work neighborhood special. The wind tunnel they created between the buildings was another matter–it actually blew loose bills (money!) out of my coat pocket one day as I departed OLP. I do miss them, and appreciate these pictures.
Thank you for the lovely photos of the towers, which I visited many times for work taking international scholarship winners on tours of NYC. They always requested that I take them to the top of the WTC. I also felt that, together, the buildings gave a powerful presence and representation of the city, which you can see from the numerous photos that so many photographers took. Their replacement really doesn’t inspire in the same way.
Thank you. Like you, I didn’t see much art in them at the time, but now the evoke love and grief whenever I see them. What a horrible day.
Thank you for sharing – know that you speak for many of us.
I used to go to the WTC once a year to host a charity baking event. Whenever I’d get out of the WTC train station, I’d look up and marvel at how magnificent and seemingly impenetrable those towers were. It made me proud and happy just to look up at them. Thank you for posting all those wonderful photos.
Loved going to Windows On the World during special family events. I too have several amazing photographs from that location. I had High School buddies that were painters there during the overnight as summer jobs and we would have the run of the place. I got to know all the ins and outs of both towers. Crazy memories. Know my thoughts go out to the Wait Staff at Windows On The World and the horror they experienced as they set up the morning buffet. They were always so kind to us. RIP! Thanks for always remembering!
I was at the Twin Towers once, at Windows on the World, celebrating my brother’s high school graduation. Ben Stiller was in his class and he was there with his wonderful parents, Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller, who sent a bottle of wine to our table. I am as horrified now as I was on 9/11/2001 and cannot think of it without endless aching, for all the people who were lost, and for New York, the city I cherish.
Thank you for these photos. They’re terrific.
Thank you for these beautiful photos. One of my favorite places to go was Windows On The World.
I never think of it as people were lost. They were not. They were MURDERED by hate filled terrorists who despise our country and the freedoms we have. And besides remembering those souls that were taken from their families and friends THAT is another thing we should NEVER FORGET.
May God bless them and the First Responders who ran INTO the danger. The 343 firefighters, 37 port authority police officers, 23 police officers, and 8 paramedics who didn’t go home that day.
I agree with Steve. This is the first time that two parallel towers each with their separate base, conceived as one were built in the history of architecture.
Their most significant contribution for me is that they highlighted, made ‘visible’ the significance of the ‘space between’. They have shown us the task for the 21st century: to become much more mindful, attentive and respectful of the space between. In our relationships, between thoughts, between one musical note and the next in music as well as in the melody of our lives, between one action and the next. The list goes on.
Coming across the GW bridge in the weeks and following months I was struck by how the towers absence on the skyline lowered the entire cityscape. As in life, the fall of a revered person brings all of us down. As one aspiring, striving and rising individual raises all of us to new heights.
What we have lost as a visual symbol in the fall of the towers, the space between, we are called to internalize as an inspiration.
I am also thankful for those that did survive. Miracle that at least some did.
The twins were much more interesting than the single one built in their place.
I thought, and still do, that to replace them, the exact same two should have been rebuilt, with one extra floor.
Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos. I loved them in all their boldness. And, they defined our skyline. Now, we look like any city. 🙁 Not a fan of the new building.
I never liked the Twin Towers, but these are beautiful photos!
Thank you for these beautiful photographs, Stephen. Although I never visited “the Twins,” they figured prominently in my relationship with the City. I moved to NY in 1983. Up to that time, I’d spent most of my life in Colorado and Utah. Mountain chains were ubiquitous, and I relied on these ranges as an otherwise compass, or to ascertain what time it was. (I rarely wore a watch.)
When I moved to the NY, I relied on the Twin Towers to find my way home to Brooklyn, if I were south of “the grid.” Later, on my daily drive into the City, I love using their reflection as a predictor of weather.
After the terrorist attacks, Lower Manhattan looked like a bad set of teeth.
I still miss them. So much was lost. Thank you for this post. Never forget.
I had my first office there. It was such a blessing to have had those short years there 1995-2001. I can still remember them like yesterday.