Journeys of the Questress - WTC
The Winter Garden Springs To Life - con't
Home
The Way it Was - 1
The Way it Was - 2
Sept 19 - When Tomorrow Never Comes
Sept 27 - Oral Interpretation
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 1
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 2
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 3
Oct 11 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Oct 28 - Each Day I Search the Rubble
Nov 12 - When Spires Fall
Nov 19 - 911 The Rape of America
Dec 14 - Just A Thought
Dec 18 - A Sense of Place
Feb 2 - Final Pass to the End Zone
March 3 - Sitting on the Edge
March 14- Do You Still Remember
March 20 - Virtual Walk-Through
March 25 - When Will It End - Part 1
March 25 - When Will It End - Part 2
April 1 - Towers of Light
May 14 - View From Above
May 30 - Tunnel At the End of the Light
May 31 - Seventeen Hundred
Aug 9 - From the Margins Erased
Aug 30 - The Train Doesn't Stop There Anymore
Sept 9 - Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Sept 10 - Just An Anniversary
Sept 12 - September Holds Great Promise
Literary Reflections
Rebirth and Resurrection
The Winter Garden Springs To Life
The Winter Garden Springs To Life - con't
Underpass to the Past
Rebuilding Ground Zero
Under Hallowed Ground
Borders
Yahrzeit
What Will Fill the Void?
I Submit a Design
Footprints in the Dust
My Memorial Design Submission
My Memorial Design - Drawings
New Path Train Station
Path Station Tour
May We Never Forget
That Which Surives
War Without End
4th Anniversary
Footprints in the Dust
Void
I Miss 9/11
Time Comes Between Us
A Thousand Cranes
Fear Factor
Love Letters On The Wall
Empty Chairs
Sitting on the Edge of Forever
Walking the Perimeter of Emptiness
A Counting of Days
For Friends Absent But Not Forgotten
Stigmata
The Memory Keeper's Promise
Unbreak My Heart
Standing On The Edge Of Forever
Both Sides Now
A Memory In Time
The Gravity of Loss
The Survivors Rise Up
Flowers Will Bloom
The Fire Within Us
The Sentinel
Stronger Than The Storm
Between the Candle and the Stars
Ghosts
A Journey Through Remembrance
Canticle of Remembrance
Beyond the Crucible of Chaos
Journey Through Remembrance project
What See We Now
Forever In Our Hearts
Keeping the Flame Alive
The Rebuilding of Ground Zero continues
Does Anyone Care Anymore?
Where Is Our Story Teller of Pain
At Memory's Edge
Dust Thou Art and to Dust Thou Shalt Return
7x7x70
Heroes Never Die
The Flame Inside Our Hearts
The Year of the Heroes of 9/11
Déjà Vu
Remembering 9/11 in the year of COVID-19
Coronavirus Decimates Ailing Sept. 11 Responders
Touching From a Distance
That Which Survives 20 years later
2021 - 20 years later
Memories of Terror Return
Putin's Name Covered Over On Teardrop Memorial
The 9/11 Tribute Museum Closes
When Memories Fade Away
St. Nicholas at Ground Z is rebuilt
The Blue Wall of the Unidentified Victims
When Time Calls Your Name
When Art Gets It All Wrong

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The Rebuilding Begins
 
I thought no more about the Winter Garden until when months later I heard plans that maybe it would become a new 'transportation hub' whenever the Path station was rebuilt. One time I was down in the area near Ground Zero I looked over and noticed the sun was glinting off its glass roof. Another defiant sign; an indication that rebuilding had started.
 
Then in the beginning of September I heard it had been reopened and there was a glass wall where you could look out and view the progress of Ground Zero. Now I was intrigued. Did they just patch it up? Did they redo it totally different?
 
In October, I was wandering around the area trying to find the memorial globe. I couldn't locate it and decided to head north towards the harbor. That's when I saw the Winter Garden was open. People were going through the revolving doors…I quickened my pace and went in. What greeted me was indeed miraculous.
A Miraculous Space
 
I stood inside a Winter Garden just as it had been pre 9/11. The palm trees, the glass roof, the marble floor, the large semicircular staircase, the side escalators…I thought I was dreaming. I walked up those stairs seeing the wall of glass panes where once the North Bridge's revolving doors had been. Light was streaming in. I could see all the way down to the Pit. I stood there. It was like being caught between two worlds. A world of a dream and the world of the here and now. I had never thought I'd be able to walk in this space again. I cried with joy.
The restoration of the Winter Garden replicated the past. Except for the closed restaurant's tables and the slightly different color of the marble flooring no one would ever be able to guess that it had been so badly ravaged. Oh, yes, that observation wall is there, the one scar that will forever remain in some form to remind us of what really happened. But a dream it's not. Ah, yes, defiance in a glorious form. You can almost hear the space whisper "Take that you lowly terrorist scum. We will not only survive we will triumph!"
 
Epilogue
 
Last week I returned for a concert. As I sat there listing to the wonderful singing of the Eastern European women's group Kitka, I couldn't help but be distracted. This time not by the beauty of this space but by what had transpired one morning within it. Within these walls are the echoes of the hundreds of people who fled from the terror behind them. Running, running to the safety of the river and the boats awaiting them. Fortunately no lives were lost. And so today, there are new voices to overlay the pain of the past. The music and singing and joy from those experiencing it, will heal this space. I just pray that those who were here on 9/11 return and partake in this magical gathering. More than a space needs to be healed.
c2002 Leona M Seufert

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View south from the second floor glass viewing wall

The banner draped on the building reads: The Human Spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart.

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October of 2002 - facing to the glass viewing wall and where once the North Bridge connected

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October 2002 - View at top of stairs facing to harborside. Set up for concert