The Firefighter’s Memorial, Riverside Drive

I went to the Fireman’s Memorial on Riverside Drive this morning, which is only a few blocks from our house. We were there two years ago to participate in the spontaneous outpouring of sympathy and support for our devastated fire department. This year, I watched the memorial service with hundreds of firefighters.

What’s different in New York, two years later? For me, I think about what happened less often, but a day doesn’t pass when I don’t think that you used to be able to see the World Trade Center towers from here, or that was the building that Matthew Barnes rescued the twins from, or isn’t that plane flying sort of low? And the city still stubbornly clings to the twin towers as an icon of its identity. It’s featured prominently in thousands of logos: laundromats, fuel oil companies, delis and pizzerias. And, as always, there are the innumerable postcards, all bearing the distinctive pillars.

The Engine 54 & 4 Truck memorial on their firehouse door

– Joseph Pierson