NMR: The Towers

Mom and Pop moved to Bayonne, NJ in the summer of 2001 following a 1-year stint in Cranston, RI, a suburb of Providence. Pop just started working in White Plains, NY and Mom was in the process of finding permanent work. We would travel into New York City frequently for job interviews during the month of June. Mom would spend time inside various office buildings while Pop walked around outside and snapped photographs.



One free, hazy day, we decided to visit the World Trade Center with our friend Scott and take the elevator to the top. The views were amazing.










This was an amazingly detailed model near the viewing areas.

On our way home, we were able to take in lower Manhattan one last time from Jersey City.


Around three months later, Mom was working in the city when the towers fell. The ensuing confusion and fear will live long in our memories. And because of Bayonne's proximity to downtown Manhattan, there were tons of road closures in the metro area and we weren't able to return home until much later that night. Of course, our inconvenience was trivial; there were some people who would never return home that night.

The next day, Mom took the light rail from Bayonne to Jersey City to try and assess the situation. She was able to take these distant shots of downtown.



While traveling home to Bayonne the previous Sunday, September 9, the New York City skyline peeked up from under the iron framework of the Newark Bay Bridge and presented itself to us. Mom made a casual comment about how iconic the Twin Towers were and how impossible it would be to imagine the city skyline without them. The complex opened in 1973 and its imposing presence was all we knew. Never could we imagine that our future children would grow up with anything different.