New York remembers

On Sunday, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, thousands gathered at Ground Zero to commemorate those who died when the Twin Towers fell. Victims’ relatives read out the names of the 2,977 people killed that day, along with six who died in the first World Trade Center attack of 1993.

A decade on, Ground Zero is still a construction site. The New York City Freedom Tower is the main building of the new World Trade Center complex, but it is not due to be completed until 2013. Only one other tower is currently visible from street level. However, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum opened to the public on Monday. Visitors have also been able to view sections of the exhibits, and to buy 9/11 memorial merchandise, at a preview site near the World Trade Center.

So the tenth anniversary of 9/11 was held at a memorial site surrounded by cranes and hollow structures. It was a striking symbol of the ineptitude and low confidence of the authorities. Ten years of wrangling over the future of Downtown New York and only an opulent homage to the past has been completed. Even the new site, once complete, will pale in comparison to the gravity-defying, brazen, breathtaking Twin Towers.

During the memorial ceremony, the usually bustling Downtown area of New York was enveloped in a solemn quiet. Away from the big screens showing the proceedings, the silence was broken up by parades, Christians handing out flyers and some heated debates between conspiracy theorists and their detractors.

Click here to view some photographs from the day.

Text and photos by Nathalie Rothschild.