Remembering the World Trade Center

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There used to be a area right here where there was a series of wide steps.
The steps narrowed into an entrance way between two smaller buildings to the main plaza of the world trade center. There was a wide area between the two towers. In the middle was a large fountain.
A large metal globe sat in the center of a vast marble platform of perhaps 100 feet in diameter. Water would rise in the center and flow outward over the marble in a continuos sheet. The drop off was only three feet at the edge into a shallow border that encircled the whole thing. Beyond this was an encircling walkway and surrounding the walkway marble benches built into the wall which at this point was about four feet below the level of the plaza.

Back around 1980 I was working three jobs, two bar jobs and some taxi driving. I was working weekend nights at a club on the upper east side but my other bar job required me to open up at 7am two blocks from the trade center..
By the time I closed up and came downtown it was usually between 5 and 6am. There are few places in New York that are quiet at any time but the wall street area in the early morning on a Saturday or Sunday is one of those.
I used to sit by that pool and watch the sky get lighter while I was waiting for my 7am shift to start.
The two towers rising up to the darkened sky as it gradually got blue.
Every once in a while a cab would come up Church Street. I could see them if I looked but could not hear them even though the fountain was not on. The silence in the plaza was profound.
It was a very magical time for me and something I will remember and cherish my whole life.


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