20-Year Memorial: Destruction of the World Trade Center, New York City

Background

Dear Readers, 20 years ago, the unthinkable happened. On September 11, 2001, foreign terrorists commandeered commercial jet airplanes and flew two of them into the World Trade Center Buildings in New York City. The first plane went into the North Tower at 08:46 am. The second plane flew into the South Tower at 09:03 am. Within an hour and 42 minutes, raging fires caused both towers to collapse into a gigantic pile of twisted steel, smoldering debris, concrete, and rubble. Several other buildings in the complex also collapsed. In total, 2,977 victims died and over 25,000 sustained injuries. At least 8,000 first responders have died since then from toxic dust at the site.

The War on Terror

America changed forever. We engaged in a "War on Terror," which had profound consequences on the countries involved, our adversaries, our allies, and us. In some ways, we prevailed. Jihadist organizations have not mounted a successful external terrorist act in the USA since 2001. 

But for 20 years, officials in the US Government lied to the American public about the success or lack of success in the wars. Deceit became entrenched, an unspoken conspiracy to hide the truth. We never learned the real goals of the war, the definitions of success, or the cost. The longer the war lasted, the more its “grotesque subtext” of nativism and racism moved to the foreground of American politics (Spencer Ackerman, 2021. Reign of terror, How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, Viking Press). Thom Hartmann observed, "Bush’s presidency had devastating consequences to America in terms of international credibility, faith in our government domestically, the waste of trillions of dollars in tax cuts, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives in unnecessary wars."

Many of the divisions, hatreds, suspicions, intolerance, and viciousness that we see today in our domestic politics stem from those two decades of warfare. In a long article by The Washington Post by Carlos Lozada titled, "9/11 was a test. The books of the last two decades show how America failed," Lozada points out,

Rather than exemplify the nation’s highest values, the official response to 9/11 unleashed some of its worst qualities: deception, brutality, arrogance, ignorance, delusion, overreach and carelessness. This conclusion is laid bare in the sprawling literature to emerge from 9/11 over the past two decades — the works of investigation, memoir and narrative by journalists and former officials that have charted the path to that day, revealed the heroism and confusion of the early response, chronicled the battles in and about Afghanistan and Iraq, and uncovered the excesses of the war on terror.

America was indeed knocked off balance. As William Galston wrote in American Purpose, the fact that the USA is now "weaker, more divided, and less respected than it was two decades ago" was due to our own choices, not prescience by Osama bin Laden or other jihadist theorists. 

• Now we have renewed domestic right-wing terrorism here at home, although the state's security apparatus may be able to keep it under control (or will it?). 
• We lie to and deceive ourselves, and we have the Covid pandemic running rampant, with anti-vaxxers engaged in a death cult. 
• The 9/11 terrorists did not manage to fly a plane into the Capitol, but American traitors attacked it on January 6, 2021. 
• We invaded Iraq to dispose an autocrat, but several contenders here in USA are trying to impose autocracy on the USA. 
• We tried to teach Iraqis and Afghans to hold free and fair elections, but in many US states, Republicans have undermined voting access for minority citizens, gerrymandered voting districts, and corrupted the vote certification mechanisms.
• The forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan soured the world's opinion of democracies as agents of development and good. 
• The endless wars led to today's revisionism and inward-thinking.

Civil war has come to the USA, and we did it to ourselves. 

How will history books a century from now describe the war and its consequences? Who will write these history books? What mythology will those writers try to relate to their readers? 

Will schools honestly relate the story, or will they be muzzled as per the racist restrictions on "critical race theory" and the banning of books?

Some Photographs

World Trade Center, May 30, 1997 

This is the view of the WTC from the rooftop of 270 Broadway. I attended a meeting in that building on the top floor, and the view was too good to resist. This is a vertical panorama using an Olympus Zuiko 35mm ƒ/2.8 shift lens, with one frame shifted fully down and the second frame shifted up. I joined the frame with Photoshop's >Automate>Photomerge function. It is amazingly effective. Click to see the panorama at 3000 pixels

South Manhattan panorama from 270 Broadway, May 30, 1997

This is a horizontal panorama from the roof of 270 Broadway. My lens was not wide enough to include the top of the World Trade Center towers. Click to see 5000 pixels wide.

West panorama from 138 Lafayette Street, New York, Dec. 9, 1994

I took this panorama from the rooftop of the old Holiday Inn at 138 Lafayette Street. Back in the mid-1990s, this was one of the few hotels in lower Manhattan. Now there are dozens of trendy hotels. The Holiday Inn was a bit grungy, but it was convenient to the Federal Center, where I had business. The smog is over New Jersey.

New York view south from roof of 138 Lafayette Street (Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/3.5 Elmar lens, Kodak Tri-X film)

This is another view south from the roof of the Holiday Inn at 138 Lafayette Street. The tall building in left center is the Jacob Javits Federal Center. Click to see the photograph expanded.

Manhattan view north from the South Tower of the World Trade Center, April 29, 2001. Panorama consists of four frames from a Rolleiflex 3.5F camera with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. The north tower is on the left of the scene. Click the photograph to see the full-size image.

Notes from the 10-Year Anniversary

I wrote about the World trade Centers on the 10-year anniversary. Please refer to these earlier articles:

The early years before 2011:

https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2011/08/before-and-after-new-york-and-world.html

The later years and destruction:

 https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-york-and-world-trade-center-later.html

Thank you for reading. I hope I can write an article in 2031 at the 30-year anniversary. Will we still be the USA then?

Mid-state Mississippi Road Trip Part 3: Hazelhurst, Crystal Springs, Pattison

Dear Readers, this is the third installment of our mid-state Mississippi road trip. This time, we are approaching Interstate 55 from the east. I-55 approximately follows the much older US 51.

Beauregard

Shack or former store, Beauregard Rd., Beauregard (Kodak BW400CN film, Leica IIIC camera, Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens)

Victorian cottage, Elmore Street, Beauregard (note the white circle, a pinhole in the rubberized Leica IIIC shutter curtain)

Beauregard is a small town of only 326 in Copiah County. It is on old US 51, and likely had much more commercial traffic in the era before I-55 was built. I looked around the historic Beauregard Cemetery but did not take any pictures there. This cottage on Elmore Street must have been quite handsome in its day, as were a number of other older homes in the vicinity. 

Hazelhurst

Hwy 51, south end of Hazelhurst (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, yellow filter, ¼ sec ƒ/8.0½)

207 Caldwell Drive, Hazelhurst (digital file)

Hazelhurst is the seat of Copiah Country and was first settled in 1819. The city is just off I-55 about 35 miles south of Jackson. I had never driven through town, just buzzed by on I-55. I assumed that it would be reasonably prosperous because of its proximity to the interstate, but what I saw on old Highway US 51 was pretty rough. The house in the photograph above was empty but clearly had been a nice home in the early-mid-20th century. The car title loan company occupying an old Pan American Petroleum & Transport Company station says a lot about the financial conditions in the town.

Pine Bluff Lodge 428, 11155 Dentville Rd., Hazelhurst (BW400CN film, Leica M2, 50mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-DR lens)

Templeton Grocery, 1011 Jack Rd., Hazelhurst (BW400CN film, Leica M2)

Templeton Grocery, 1010 Jack Rd., Hazelhurst (expired Kodak Ektar 25 film, Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm Xenotar lens) 

Some of the side roads in the area are pretty out-of-the-way. Dentville Road runs west-northwest out of Hazelhurst. About 13 miles west of Hazelhurst, an old grocery store occupies the junction with Jack Road. The store was closed but boarded up and not abandoned. I experimented with some expired Kodak Ektar 25 film in my Rolleiflex, but the film was well past its prime.

Crystal Springs

Wilson's Meat House, Crystal Springs (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera)

On my 2019 trip, I was heading home, a bit disappointed with the day's photographic opportunities. But wait, a big cow on Hwy 51 just south of Crystal Springs. Just waiting for a portrait. It was too good to resist. I love scenes like this. I should do a cross-country expedition looking for cows, chickens, catfish, and what-not - folk art at its best.

Pattison

Store, MS 547 near White Hall Rd., Pattison (Kodak TMax 100 film, Olympus Trip 35 camera)

Store, MS 547 near White Hall Rd., Pattison (Kodak TMax 100 film, Olympus Trip 35 camera)

House on Lopiah Rd., Pattison (Kodak TMax 100 film, Olympus Trip 35 camera) 

In 2017, my wife and I drove home through the center of the state via Hwy 547. We passed through Pattison, a quiet and rather sad little town. It was probably more prosperous 50 years ago.

This ends out mid-state road trip. I have written about other small towns further north, such as Utica, Edwards, Learned, and Bolton.

Most of the photographs above are from film cameras. The house in Hazelhurst and the cow portrait are from Kodak's long-discontinued Panatomic-X film taken with my Texas Leica (the Fuji GW690II camera with 90mm Fujinon lens). Many of the others are from BW400CN film taken with Leica M2 and IIIC cameras with various lenses.

On the Dixie Overland Highway, Historic US 80 - west Mississippi (MS-02)

We will continue on our trip in Mississippi along what is left of the Dixie Overland Highway, now US 80.

The present US 80 crosses the Pearl River south of downtown Jackson and runs north of Interstate 20. West Jackson was a bustling commercial zone in the post-World War II decades. Preservation Mississippi as written about some of the motels and other architecture along this strip. Today, it is a bit (well, very) dingy. The scenery is marred with fast food restaurants, old warehouses, and strip malls that clearly saw better years a long time ago. I recently wrote about the old Metrocenter Mall, which is only partly occupied now (click the link).

Clinton

Kansas City Southern tracks view east, Old US 80 near Clinton, Mississippi (Olympus Trip 35, TMax 100 film)

Post Drive, Old US 80 (Olympus Trip 35, TMax 100 film). The fence has been extended and now obscures all of the yard

US 80 runs through Clinton just north of I-20 (near Mississippi College) and then merges with the interstate.  I assume the old route was absorbed by the interstate. But the frontage road south of I-20 west of the Norrell Road exit may be the old Dixie Highway. It winds through woods and past old houses and farmland.

Bolton

Old Hwy 80 east of Bolton (Olympus Trip 35, TMax 100 film)

East of Bolton, it is hard to tell how much of Old Hwy 80 is the Dixie Overland and how much is modern frontage road.

Main Street, Bolton (Olympus Trip 35, Tmax 100 film)

Mack's Cafe, Old US 80, Bolton (Kodachrome 25, Leica, 50mm lens)

The first "main" town we reach is Bolton. We have explored Bolton before (click the link). There is not much to see there now.

Edwards

Trailer east of Edwards (GAF Versapan film, Leica M2, 50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens)

Former Dodge dealer (no longer extant), Edwards, Mississippi (Yashica Electro 35CC camera, Ilford Delta 100 film)

National Youth Administration gymnasium (formerly for Edwards High School, Edwards, Mississippi

Edwards is the next town on our trip west. Edwards, too, has seen much better and more prosperous days a long time ago. I previously wrote about Edwards in the rain.

Woodman of America hall (no longer extant), Edwards, Mississippi (Kodachrome slide, Leica M3, 90mm ƒ/2.8 Tele-Elmarit lens)

A former coworker tried to preserve this Woodman of America building, but the last time I drove through town, all that was left was a concrete slab. 

Shotgun house, 304 Old Hwy 80, Edwards (Olympus E-330 digital camera) 

Former filling station, US 80, west of Edwards (Fuji X-E1 digital camera)

A few older shotgun houses remain in Edwards.

Old US 80 west of Edwards, Mississippi (Fuji X-E1 digital camera)

Smith Hall, Bonner Campbell Institute, Edwards (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm lens)

Heading west, you pass the grounds of the Bonner Campbell Institute, formerly the Southern Christian Institute. Sadly, most of the historic buildings have been demolished, despite their status on the National Register of Historic Places. I thought the pillared Smith Hall was quite elegant.

Big Black River

Big Black River crossing, Old US 80 (Hasselblad, 50 mm Distagon lens, Fomapan 100 Classic film)

Bridge commemoration (Olympus E-330 digital image)

Proceeding west, old US 80 descends and crosses the Big Black River over the 1929 R.H. Henry Bridge.

US 80 near Bovina, Mississippi (Fuji X-E1 digital camera)

The Dixie continues west bypassing most of the town of Bovina. The road is narrow and would be dangerous to bicycle because of a lack of shoulders and the fact that some people drive much too quickly.

Vicksburg

Former "Colored Motel" east of Vicksburg (Pentax Spotmatic, 24mm SMC Takumar lens)

Lobby of former "Colored Motel" (Pentax Spotmatic, 24mm SMC Takumar lens)

As the Dixie Overland approached Vicksburg, motels welcomed the weary traveler. One pink and now very overgrown motel just east of Mt. Albans Road formerly had a sign, "Colored Motel." I may have a picture of it somewhere but have not found it yet. It has been unused since the 1980s or earlier. Currently, the building is being engulfed by kudzu.

Pinewood Motel, US 80, Vicksburg, closed since the 1980s (4×5" Tri-X negative, Tachihara camera)

The old Pinewood Motor Lodge has also been closed since the 1980s. I suspect these businesses were unable to compete with newer hotels built near Interstate 20, which was constructed through Vicksburg in the early 1970s. As of 2019, all the remnants of the Pinewood have been razed.

We finally reach Vicksburg. Here is an old Chamber of Commerce brochure, courtesy of Preservation Mississippi. US 80 crossed the Mississippi River on the old 80 bridge, now closed to road traffic and pedestrians but still leased by the Kansas City Southern railroad. Today, US 80 and I-20 use a new bridge, built in the 1970s. We will explore US 80 in Louisiana in a future article. I will not cover Vicksburg in this article. Just type "Vicksburg" in the search box and you can find plenty of articles about the city - color, black and white, summer, winter, snow, and even some digital.

Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 22, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second big city in Oklahoma that Route 66 travelers passed through (coming from the west). According to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook, Tulsa was the home of Cyrus Avery, who was instrumental in establishing Route 66. Tulsa was historically a major oil city.

In the 1930s, Meadow Gold Diary erected a large rooftop sign on a low building on Eleventh Street (Route 66).  In 2004, the sign was saved and re-erected on a Route 66 commemorative brick base, now at Quaker Street. Nice work to save this handsome icon.

The Boston Avenue United Methodist Church is one of the most amazing examples of Art Deco architecture that I have seen outside of New York City. According to their tour web page,

It is considered to be one of the finest examples of ecclesiastical art deco architecture in the United States and has been designated by the Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark. It is also an international United Methodist Historic Site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Like many Art Deco buildings, Boston Avenue United Methodist Church reveled in the use of various different building materials, so metal, glass, terra cotta, Indiana limestone and Minnesota granite can all be found. The exterior is decorated with numerous terra cotta sculptures by the Denver sculptor, Robert Garrison, who had been a student of Adah Robinson's in Oklahoma City. These sculptures include several groups of people at prayer representing Spiritual Life, Religious Education and Worship. In these groups again can be found the motif of two hands together upward in prayer. While the building is in many ways unique, the idea of the large, semi-circular main auditorium has an earlier precursor in another Methodist church, Louis Sullivan's St. Paul's Methodist Church, designed in 1910 and built, somewhat modified, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1914.

The building's straight, vertical lines suggest the church's reaching toward God, and the tower's four shards of glass are placed at angles to the four directions - receivers and reflectors of light. The downward-flowing lines in the terra cotta motif symbolize the outpouring of God's love and are echoed throughout the building. The tower is 255 feet high and fifteen floors. The first fourteen are offices, and the top floor is a small prayer chapel with space above for an electronic carillon.

11th Street (Route 66), Tulsa (Kodak BW400CN film, Olympus Trip 35 camera)

Route 66 signs will direct you through central Tulsa, although with traffic and other distractions, they can be a bit hard to follow. On the day I was in town, the temperature was blazing, but there was a brilliant clear sky. In the northern part of town, Route 66 follows Eleventh Street for several miles. This is now a typical nasty American strip, and there was not much Route 66 architecture. I hope the photograph above conveys the sense of summer heat.

Olympus Trip 35, Kodak BW400CN film, polarizer filter

8929 11th Street, Tulsa. Olympus Trip 35, Kodak BW400CN film, polarizer filter

We saw some old motels and car dealerships, but not as interesting pickings as I expected.

Oasis Motel, 9303 E 11th Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Oasis Motel at 9303 East Eleventh Street has a Route 66 appearance. The sign is, I think, a modern one intended to resemble a classic Googie sign. Googie design elements developed in the 1950s as an offshoot of Streamline Moderne architecture. "This was achieved by using bold style choices, including large pylons with elevated signs, bold neon letters and circular pavilions."

Dear Readers, this ends my 2017 trip along Route 66. Some day, I will drive the section between Tulsa and Chicago. If you want to see my articles covering the Mother Road between Los Angeles and Tulsa, you can type "Route 66" in the search box or use a Google search:  Route 66 site:worldofdecay.blogspot.com .

En route to Tulsa, we passed through McGehee, Arkansas, another small town lost in time.

The four black and white photographs above are from Kodak BW400CN film taken with an Olympus Trip 35 camera, with a polarizing filter to darken the sky. I did not have the right size polarizer, so I simply held a 52mm polarizer over the Olympus' lens.

Fading quickly: Fortification Street, Jackson, Mississippi (B&W film)

Fortification Street is one of the main east-west thoroughfares through downtown Jackson. East Fortification, between the I-55 exit and North State Street, passes through the Belhaven neighborhood, a traditional 1920s and 1930s residential area. The highly respected New State Theater is just a block north. But drive west of North State Street, and the scene gets scummy quickly. Let us take a short short tour of the area, starting just west of North State and proceeding west. Most photographs are from Kodak TMax 100 film taken with a compact Olympus Trip 35 camera.

513 East Fortification Street

Garage at 513 East Fortification Street

The neighborhood was once residential, with handsome 1920s and older cottages. The huge Baptist Hospital complex is just to the north. Its footprint gobbled up many former residential blocks. Now, because of the heavy traffic, living on Fortification would be noisy and unpleasant.

427 East Fortification Street

A sign at the back of the handsome Queen Anne cottage at 427 identifies it as the Galloway-Williams House, 1895. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) fact sheet describes it as:

The Galloway-Williams House is one of Jackson's finest examples of a Queen Anne style cottage with Eastlake-inspired ornament. Both its external and internal character are almost completely intact. It is one of only a very few such structures remaining in an area of Jackson which was once dominated by similar late-nineteenth-century residences. Its site is an especially important one, directly across Fortification Street from the fastidiously restored Gothic Revival Manship House, one of Jackson's most notable historic structures.

930 North Congress Street

A short diversion onto North Congress Street reveals a semi-residential semi-professional neighborhood. This big 2-storey house was unoccupied.

395 East Fortification Street

1009 North West Street

At the corner of West Street and Fortification, we have the typical gas station-convenience store-strip mall. Not too inspiring. I wonder if it replaced a neighborhood grocery store?

998 North Lamar Street

1107 North Lamar Street

Let's walk another block west and turn left onto North Lamar Street. Again we see a residential neighborhood with some occupied houses and many abandoned units. It is sad.

Cohea Street

I did see a number of modest new houses or townhouses on Cohea Street, so some degree of revival underway. Maybe a reader can let me know who is funding this project or what is happening.

Grayson Court, no longer extant

A couple blocks west and we reach what is left of Grayson Court. This was once a double row of shotgun houses. In 2004, they were pretty nasty, although I met a workman there who was painting and repairing. They have all been torn down, and even the lane is hard to see.

Just south of Fortification Street overpass is a complex of steel buildings and sheds. I think these were once a soybean processing facility. It has been closed for many years. At one time, many of the men in the Farish Street district to the south may have worked in the plant.

Canadian National Railway shunting yard, view north from Fortification Street overpass

View northwest to Wood Street from Fortification Street overpass.

Continuing west, Fortification Street rises over the Canadian National Railways rail yard on a 4-lane overpass. There is a good view of the tracks from here. To the west, a broad area of debris and brush was, I assume once industrial. Now it looks like an area to dump bricks, gravel, and brush. And maybe an occasional body?

Salem Street cottages

Just south of the Fortification overpass is a group of cottages along Salem Street. I saw the standard Pit Bull dogs tied up and decided I better not venture into the area alone.

Bell Street

Walking north on Wood Street, the first cross street was Bell. A stream of clear fresh water was flowing in the gutter. In the distance, city workers were repairing the pipes, which had burst in the unusual freeze of early January. The City suffered hundreds of burst pipes, which compounded the problems of aging and ill-maintained pipe infrastructure.

1107 Wood Street

TJ's lounge sits at the corner of Wood and Bell Street. TJ was sitting in a car watching the city workers and the flowing river of fresh drinking water. We chatted. TJ does not allow anyone under 31 or any drugs, hard liquor, smoking, weapons, or firearms in his club. He said many lawyers and professional people came to listen to Blues.

This is the end of this tour. There is plenty more to record in Jackson.