90ish days of summer

It’s fairly ridiculous how long it’s taken me to resume posting photos from my weekend in New York City last summer, but hey — at least it’s getting done, right?

I considered just producing a slideshow of all the photos and posting it on my Web site, once I’ve revamped and launched that. I’ll probably do that anyway. But the weekend can’t be summarized by merely a series of photos, so because I want to publish commentary and not simply extended captions, here’s the second of a few more New York City photo blog posts.

After hitting up Central Park on Aug. 7, Jeff and I took the subway to lower Manhattan and the financial district. Having strayed into economics dorkdom for a few months last year, I couldn’t resist not visiting this part of the Big Apple.

The directory inside the World Financial Center.

We also took a peek at Ground Zero.

This photo was taken at the only gap in the construction barriers that allowed any visibility straight into the construction zone.

I had visited Ground Zero the last time I was in New York, in 2004. I don’t remember much, but not much had been done by that point anyway.

Taken with a disposable film camera, from the deck of a lower Manhattan apartment building.

Jeff and I also stopped by the FDNY Memorial Wall, which is basically a bronze relief that memorializes the firefighters who were killed while working to save others on Sept. 11, 2001. It’s a beautiful piece, but probably only a minute had passed before I had to stop looking, walk around the corner and cry a little.

After we made a quick round about the World Financial Center, we visited St. Paul’s Chapel, which is right next to Ground Zero and is Manhattan’s oldest public building in continuous use. For as long as New York City was the nation’s capital, George Washington worshiped at St. Paul’s.

In a more modern context, hundreds of volunteers used St. Paul’s as a place of rest and refuge for the rescue workers after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The chapel — part of Trinity Church — was bustling with tourists when Jeff and I were there. I imagine it’s still used as a place of worship, but small exhibition kiosks relating the post-Sept. 11 rescue/recovery effort were parked around the pews.

Coming up next: A look at lower Manhattan, in black-and-white.

And, as always, you can view a few more photos here.