Diary of a Fat Chick: New York Adventure

Now, I thought the World Trade Center should just have its own story. Here is technically part 3, but part 2 of Day 2. Yeah, That's confusing.

View From the Bottom of the World Trade Center, I was actually touching it at this time.

The line to get in was surprisingly short, and within about twenty minutes, we had purchased the tickets, waited in line for security, and were getting on the elevator to what we found out was a three-floor experience. First, I have to start with the elevator. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen in person. When you step in, the walls of the elevator show New York City as it was in the 1800’s. Mostly farmland, and not a tall building in site.

As the elevator started to rise, so did the buildings around us. The time quickly went forward until the present day, where the elevator dinged and we were on floor 102. By far this was the highest up in a building I had ever been. We were guided into a room that had a white wall, where they showed videos of the city.

There were people walking down the street, subway cars zooming by, horns honking, people laughing, and water splashing. It was exactly as it really was walking down the streets. Then the announcer told us to see forever, and the white wall lifted into the air, showing a perfect view of the entire city. It literally took my breath away and tears came into my eyes. This was what I had waited for my entire life, and here it finally was, all laid out before me in all of its tall glory. It was at this exact moment that I fell madly and deeply in love with New York City.

See Forever

Too quickly, the wall lowered back down and for a split second, I was sad, thinking that this was all I was going to get. But then I remembered that this was a three-floor experience. We then headed out of that room, down the stairs and onto the 101^st floor. Here they had these special tablet devices that would show you what buildings you were looking at. I walked away, not wanting to see the view of the city through a tablet screen.

We walked down another flight of stairs and onto the 100^th floor where it was a 360 observation view of the city. While the Empire State Building has an observation deck that is outdoors, where you peer through bars, the World Trade Center was different. There was floor to ceiling windows all the way around the building, and you were indoors the entire time.

This has both positive and negatives. It was pretty hot outside as it was nearing the end of July and right in the middle of the summer, so it was nice to stay inside the nice a/c. But on the other hand, it was harder to get a great view and picture when there was glare on the window and your camera would focus in on the person’s reflection just behind you. Either way, it was still worth the $32 price tag to experience it.

The ride down the elevator was no less exciting than the ride up had been. On the walls, the story was a bit different. This time (in the movie) the elevator flew out of the building on the 100^th floor, few around the city as it descended, and then went back into the building on the 1^st floor. Watching this while on a fast moving elevator was pretty exhilarating.

By this time, the sun was getting ready to set, and there was a nice breeze coming in from the ocean as I looked longingly at the Brooklyn Bridge, too tired to even consider walking across as we headed back to the subway, and made our way back to midtown and to our cool hotel room. Needless to say, day two went much smoother than day 1.

Here you can see a bit of the glare

The outside of the World Trade Center. There is a girl touching the building and taking a picture. She may or may not have given me the idea to take the picture above, lol.