9 - Trauma and Consumption

Summary

THEY WAIT PATIENTLY, hands jammed in pockets, winter hats pulled low. They've been standing in the cold for nearly an hour, but they don't joke or shove or goof around the way people in lines usually do. They act as if they're in a church. Which, in a way, they are.

They are waiting to see ground zero. They say they need to see it. And to accommodate the mourners, the well-wishers and the just plain curious from around the world, New York officials – after first discouraging visitors and then relenting and building a special viewing platform for them – have begun issuing free, timed tickets to the site of the World Trade Center bombings.

(Washington Post)

The journalist K. C. Summers comments that tickets to the ground zero viewing platform in New York City were available between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Although Summers turned up at 1 p.m. tickets for that day had run out and one was issued for 10 a.m. the next day. When arriving at the viewing platform it was noted that people should be prepared to be in line for at least 45 minutes. Similarly, and writing for the travel section of the New York Times, Joseph Siano reminds his readers that tickets for the viewing gallery were only valid for a half-hour time slot. He went on to warn readers to keep in mind that, since each time slot had 250 tickets, lines were long.