Introduction
On September 11
th
, 2001, three airplanes piloted by Islamist terrorists struck the
twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in
Washington, D.C., leading to the collapse of the buildings and the death of thousands
trapped inside the structures. The event, referred to in this paper as simply 9-11,
1
instantly affected and horrified a worldwide public watching the tragedy unfold in real-
time. Almost immediately after the attack, Ground Zero became a tourist destination,
including many early spectators that visited the area without permission.
2
Other early
tourists to Ground Zero gained access through legitimate means and began to report their
experiences to reporters, on web-sites, and other hypermedia sources. Heidi Singer, an
initial visitor to Ground Zero who gained access through a friend in the Red Cross
commented that:
There's no way it couldn't be exciting. I remember standing there, listening to a
utility worker calling his wife or girlfriend, saying almost gleefully 'Hey honey,
guess where they sent me? Guess where I am? It's disturbing, but I understand it.
It's very powerful breaking into the scene like that. It becomes kind of a trophy.
3
Over two years later, Ground Zero remains as fascinating and powerful for
tourists in New York as it did for those voyeurs that gained access to the disaster area in
the initial days following the attack. The city of New York installed a viewing platform
for tourists to gaze upon the destruction present at Ground Zero and a memorial wall.
Tourists walk past vendors selling ‘patriotic’ items such as American flags, NYPD caps
and “I love America” buttons on a daily basis. In less than a year, Ground Zero became a
true tourist attraction within one of the country’s top tourist destination. As architects
and civic groups submit their various plans for rebuilding the towers, nearly all of the
1
The term 9-11 is now clearly a part of the collective vernacular and has clear and well-understood
historical meaning within the United States.
2
This included many early tourists that “tricked” their way onto the site. These early tourists used various
strategies of deceit and trickery to gain access to Ground Zero within days of the attack, including some
that dressed up as recovery workers or wore face-masks to deceive police on site.
3
Quoted From New York Newsday article 9/29/01 “Visits to 'Ground Zero' Elicit Fear, Fascination”
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Convention