No bombs,
no disturbances, just a lot of people being polite to everyone else in a
well-organised event.
The
starting point was a huge empty building on the edge of the Hudson
River at 15th st. I knew I was getting close to it by
the police presence on every corner. There were hundreds of them out today.
Several every 50m or so along the route, many at the finish, many at the start
( and they were the ones I could see) plus boats, helicopters. We were all
handed out to wear blue and yellow
ribbons to remember the Boston events, which I did, and the lady on the loud
speaker several times said ‘Please, when you cross the finish line, put your
hand on your heart and remember the people of Boston’ which I did not do. It was a lovely walk along the edge of the Hudson on the SW tip of Manhattan .
The finish
was very close to the entrance to the 9/11 memorial. Anyone with a bib could go straight in and
bypass the normal queue. According to a
sign I read, part of the usual entry procedure requires you to produce photo
id. Luckily they waived that today. To
quote from the brochure , the 9/11 memorial consists of “ 2 pools set in the
footprints of the original Twin Towers…32ft waterfalls cascade into the pools,
each then descending into a centre void. The names of the victims are inscribed
in bronze parapets around the pools”
The
organisers wanted everyone to go to the family day organised a few streets
away, but I came home after first finding a café that was open and had a
bathroom. Not that I wanted a bath, but to ask for what I wanted would be
impolite.
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