I have been in Manhattan for the last few weeks and will remain several more. Although very busy with work for my startup company and earning enough to cover my daily Subway sandwich, I have found time for photos and a bit of fun as well.

I was in Manhattan during the 9/11 remembrance, but I only went to Times Square as getting around in the city was a bit painful at times. On the Friday before the anniversary, a full 1 train I took for an afternoon meeting went out of service for no apparent reason. The engineer told us to get off and then left us standing on a platform up in the hundreds of the Upper West. I skipped the next train as there was no one with a large enough shoe horn and vegetable oil to squeeze me on board.

On Saturday, Manhattan had more roadblocks than Belfast City Centre 1989... although there was a considerably more relaxed constabulary and no automatic weapons in sight.

I did not actually see the new building until this Thursday. I decided to get off the subway early and walk down 7th Avenue through Greenwich and the East Village since I was not in a rush for a fixed time meeting. I did not notice it at first... the new building was directly in front of me but it did not register for quite some time because it is not yet the sort of overawing magnitude of the old Twin Towers. Once I did realize though, I could see that although already a large building, it has a long way to go and is going to be a very large upraised middle finger to the Jihadi's.

It has a long way to go but with an eventual height of 1776 feet it is a message to the world writ large in concrete and steel.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

It is just our simple, quaint, un-nuanced American way of saying 'Up yours Osama"; our way of telling the Jihadi's they have failed and that they will always fail. We will track them down no matter where they hide and no matter how long it takes. And we will kill them.

Meanwhile, we will rebuild and go back to our proper business of making money.