My Towers, Our Towers

Wall Street Journal ^ | Thursday, September 11, 2003 | PHILIPPE PETIT (WTC Tightrope Walker)

[presidio9]

So do I. And so did they, the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Whenever a cloud interrupted the sunshine that made their silver robes flutter chromatically, the drop in temperature caused the steel skeletons to contract a little; when it passed, they expanded again.

[presidio9]

Mr. Petit, artist in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, walked on a high-wire from one Twin Tower to the other on Aug. 7, 1974.

If there's one thing that usually annoys me, it's a French guy moving to my city, but this one's got the balls of a New Yorker.

[sam_paine]

....and the brains of a pigeon!!!

[Theophilus]

Without firm traditions,
life would be as precarious as a fiddler on the roof!

[eastsider]

Man, that's one heck of a sweet memory. Thanks for posting this.

[LizardQueen]

This a beautiful eulogy for the towers. He understands, like few people do, what it's like to miss not only the people in the towers but the buildings themselves.

LQ

[presidio9]

Thanks for sharing.

[Texas2step]

BTTT

[Question_Assumptions]

The PBS American Experience show on the Towers (I think it runs three hours), despite some Leftist and anti-Bush comments, was pretty good and had a pretty long segment with the author of this piece and his walk between the towers.

I've never really felt comfortable with calling the remains of the Towers "Ground Zero". To me, that spot was and still is "The Trade Center", "The World Trade Center", or "WTC".

[LizardQueen]

I've never really felt comfortable with calling the remains of the Towers "Ground Zero". To me, that spot was and still is "The Trade Center", "The World Trade Center", or "WTC".

I know what you mean. "Ground Zero" seemed to fit, to me, at first when The Pile was still there. But as it was cleaned up the Ground Zero term felt less and less appropriate.

Hopefully when the building starts it will go back to being the Trade Center site again.

LQ

[Dixiekraut]

Saw the show on PBS here in DC/N.Va. on Monday night.Don't recall where I was or what I was doing during the original walk across the wire...but found this portion of the show illuminating.The walk was actually credited with giving human scale and a face to the Towers,which had been plagued with controversy.Nice to see a Frenchman embracing something American too,rather than putting us down.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

I loved his feat of walking between the towers. It was, in a very general sense, a "good hack". He and his friends climbed the towers at night and rigged up the tightrope. There was no security--the towers were still under construction. (1974, I think, my senior year in H.S., freshman year in college). He walked back and forth during morning rush hour. You don't have a picture of it, but I think he also lay down on the wire, in the middle.

He loved the towers then. He still does now. I still think of him as a young man, but he's even older than me.

Very beautiful writing, and a great tribute to the towers.

[presidio9]

You don't have a picture of it, but I think he also lay down on the wire, in the middle.

He did, and no I don't have a picture.

[wizardoz]

When asked today, "Do you have children?" I answer, "Yes, I have a daughter named Gypsy. She is nine and a half years old, and no longer alive."

We Are Seven.

[VOA]

My Towers, Our Towers

Why I will have a long, long, long, long, long time in ever having even a neutral
feeling about Islam/Muslims.

They stole these buildings from this fly-over country boy before I could visit them.
Lousy, murdering, destructive, unable-to-build anything like them b@$t@rd$.

[aculeus]

Thanks for posting!