A World Trade Center Milestone!

I’m overjoyed to report that the inside tunnel FROM the PATH train at World Trade Center TO the World Financial Center has re-opened as of: TODAY!

Tunnel entrance from the PATH Train at World Trade to the World Financial Center

It has been twelve years since the nightmare of 9/11 and this is the first time that “the old way” of getting from one of side of the West Side Highway to the other side without having to go above ground has been replaced.

Exciting Signs of Progress!

And how it’s been replaced is beautiful. The “tunnel” is made of white marble, and winds its way from where folks exit the PATH and arrives at a bank of five steep escalators, that look exactly like the bank of escalators that USED to be there … the ones you’ve seen in movies, if you’ve seen movies about NYC that had “Wall Street” themes from the 70’s and 80’s.

When you arrive at the top of the escalators, low and behold, you’re in the Wintergarden area of the World Financial Center overlooking the harbor and the Hudson River promenade which faces Jersey City on the other side.

I nearly cried when I got to the top of those escalators today. I’d been doing the commute from the World Trade Center to the World Financial Center back in the late 90’s, and seeing the tunnel and escalators restored today was very emotional for me.

Aside from the beautiful way the tunnel has been constructed, the rest is not much to look at because Brookside, the building management company which runs the World Financial Center” is still undergoing extensive renovations.

But gliding down that tunnel today, I saw the glimmers of a bright future ahead.