The World Trade Center is in ruins. It consisted of six office buildings (the two towers and four shorter ones), a hotel and many stores, around a large open plaza with a fountain. Forty or fifty thousand people worked there, which is four or five times the population of most small American towns. The WTC filled 16 acres, which is 1/40 of a square mile. If you know Midtown Manhattan, the WTC would have taken up the space roughly from 42nd to 47th Streets and from Fifth Avenue across to Sixth. Around the ruined WTC, another dozen or so buildings are so seriously damaged that they may have to be replaced. The damage in dollars to property--buildings, furniture, inventory, machinery--is many billions of dollars.

Two subway tunnels were damaged enough to stop trains from running in them. Electricity and telephones weren't working for several days in the lower end of Manhattan. But most businesses and offices east of Broadway in lower Manhattan were open again by Monday, September 17.

Despite the appalling damage, New York City still has a spectacular skyline. The Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Citicorp, even the Woolworth Building (very near the WTC) are all standing firm. From across the river or uptown, we can't even see the rubble where the WTC used to be. But lower Manhattan looks flat, to those who know it: it's missing the twin exclamation points that were the fourth-highest buildings in the world. Approaching the city from far out on Long Island or New Jersey, we come up to the top of hills and the towers aren't there to greet us. From Hoboken and Greenpoint and other neighborhoods just across the river, where we used to turn a corner and look down the street to see the Towers, there's emptiness, a plume of smoke, and a great sense of loss. No observation deck where we could identify the buildings uptown by the white outlines on the windows. No Windows on the World restaurant, where we could have a wonderful meal and watch the sun go down and the city's lights come up. No wide open plaza where the wind caused by the towers would whip off our hats and send them sailing away. No bustling underground shopping concourse. No subway entrances so confusing that we could spend 15 frustrating minutes trying to find the right train . . . Perhaps we could do something about those subway entrances when we rebuild.

And we will rebuild. The owner has said it will do so. The best memorial we can give to the men and women who died at the WTC is not a huge empty space that would be a constant reminder of the worst day in New York City's history. The best memorial is to rebuild bigger and better.

Would I work on the 110th floor of the new WTC? Only if there were no offices available on the 120th floor.