♪♫ New York, New York ♫

The Big Apple was usually the first glimpse of the new world for the migrants from Europe. People were deciding to leave their home countries and head into the unknown for various reasons: political, religious, financial and possibly others. The USA – a relatively new country on the world map was seen as the promised land for some. A great land of opportunities, wide open spaces, relaxed law (or lack of it in some areas, vide Wild West) and dreams just waiting to be materialized.

Obviously it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows all the way. Many of the immigrants struggled to survive. Many of them, after arriving on the East Coast of the continent, heard rumours of great riches in the west. So they decided to move further. Many things and factors contributed to the current state of place today known as United States of America. New York was the gate to this country and also today it still serves as important spot on the country’s economic and demographic map. And it plays an important role also outside of the country. You can say it is the embodiment of values that make America America.

Probably these were also contributing factors to the city becoming one of the targets of a largest terrorist attack in history. The attack claimed thousands of lives and caused extensive damage in Lower Manhattan. The world-famous Twin Towers were destroyed. It took months to clean up the area and years to build a new World Trade Center.

It is easy to notice that the new World Trade Center cannot be seen on the above photos. At the time of taking the pictures it was pretty much a big hole in the ground that 10 years later was transformed into the tallest building on the continent. As soon as I have photos of the edifice I will share it with you on this website.

The attacks did not break the city’s spirit and it still is a multicultural place and often the first thing the foreigner see when arriving to North America.