The first attack on the World Trade Center:
Had 9/11 not happened, 2/26 would have been the worst day of terrorism in New York’s modern history.
And the 15th anniversary might have compelled the city to slow down a moment, to reflect on how miraculous it was that the World Trade Center survived the 1,500-pound bomb planted at its base, yet how dreadful it was that six people died and hundreds more were injured.
But that was not how history played out. And so Tuesday did not seem especially memorable almost anywhere but within the somber granite walls of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church on Barclay Street, two blocks from ground zero.
There, more than 120 people gathered for a memorial Mass, as they do every February, to recall their loss and reclaim some hope. Afterward, at exactly 12:18 p.m., family members observed a moment of silence at the trade center site.
This year, the pews at St. Peter’s seemed a bit emptier than usual and the construction clamor outside the old church louder than ever. However, the pain on the communicants’ faces was no less.
It took them another eight years, but, eventually, they succeeded.
