The feeling of utter and complete sadness at the loss of the twin towers and the people in and around them this morning is unbearable. Thank you for your work and memories.
-- sharon in PA

Subject: A very sad day
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 11:47:35 -0700

I'm so sorry too see those two towers fall and all the lives lost. My heart goes out to all the families who lost love ones. Whom ever is responsible has to brought to justice. The whole world changed as of this day! How can we help!!!!!!!!
-- Mark

Subject: the archive website
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:49:45 -0700

Hi Eric! I just found your website today (freaking out about the collapse of the WTC) and wanted to say thank you. I am amazed by the stories you have worked so hard to collect. As the biographer, you move into a new relationship with your subject today. I'll look forward to reading about your insights.
-- Jennifer, Milwaukee, WI

Subject: I can't think of a subject line
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 22:46:28 +0530

I'm a journalist in Bombay, far away from you, desperately looking for subject material to write on the WTC. I stumbled on your site while looking for it. From everything in it, your feelings for the buildings are so obvious... I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling now. All I can offer is my sympathy,
-- Vikram

Subject: WTC
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 10:57:19 -0800

What a sad day for us all when such a great structure could be brought down so violently and so swiftly by just a few people. I mourn for the city and for the people of New York.
-- RK, Kuparuk, Alaska

Subject: Are you ok?
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 14:22:16 -0500

Hello, In the aftermath of the Sept 11 disaster I visited your webpage. It is heartbreaking to review the history of these incredible structures against the stark reality of today
--a reality that will not sink in for days and weeks to come. I just want to know if you're okay. Were you near the buildings at the time of the disaster?
-- Gay, Minnesota

Subject: Today
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 16:05:28 -0400

Sadly, Eric, you have another book to write. Thank you for the website.
Regards, David

Subject: God Help Us!
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 16:18:23 -0500

Dear sir: You, of all people, must be as sickened and shocked as any of us about today's tragedies. God be with you and all of us as we try to comprehend His plan fo helping us through this.
-- Jentry, San Antonio, TX

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 08:49:28 +0800

I was a wide eyed 17 yr old, full of curiousity, when I saw the World Trade Center for the first time. I woke up this after noon to my phone ringing and my roomate rushing me to turn on the television. I, like many I'm sure, watched in horror as the scene unfolded to me through that screen. Watching, listening, trying to hang on to every word and image that was broadcasted. For hours I listened to every personal account from every eye witness. Then when I had taken in as much as I could, I cried.

At about 7:30pm, after all the initial shock had worn off, I thought about being 17. I remembered little things like shiney floors, glass cases that displayed all sorts of interesting facts pertaining to the the center. I remembered security guards and guides with an answer to every question you had..."When was it built?"..."How tall are they?"..."Where's the bathroom?". I smiled to my self remembering that day, but found myself begining to cry again relizing that those beautiful twin sisters cradled so many workers and visitors throughout the working day.

We as humans will always feel more of a loss for the people that lost their lives today. But in time when most of the pain and shock have diminished we will begin to morn those beautiful dual towers and the many purposes, values, and stories that they possess.
-- A., FL A note for you:
I stumbled across you website today trying to distract myself from the current events. What you do with my account is up to you. I did not lose anyone personal to me in this, but none the less feel a loss. Your site provided me with an outlet so I thank you.

Subject: September 11, 2001
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 18:42:06 -0700

Mr. Darton, Below is an excerpt you can add to your living archive, at your choosing. Although I was not there at the destruction of the World Trade Center, just wanted to give voice to watching the event from across the country. I didn't know anyone who worked there personally... but felt compelled to write anyway. I'm located on the west coast, approximately 2400 miles from the World Trade Center. At 7:05am PST, I was awoken by a phone call from Mom in Maine. She quickly asked if I was flying anywhere today (since my brother and I do most of the traveling in our family) and to turn on the TV, "the World Trade Center has been attacked".

I tuned, to one of endless channels available to me these days, to watch as around 10:15am EST, a second airplane careened into the north tower, an image that will be shown repeatedly for years to come. Throughout the rest of the day, as people survived and media personnel got their footage broadcasted out to the rest of the world watching, I slowly got a look at the destruction that occurred.

One particular piece of footage that is burned in my mind: blue sky, a mushroom cloud, a huge rolling wave of dust coming towards the camera, a heated wind (that even I could feel 2400

miles away), air-born debris, a grey blizzard, and then darkness descends.

I remember a year ago staying at the Marriott - One World Trade Center. Walking around the area, bright colored flags of many nations waving in the air and enjoying a late lunch out near the bay. Had I known that these buildings would NO LONGER exist a year later, I would have committed more of that trip to memory. Instead my last memories of the World Trade Center is now that of a terrorist's demolition of two beautiful towers... forever altering the New York skyline, its community and U.S. history.
-- Jana

Subject: Today...
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 20:48:30 -0700

I would imagine that today's horrific events will make a haunting last entry to your beautiful tribute to an American landmark. They served us but a short while, but they will never be forgotten. Immortalized instead as our nation's most memorable twins. I offer my prayers in hope that some day two great sisters will hold the skyline as they did.
Sincerely and Respectfully,
Mark -- Nashville, TN

Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 20:49:48 -0500

I came to this site out of curiousity about what was in the WTC. I'm a high school teacher in the midwest who has had numerous students visit it on DECA tours. I never have. After the horrendous events of the day, and spending most of the day with students in front of the television and the unfolding tragedy, I had to find out more about this place. I am sorry you have another layer of sorrow, in losing something you loved this much.

Subject: towers
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 22:41:05 -0700

I was especially moved by the quote featured atop your website. Today was not a catastrophe of the beautiful variety. Aside from the myriad of emotions you are probably feeling for innumerable reasons, I am wondering how you're feeling about the loss of the towers themselves. Mian
-- Seattle, WA

...in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
--Anne Frank

Subject: Sympathy of Germans
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:00

:48 +0200 (MEST)

At first I would like my sympathy say peoples as compared with the American. I only can say this the people are concerned too most deeply in Germany. The attacks on the World Trade center in NY and the pentagon in Washington DC are attacks on the economy and the government and on the freedom of all peace-loving people on the world. I would offer my help in at all unit tune. Computer scientist Silvan By deep sympathy Silvan

Subject: WTC...
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 15:18:56 +0200

Dear Mr. Darton, today I found your page with nice and interesting stories about the very nice building I have never seen and which died with so many people yesterday. "The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace ... " - Minoru Yamasaki ...maybe he was wrong.. I think it was a shock for the whole world and it is very very hard for us to go on just like before... Maybe you can also tell the end of the WTC in New York in your website...

Best regards from Germany, in our thoughts we are with all the Americans.
-- Sylvia

Subject: My sympathy
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 12:11:08 +0200

I always took the WTC for granted. For me (1967) it has always been there. NY is the WTC and vice versa. Who could have imagined that one that the WTC would be a synonyme for the tragic loss of thousands in a totally useless attack... I mourn because of the persons killed, and I mourn because of this magnificent building. What a waste.... (beyound words)
-- Rik, The Netherlands

Subject: Fwd: FOR MY FRIENDS
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:15:28 EDT

I am so grateful as the phone and e-mail messages are coming back assuring me of your well-being.

Today I have been watching the days events on the news over and over again. Two things that I feel compelled to share. First, the goodness and human decency of so many coming forward to offer their love and support to others
-- thankfully, this has mobilized so many into loving, positive action. I give my thanks for every act of kindness; it serves to heal all of us - and that will be a very long journey.

Secondly, I am appalled, but not surprised, by the mainstream media's insistence on the demonization of those our government labels as enemies, while it takes no personal responsibility for it's part in the unfolding of this horrific event. I was most struck by the constant re-playing of footage shown to depict Palestinians celebrating thisevent. The footage was edited to show the same van twice, as if it were a procession. There was only one vehicle. It showed the images of children laughing and celebrating and the commentator talking about Palestine celebrating the horrors happening in the U.S. The men in thevan were throwing candy
-- and it seemed to me that what the children were responding to was a shower of candy, not this day's events. If you were to take your eyes off of the van and the men in it, you could see that the bystanders on the street were not responding to this, but looking as if trying to figure out what was going on. This type of manipulative, deceptive reporting is reprehensible and incendiary and not what is needed at this time. What we need is humility and loving action. The events that have been set in motion are so huge, so heinous, that we must turn to the sacred world and the best that lives within each of us. Each person in their own tradition, belief, spiritual path, positive thought - to humble ourselves and pray that Compassionate Wisdom will be the close companion of our leaders. No prayer is too simple, no act of kindness too small. I believe with all my heart and soul, the best we can do is to offer the best of ourselves in prayer and to each other.

Practically speaking we can donate blood; open our homes to gather together and not feel alone; or give a place to stay to someone who needs to get away from proximity of the events; be good listeners; volunteer on crisis intervention teams; organize simple prayer vigils in our homes; write handwritten letters to those who are grieving - it always is a special treasure to receive a handwritten letter. That is a prayer in itself. Each person giving according to their ability. For some it may be simply to meditate or sit still in reflection. We all have something to give and there is something all of us can do. We may be without power, but we are not helpless.-
My love to you all, Magdalena

May we all be consoled; may we find a way of healing.

Subject: Saddness
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:12:45 -0700

I'm sure so many have written about their sadness and anger in light of the tragedy that accrued yesterday, September 11, 2001. I've burned that day into my mind. I made sure yesterday to remember exactly how I felt. How hurt and confused I was when I had learned that the mighty giants had fallen. The so many lives lost.

I'm a born and raised Californian, but my family regularly visited the East Coast, for building projects my father worked on. I will never forget the first time I actually went up to the top of the towers. I honestly don't remember if it was tower one or tower two, but what I do remember is standing in the glass windows and looking straight down to the street below. One Hundred Ten stories up I stood frozen with fear and excitement. To a small child one can only imagine how awe inspiring this was. I've held true to that memory since I was ten years old. I spoke with loved ones expressing how the magnificent skyline of New York will never be the same, without these mighty giants. The empty space that is now, where the towers once stood, is forever a reminder of the evil and hurtful destruction that was so sadly dropped upon the great city of New York this day. The tragedy felt throughout the entire country. A great American Monument lost, and a death toll unfathomable.
-- Rachel

Subject: just read.
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 11:05:59 -0700

Dear Mr. Darton, I just went through your website.....The terrorist attack to the towers just happened yesterday and I have been glued to the television as probably 90% of the world. This is a very sad time for all the world, and reading the accounts on your webpage, made me very sad. I am wondering if any of the people that tell their stories are still alive...... Perhaps without realizing, you wrote this book that will be really an archive for the world....Who knew that evil could touch this country in such a brutal way?

I'm buying your book this week.
-- Michele

Subject: September 11/2001
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 17:50:38 +0000

Today I am ashamed to be a human being.
-- Jean-Claude

Subject: WTC
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 20:52:38 +0000

Mr. Darton: Please do not take your site down or turn it into an obituary. The towers must be rebuilt. I used to live on Duane Street, I am compelled to try to do what I can for this.

I hope to promote this idea on a site I am starting, I will contact you again. Thank you,

-- Robert, Los Angeles

Subject: Beautiful Site!
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 15:15:34 -0700

Eric
-- I know you couldn't read the future, but your site is a wonderful tribute to the World Trade Center. I was searaching for the history of it, and pictures of the New York Skyline before yesterday's tragedy, and came upon your site. It's very touching that you were so taken by the WTC even before you knew of its fate.
-- S. King

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 15:19:24 -0700(PDT)

it hurts to see the city there without them. and i don't know anything but that i'm wishing for the mayor to come on the radio, and swear to build them again, and higher, and better, and occupied by all the things that we do that are most worthy of pride. you wrote a tremendous book. can only wish that you & those around you made it through ok.
-- ozi, brooklyn

Subject: my heart goes out to you
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 00:14:47 +0100

I came across your site while searching in a daze after what has happened. You must feel this more deeply than most
-- I hope you and yours are safe. You clearly have a deep association for the whole ethos of the WTC
-- don't ever lose what you feel
-- for the sake of those who have gone.
-- Terry (UK)

Subject: news of the day
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 16:18:43 -0700

Will be interested to see what you have to say now...the big what if is now our reality to live with. Please update your site soon.
-- Scott

Subject: WTC
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:34:27 -0400

I saw your site. So spooky now, knowing the outcome. What now?
-- Denise

Subject: Please keep your site up.
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 01:24:57 -0400

I pray that you keep this site up as a memorial to the WTC. I wept when I read everything that was the WTC. May God Bless us all.

Subject: Thank you
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 01:40:36 -0700

Eric,
I came upon your site tonight, after being fixated on the news from my television for much of the past two days. I think I was looking online for something about the World Trade Center that existed prior to Tuesday morning. I'm not sure why. Maybe I just wanted to read something that talked about the WTC in the present tense and not the past. Perhaps I needed to know that it once actually stood and was a part of daily life for thousands of people.

Whatever the reason, coming upon your site and reading about your book, was very comforting for me. I was moved by your words and by reading and learning so much about the WTC and the city that I too, grew up in.

My sorrow and grief has been sometimes overwhelming these past two days. I still hope this is a bad dream we'll soon all wake up from.

Thank you, for your vision and hopes and dreams. And for making me think about the importance such physical structures --that are so much more than just that -- have in our lives.
-- Steve, Seattle, WA

Subject: Thinking of you
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 11:16:58 -0700

Mr. Darton, As I sit at my desk here in Glendale, California, I am aware of the significant portion of your life that you gave to documenting the history of the World Trade Center. Thank God that you chose to write that book. It is especially valuable now that the physical structures are gone. I can only imagine how deeply you must be feeling the events of these past few days. My thoughts are with you.
Mason, Glendale, CA

Subject: God bless
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 21:54:02 -0500

I just read your living archives on the WTC. I enjoyed reading it very much. I'm just sorry it was after the fact. All who loved, lived, and worked in the building have been in our thoughts and prayers since Tuesday morning. You are all in our thoughts and prayers, and we pray for many miracles in the day to come. May God have mercy on us all!
-- Amy

Subject: Thank you
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 16:21:13 —0400

Your website offered a unique look into the WTC. In this time of crisis it was a comfort to see pictures of how it was. They were always I sight I took for granted in my daily routines. I hope that you and all your loved ones are with us. God bless us all.
-- Sabrina

Subject: Dear Mr. Darton
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 0:35:44 -0500

Mr. Darton, I had the pleasure of visiting the World Trade Center twice in 1982, and ‘83 when I was in high school. I now live in Alabama I moved here in 1991. Unfortunately both I went it was in zero visibility fog I never got to see the breath taking views from there. I grew up in New Jersey in the shadow of those Towers, and what a beautiful sight they were. Whenever I came home for a visit they were always the first things I looked for when I landed at Newark. It's hard for me to imagine that when come again I won't see them. I'm attending school at Wallace college in Dothan, Alabama I choose to do an informative speech on the World Trade Center to give my classmates an idea of what the news commentators are talking about when refferring to things like building no.7, how big it really was. Where it was located, and what made up the complex. I was looking for a web site with maps, and photos of the World Trade Center, and buildings that made up the complex that I could download to show them. Is there anyway you could help me? I tired to look at different web sites, but information on the World Trade Center seems to be taken off. Thanks, and God Bless you and New York at this time.
Sincerely, Ray

Subject: owners, past and present
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:25:29 -0400

Hello: I am certain you are deluged with information requests right now so I will understand any delay or no response to this email inquiry. Can you please tell me who owned the World Trade Center? I am somewhat certain that the Port Authority of New York owned it at one time or even now. Was there a recent transaction in the ownership of the WTC? Thank you in advance of your response.
-- Carl

Subject: forerunning
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 15:00:24 —0400

Dear Eric, When I first heard the news I was meeting in a conference room in another corporate tower. I think that after assessing its credibility, just about my first thought was whether or not you knew about it.

Retrograde or stationary forces now are in motion. Your work was ahead of its time. It's difficult to imagine a more complex set of feelings. But I anticipate your eloquent stewardship of this icon's significance.
Love to all,
Linda xxx

Subject: if you need help
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:31:51 -0700

I don't know if you are going to post the email you must be receiving in the wake of the attacks. Your site comes up quickly in a yahoo search for 'world trade center new york'. If you need assistance, you might want to contact Method, a graphic design firm in NY and San Francisco. Their website is www.method.com and David Lipkin their COO can be reached at David@method.com. Hoping you and yours are safe, Elizabeth

Subject: 9-11-2001
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 16:39:43 EDT

That date will haunt my soul forever. I hear on the radio of a plane crash at the Twin Towers, so I turn on the tv. As I sat in shock as the top third of Tower One, I reasured myself that it was an accident. It's happened before, I said. The Empire State Building had a bomber run smack into it years ago, and it's still standing. But back then it was a overcast day, and the tv shows a clear sky. Then out of that clear sky came another airliner in the picture. It's too damn low, I said. Then shock turned into horror when that plane slamed into Tower Two. My jaw hit the floor. My wife started to cry. This is no accident, I said. This had to be the work of evil men. Then I watch in reverse order, as each tower crumbled. First Tower Two, then Tower One with its large antenna falling straight down into the rubble along with the people who work and visit the buildings. The two magnificent monolithic symbols of New York are gone along with thousands of souls. Is this the 21st Century that we are going to leave to our children? I look at my three sons, and I weep for them.
-- Dwayne

Subject: Just found your site
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 17:31:51 -0400

Just found your site, and I think I saw you on the Today show, although my brain is so addled I hardly know. So so deeply sorry to see what has happend. Hope you and yours are safe.
-- Christina, Matinicus Island Maine

Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 01:35:54 -0400

Subject: Golden ratio of Death?? Dear Mr. Darton: A chagrined congratulations on your imminent New York Times Best-Seller, "Divided We Stand". I intend to purchase your book shortly, if there are any left. It might interest you to note that after doing some websurfing and consulting the special edition of TIME which arrived in my mailbox today, I can present the following facts, to the best of my knowledge: • Wingspan of a Boeing 757: 124.8333 feet (source: boeing.com) • Width of each side of the "Twin Towers": "over 200 feet" (source: TIME) • The Golden Ratio: 1.618 • Now, multiplying a Boeing 757's wingspan by the Golden Ratio we get: 201.98033279 feet. Interesting. I leave it to you to plug in more accurate figures than TIME provided me, and determine to what degree of error the ratio between the two measurements actually depart from the Golden Ratio. Have a nice day, as they used to say (how long ago?)
-- Edward

Subject: September 11, 2001
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 05:41:51 -0300

911
Dear God… The din must be horrible… My needs must pale in … Should I call back another time?
-- Jim

Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 20:55:58 +0100

Subject: RE: WTC catastrophe - a view from England Hello there from England! I just did a search on World Trade Center History and came across your fascinating web site. I wanted to discover when the building was completed
-- friends of mine here in the UK thought it was 1990
-- I was sure I had visited a visitor viewing area (was there one
-- is my menory correct?) back in the mid-80s while on holiday in NY State. I am stunned that nobody has yet added any comments about the terrible destruction of these amazing twin towers
-- we all fear the outcome of what feels like the start of World War Three. I am praying for the wisdom of Solomon to fall upon President Bush, Colin Powell, and their advisors
-- I hope they will take time out to let the enormity of what has occurred sink in
-- and consider well the way forward. Killing more people
-- especially more innocent people in Afghanistan or wherever
-- will only make matters worse: what we need is for the suspects to be yielded up to authority by the Taliban for justice to be done. If this is not the way things go, then we will have lost the moral high ground; we will have committed acts of revenge, when what is needed is a major act of justice being seen to be done. All good wishes to everyone who has lost someone… we have lived for years with IRA terrorism in the British Isles, but we have never suffered so many lives lost in a single event as in this tragedy in New York. Our heartfelt comiserations are with you all. Love and every good wish for honour and justice
-- Jane and Barry, Towcester, England

Subject: unbelievable
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 15:09:14 -0700

Mr. Darton: About 6 months ago while living in the shadows of the WTC I enjoyed your web pages. While I did not follow-up and purchase your book, I will now. I have just re-read your web site and am amazed by the following passage:

"Both master-builders and bombers adhere to singleminded cataclysmic visions
-- either the creation of a bright, corporate future; or a return to the "fundamental" values of the past. Both visions are abstract projections of an ideal world which has nothing to do with the here-and-now. To them, people are insubstantial
-- the plan is what is real. When you think like this, whether you are a futurist or a fundamentalist, it becomes possible
-- even desirable
-- to push aside whomever and whatever gets in your way. You can justify anything without ever falling prey to doubt, or guilt." I hope you and your loved ones have survived this holocaust. I hope you become a popular voice that helps us analyze what has happened here. Thanks for your insights, and I hope you can surmount your likely feelings of loss.
Best wishes, Gary (Saratoga, CA -- we moved a month before the tragedy)

Subject: A NEW MONDAY
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 22:29:7 -0700

We appreciate your great work, Mr. Darton! A NEW MONDAY by Douglas Mahr & Ligia Card Copyright 2001 Today is a new Monday for America. It's the day after millions of Americans fled to the sanctuary of their houses of faith, offering prayers searching for answers. Their tears were seen and their prayers heard, our hearts laid bare as we wrapped ourselves in our flag. It's a new Monday today, for with broken hearts and speechless cries citizens all the world over are waiving flags, finding new faith, gripped in never-felt emotions saying their last good-bye's, searching for Freedom's Soul. As on every next Monday in America, we'll gaze high on skies gasping from pictures that will never fade from our minds: my brother, your sister, my father, your mother, our children becoming part of a monument that lies now at the feet of hero's, carving paths of hopes, something of divine. And now we look hoping to see the scenes playing in reverse, the buildings flying up instead of crashing down, our nation rebuilt after being brought to it's knees. On this New Monday from faraway you hear now, the music of a song, "Nobody can hijack freedom, it's deep within our soul. Nobody can hijack freedom, it lives forever more. Nobody can hijack freedom, it will never be gone. Today, our fists are clenched but we are standing strong. The world is a Cathedral; America, it's golden dome...America, freedom's soul." It's a New Monday today as we begin to rebuild Freedom's Soul, everyone's America. As we rebuild our courage, our faith, our nation from these ashes, we take a breath and sigh, "Why?" As all the weeks come, all the years pass and all the tears cry with answers, know America, Freedom's Soul, will never die.

Subject: "We Will Remember" graphic available
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 05:22:16 —0700

Subject: WTC History Question
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 16:23:00-0400

Hi, Looking at your WTC History website and have always wondered how many city blocks were used to build it, and what came down in order to put it up? Thanks for the info, Victoria

Subject: Rebuilding in NY
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 21:31:31 -0400

As to what should be done to rebuild... How about a building like the one on the One Dollar bill. With the real estate available, how tall could we build it?... The Luxor looks good in Vegas...
-- Mike

Subject: WTC Living Archive
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 19:57:05 -0700

A truly excellent web site, Thank you. I hope it will continue to be updated, to serve as a living "memorial" or something like that. I have not read the book, but it's certainly on my list. Will there be a second edition?
-- brad

Subject: Interest in your work on the WTC
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 3:42:52 -0700

I am an architecture buff, and I ran across your website while surfing for information on last week's terrible disaster at the WTC. I was struck by your comments in "Free Associations" where you point out the similarity between the goals of those who developed the towers and the terrorists who have for years sought to bring them down. What an astute (and sadly prophetic) observation. I haven't read your book, but I intend to do so. I can't help thinking how incredibly ironic it is that, as you so thoughtfully illuminate, the towers were built with the same disregard for the people who inhabit this city as the U.S. has shown to so many who inhabit the planet. Is their destruction some sort of cosmic warning that the city (and possibly the country) is also facing its demise? While this horrible occurrence has shaken me, and I share in the grief of all New Yorkers and Americans, I am trying to look beyond the tragedy, hopefully to find answers, but more importantly, to see if there are lessons to be learned from this. Thank you for your thought-provoking work.
-- Christopher

Subject: Your site
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 09:57:13 -0500

Dear Eric, I want to thank you so much for your site. I was surfing around looking for quotes about the Trade Center and I came upon your wonderful archive. I was about 14 when the buildings were completed and I well remember all the complaints about the sky line being ruined, as well as how bad the '70's were for New York. I am an artist and I am trying to ease my heart by making some work around these awful events. I would like to use some quotes from your site in my pieces. I will quote the authors and of course the source, because I am grateful for your research. Please let me know if this is ok. I am attaching a picture of one of my pieces so you can get an idea of my work. I hope that you are coping, and have not lost anyone.
-- Janet

Subject: Our thoughts and prayers
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 12:25:52 -0500

Dear Eric, Even though we're total strangers I want you to know that millions of people are thinking of all New Yorkers as our neighbors like never before. Our sympathy, thoughts and prayers go out to you. May God give you the strength to carry on hour to hour, one day at a time and to have faith and hope for tomorrow. Minnesota lost some of its own last week as well
-- a pilot, a financial worker, an airline passenger, and certainly many others whose ties we don't yet know. I haven't heard from you since Tuesday. I will check your website again today. Peace,
-- Gay, Minnetonka, MN

Subject: sorry to bug you, but eerie connections in your book
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 00:46:33 -0700

Subject: Hope
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 09:06:56 +0200

Hello, I'm from Paris, France. I'm shocked like everybody. I dream about NY since my 5th birthday. Your towers were like the Eiffel tower here in my hart, and I can't imagine the desaster for your city and the pain of victims and their families and friends. I write this mail because I want that you know my extreme sympathy for you, and your site showing your love about the dead towers, my human feels about your passion. But it's not the only reason: On your site, nothing is explained about the september 11th. However, your site is the best I got on the Web about twins. Are you alive ? I'll be very happy if you may only amswer to this simple question. I know it's stupid, I don't know you, and I never will see you, I think. But I read your work, your stories, and I should prefer known you alive and with good health, with your parents and friends.. Sorry about my indiscretion, and I apologize about my bad english (and I lose my Harraps). Friendly Sacha (Music classic composer) Paris, France

Subject: Windows on the World.
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 00:27:46 -0700

As a human being, my heart is broken by this dispicable act. As a hospitality industry professional, my thoughts and prayers are with the families, and extended families, of my fellow culinarians who were lost with the landmark restaurant, Windows on the World. As a people living in freedom and democracy, it is our manifest destiny to help our fellow man achieve the necessary fundamentals to ensure global prosperity, freedom, and democratic principal. Only when these protocols are evident in other nations can we talk of peace. I fear an ardouous and frightening path awaits us, frought with danger not just for ourselves, but for all the peoples of this planet. We must never give up on the dream that is America. The dream for which so many generations of our peoples blood has been spilled, and for which so many generations of our people sacrificed everything. We have been here before, and ultimately, in our own private and personal way, we will get through this. We are the embodiment of the dream our fathers shared. We are, AMERICA, and we are a people of courageous spirit. Tread well, my beloved America, I am your son, I love you, and I am with you to the bitter end.
-- Jack, Los Angeles, CA.

Subject: Your site is beautiful
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 04:36:59 -0400

My heart goes out to a person who loved these buildings so much as to build a web site dedicated to them. Heartbreaking...
-- Sarah

Subject: heartfelt sadness
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 18:02:48 +1000 From a little place called Firefly Creek in Australia we send you our prayers and heartfelt sadness. We can only pray that you are able to see past all the grief and eventually move on. Please don't let this turn into hate, it has the potential to end the world as we know it.
-- delnfred

Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 10:31:06 -0700

From: "Blackburn, Lavonda K" <lavonda.k.blackburn@lmco.com> Mr. Darton, I presume you will be updating your archive with the most recent stories and images of the tragic events of last week? I am glad to have your archive given such a great loss. Thank you, your writing means more than you probably ever expected it would. God Bless. LaVonda Blackburn "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
-- Nelson Mandela

Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 19:50:25 -0500

Subject: Finding the meaning in the WTC Mr. Darton: I am a writer in Richmond, Virginia, as the masthead here indicates. In the aftermath of the WTC catastrophe, I've found reading the materials on your site to be intriguing, compelling and also, in retrospect, chillng. Your interview in which you state that the WTC is either the tombstone of the Industrial Age and a beacon for the Information Age, or both, was insightful, and as it turns out, perhaps prophetic. I found the site basically by simply exploring what pages were remaining about the towers and how several were apparently yanked by their hosts but popular demand brought them back
--cyber memorials. It would make for a very interesting appendix or chapter to a reprint, which I imagine, at this point, is already in the works. Since I am a Richmonder, I wasn't aware of the WTC's controversial construction, nor how many New Yorkers and architects sneered at them, but as Michael J. Lewis wrote in the Sunday 9/16 New York Times essay, "Like the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
-- the Colussus of Rhodes or the mighty Lighthouse of Alexandria
-- they have reached their apotheosis through destruction." I hope you are well. I watched "David Letterman" last night, Tuesday, a week later, and everybody seemed stricken and nearly sick. Comedians can be some of the most serious, dark people you want to ever meet and here was the proof. The guests, Bryant Gumble (who suggested restoring a 110 story memorial, up for Sept. 2003), and Denis Leary, a friend of firefighters, were dramatically low key and seemed still in shock. Walt Kelly's Pogo said it, and you were right, "We have met the enemy and he is us," especially when we learn that the Taliban was funded by the U.S. to assist in destablizing the Soviet Union. We have this habit, in the U.S of A of bankrolling people and organizations to fight as our proxies
--then they turn on us, and we are shocked, shocked, at their inhumane violence. It's all just awful.
--HEK

Subject: Bravo!
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 16:30:19 -0700

Dear Eric Darton: I just came across your splendid WTC site, and am mightily impressed with its scope and accuracy. This is very much in the Robert Caro tradition. As a skyscraper-loving native New Yorker, resident there for my first 27 years, including an architecture degree at cooper Union, and as a west coast city planner and architecture and urban design critic since then, I've closely followed many of the events you chronicle and interpret. (e.g.: I tried to interest Architecture magazine in an assessment of Nelson Rockefeller's building exploits upon his death, but to no avail -- the editor merely took my idea, and reduced it to a page or two of his large-type musings.) Do you have any plans for vol. 2 of the story? There has been some talk of rebuilding the WTC, some of it originating from one of Yamasaki's old employees, as though this were desirable and sensible. Do you know Michael Sorkin from your Village Voice gig? He was best man at my wedding.

I don't know if you came across this anecdote in your research, but if not, here it is: At the time of the WTC's genesis, someone asked Yamasaki why he didn't just build one 220-story building. He replied that he wanted to maintain a human scale. My source is the L.A. renderer who did the perspectives for the project.
Best regards.
John, Seattle

Subject: EMERGENCY BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:06:24 -0400

EMERGENCY BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Let us rebuild the World Trade Center area. Let us build a memorial to the families and friends we have lost, and create through innovative architecture, planning and design, a symbol of what America is.

Let us remind the world that New York still stands as the first among equals in the pantheon of the greatest cities of the world.

WE ASK YOU to join us and bring your unique skills and resources to this essential dialogue on the future of New York City. We are committed to this project for the long run. We ask you for the same commitment.

-We believe that on September 11 architecture and urban life were under attack just as the human beings they support.
-We believe that architecture and urban planning are positive, life-affirming human activities.
-We believe that a better downtown canØwillØbe rebuilt after the rubble is cleared and our tears begin to dry.
-We have the skills and the energy to help ensure our city's future. We need you and your skills!
-We ask you to join us in creating a group of concerned New Yorkers to begin thinking about the architecture and planning that will return our city to greatness.

The Plan:

PHASE I: EMERGENCY BRAINSTORMING MEETING
Identify people, issues, ideas, resources needed to create a plan to for rebuilding downtown.

We need a meeting place; a large conference room or a small auditorium. Call Bev Willis immediately at 212 725-7200 or email her at bevwillis@architect.org with your suggestions. We will confirm the time and date when we have the place.

PHASE II: TOWN MEETING
Bring together a broad, cross-disciplinary group of New YorkersØarchitects, engineers, landscape architects, planners, bankers, politicians, media, scholars, environmentalists, social and physical scientists, the community and the publicØto draw up a program for rebuilding. The number of town meetings, their dates and locations will be determined after the Emergency Meeting.

WHAT WE NEED RIGHT NOW:
1.Your commitment to take part in the Emergency Brainstorming Meeting.
2. A place to hold that meeting
3. A/V equipment to record that meeting
4. Funds for organizational expenses, emergency temporary staff, and operation expenses, such as transcribing, editing, publishing, and disseminating the results of that meeting.

We sincerely hope you'll join us.

Beverly Willis, FAIA, President and Director
Architecture Research Institute, Inc. a 501(c)3 not-for-profit
Telephone: 212-725-7200
Email: bevwillis@architect.org

Susan S. Szenasy
Editor in Chief, Metropolis Magazine
Telephone: 212-267-9977
Email: sss@metropolismag.com

Mary Gilpatrick
Assistant to the President & CEO
METROPOLIS Magazine
61 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10010
maryg@metropolismag.com
www.metropolismag.com
212.627.9977 x515 [tel]
212.627.9988 [fax]

Subject: yr page
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 22:32:07 -0700

I can't imagine what you must be going thru, yr page is beautiful, I've been reading and reading. I've no right, but I'm so sorry. Thank You, Ben "We have to rebuild them!"

Subject: How to Win the New War ?
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 16:04:23

he terrorists are trying to breakdown the fabric of the US. They want to break down what America stands for. That is why you have to be very careful when you respond make sure you respond in a way that punishes the real perpetrators, that brings justice, not revenge, because otherwise you will be going against your own ideals, and that is what the terrorists want most.

Subject: WTC Archive
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 17:04:26 +0100

Thanks for your World Trade Center archive. Amidst all the media coverage over the last few weeks, I had no idea who owned the WTC, why it was built, how something so enormous springs up. Really enjoyed reading the different sections, if 'enjoy' is the right word to use at present about the WTC. I shall look out for your book. I hope you will update it soon in the light of all that has now happened. It would be a traumatic thing to do, but one I hope you will tackle.
-- "Postcards from Prison" <governor@postcardsfromprison.com>

Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 01:41:47 +0000

There now is a deafening silence on the Horizon...of voices hushed not having been asked; of eyes weeping, sorrow deep, of a loss without measure...
-- Carlos

Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 16:33:51 -0400

I never went to the WTC. Living in NYC, each and every day I saw the towers from Queensboro Plaza, the train station, just before the subway goes into Manhattan. I saw the towers from 14th street, in my way to Strand, the bookstore. I saw the towers from the ferry to Ellis Island, two times, the last eight days before 9/11/01. Now, watching the skyline at the subway, I search for the towers. I search for that New York, the city I endured and loved for two years. And in my mind, Cavafis' "The God Abandons Anthony" keeps repeating itself: Say farewell to her, to Alexandria who is leaving. Above all do not be tricked, never say it was All a dream, and that your hearing was deceived; Do not stop to such vain hopes as these. As one prepared long since, courageously, As becomes one worthy as you were of such a city, Firmly draw near the window, And listen with emotion but not with the complainings and entreaties of cowards, Listen, your last enjoyment, to the sounds, The wonderful instruments of the mystic company, And say farewell, farewell to Alexandria you are losing.
-- from Maria

Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:46:56 -0700

Two things...if the Reuben James is appropriate, please also consider a link to Stan Rogers's "The Mary Ellen Carter" http://stevebriggs.superb.net/stanrogers/songs/mec-sng.html Rise again, rise again
-- though your heart it be broken And life about to end No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend. Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again. Also, somewhere in my collection I have a funny postcard that shows the Twin Towers and the Pyramids alternating as you move the card
-- it's one of those lenticular things. Thanks! Richard

Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 04:12:58 +0000

I have read Divided We Stand...and was stunned by the near-prescient insights linking the 1993 terrorist bombing of the twin towers to the September 11 rampage that ended in their total destruction. Architecture that lacks human dimension seems to have attracted the depersonalizing energies of those for whom symbols like the WTC and Pentagon embody the monolithic forces over which none of us
-- victims or perpetrators of violence
-- feel we have influence. I wonder what your thoughts are these days, Mr. Darton? In some ways, I idealized the engineering ingenuity (and by extension
--the creators) and the stark beauty of the WTC towers. I cannot, even after seven weeks of vacant skyline, emotionally accept the forever aspect of the loss of towers. My feelings are nearly akin to mourning the death of something that once lived
-- not an inanimate structure.
-- Carl