When I decided that I should try to visit ground zero while in New York, I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like. At least, that’s what I thought. I expected the same eerie calm that I experienced in high school when I visited Dallas and, in the middle of the night, stood in the exact spot where JFK was shot. The weird tranquility of that moment coupled with the burden of thirty (at the time) years worth of history and conspiracy theories sent shivers down my spine. Instead, ground zero was…well…sorta boring.

On the one hand, it’s really freaky to see a big open area in the middle of New York. In that sense, ground zero is like a giant open wound in a still healing city. But on the other hand, it’s oddly full of signs that life is moving on. They’re actively developing the area, there are very few tributes to those who died tacked onto the surrounding fences, and the only people who were standing around were curious tourists like myself. To be honest, the area seemed like it could have been any other wide open space in the middle of an overcrowded city. I kinda figured there would be a little museum or something there.

The really amazing thing about ground zero is the fact that it’s across the street from a 300-year-old church and graveyard that was completely untouched (physically, that is) by the devastation of 9/11. All around the church are gravestones that have been slowly rotting away for the last 200-plus years. The erosion is so bad in many parts that the grave markers resemble giant bars of soap that have turned into little white slivers from repeated use. Although the words that were etched into these grave markers have long since faded, they stand as a poignant reminder that there are bodies buried here. I can only hope that the eventual tribute that they build across the street will be equally timeless and affecting.