Slideshow: A New York Neighborhood Honors 9-11 Victims

I live in the northernmost part of Manhattan, in a neighborhood in Inwood. It's a great neighborhood, tucked around one end of the A train subway line. In the shadow of the Henry Hudson Bridge, Inwood Hill Park rolls up from the Hudson and Harlem rivers. The park is a functioning urban retreat, covered with ball fields, tennis and handball courts, playgrounds, a nature center, boathouse, dog run and ridges covered with old-growth hardwoods.

This past weekend a soccer field was converted into a temporary memorial to those who died five years ago today. The NYC 9/11 Memorial Field was covered with nearly 3,000 flags. The flags, very similar to the Star and Stripes, carried victims’ names. At one end of the field was a row of international flags, representing the countries of origin of those who died. Nearby a sculpture of steel re-created the Twin Towers as they fell. A row of police and emergency service badges were fixed to the base sculpture’s base. A pair of firefighter’s boots stood empty nearby.

I stopped by Friday at dusk on the way to dinner. People fell silent as they approach the ranks and files of flags. Some cried a little. Puffs of a dying breeze from the adjacent salt marsh would stir the flags periodically. It seemed for a moment as if the spirits of those gone on were with us yet.