Thousands of workers, passing through military checkpoints, returned to their jobs in Lower Manhattan to find a changed city after the longest interruption of market trading in the world's financial capital since 1933.
Workers said they were eager to get back and show the terrorists responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center that the economy of the US is able to rebound from the disaster that occurred last Tuesday.
"It's heartbreaking to see all of this, but its good to see the unity they were talking about on TV," said Jared Saperstein a 27-year-old bond salesman for Salomon Smith Barney who witnessed the collapse of the towers after they were hit by two hijacked airliners. "It's your neighborhood. You have to come back."
PHOTO: REUTERS
US Army and National Guard troops carrying rifles manned checkpoints at key intersections in the financial district, issuing one-day passes to workers and residents. They searched all bags and packages.
Aid for the survivors
Many people complained of acrid gray smoke in the area. Tests on the air around the disaster showed "no problems," said Theodore Monette, the Federal Emergency Management Agency official coordinating the activity of 3,000 federal relief workers in the city.
The agency sent US$25 million to the state government to help with funeral expenses, unemployment payments for people out of work as a result of the collapse, counseling for survivors and victims' families and low-interest loans for residents whose homes were damaged.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani helped ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30am, accompanied by New York Governor George Pataki, New York's US Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer and members of the city's fire and police departments, which lost an estimated 350 members in the trade center.
"Anyone who bets against America is simply wrong," said New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso.
Anti-terrorism bills
In Albany, Governor George Pataki called lawmakers back to the State Capitol for a special session to consider several anti-terrorism bills, which closely resembled a package Pataki had proposed in June.
Leaders of both houses said they expected the measures to pass before the end of the day.
One of the bills would allow prosecutors to obtain "roving wiretaps" to listen in on phone calls by terrorists who frequently shift their location or use disposable cell phones.
Another bill would make it a crime for anyone to harbor or conceal terrorists and would impose the death penalty for any "terrorist" acts that take even a single life.
Giuliani also opened City Hall, striding up the steps of the center of New York's government about 6:40am, giving the thumbs-up to onlookers and embracing a janitor who helped clean up the building. City Hall is about three blocks from the disaster site.
More than 2,000 people worked through the night to restore power and phone service to the shattered tip of Manhattan.
Rescuers burrowed 24m into the smoldering rubble of the trade center for survivors, finding only victims' remains.
The official death toll rose to 190, with 4,957 people missing, Giuliani said at a news conference. Five survivors have been pulled from the ruins -- none since the day after the worst terrorist attack in US history.
US authorities have flown four people to New York City for questioning about the attacks, including a man arrested in Minnesota in August after he tried to get training on a flight simulator for large jetliners, the New York Times said, citing officials.
At 7:30am, Martin Calkadilla, a 34-year-old clerk at the Mercantile Exchange, stood with 150 other workers at Chambers and West streets as soldiers in camouflage dress checked driver's licenses and employee identification cards.
Smoking hole in the skyline
"It's a little intimidating to see these Army guys out here," he said. "I can't believe they're starting this soon, look at this."
Christine Cramer, who works for Verizon Communications Inc near the trade center, was one of about 200 people to take a special ferry from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to the Whitehall ferry terminal at the tip of Manhattan. As the boat pulled into the slip, all the passengers ran to the bow to view the smoking hole in the skyline where the 110-story trade center towers stood.
Traffic on many major roadways and river crossings, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the FDR Drive in Manhattan and the Lincoln Tunnel was bumper-to-bumper as commuters looked for alternative ways get to work with the Brooklyn-Battery and Holland tunnels, the Brooklyn Bridge and many streets still closed.
At 8am, service on the 2 and 3 trains (east-side trains) was suspended after authorities received a bomb threat and was restored a short time later.
If Lower Manhattan was dominated by gray ash and smoke through last week, there was lots of red, white and blue this morning -- on neckties, flags pinned to lapels and buttons.
"I'm getting pretty pumped to be back," said stock trader Sean O'Brien. "It's a patriotic thing." "The city is just doing what it has to do," said Diane Amrino, 24, an accountant for Cushman & Wakefield. "It's not going to be normal for a long time. How could you think this was normal when you see all these Army people on the streets? I feel safe, but it's very sad."
The streets around the stock exchange hummed with the sound of portable electric generators yesterday as workers dug ditches for temporary phone and electric lines, vacuumed debris from the streets and scrubbed the sides of buildings with high-pressure water hoses.
At 3:30am, 1,900 workers with Consolidated Edison restored power to several thousand customers in the Wall Street area, said Chris Ohlert, a spokesman for the utility. About 7,000 commercial and residential customers remain without power, he said.
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