Long Lost View

Before you click through for an explanation of this image taken by Getty’s fine photographer Chris Hondros, I can tell you it does involve 9/11 and that is Lower Manhattan.

This powerful photo was taken on Friday through the windows of the crown of the Statue of Liberty. The Administration, by way of the Department of the Interior, has announced that starting July 4th, the statue’s crown will reopened to the public for the first time since 9/11.

The 9/11 tragedy (also activated, in different ways, by the emergency U.S. Air landing in the Hudson, as well as the boneheaded Air Force 1 fly over) has forged a powerful, and powerfully anxious association between the well-being of this city and the integrity of the airliner. In Chris’ image, it’s impossible not to see this otherwise innocent and even romantic scene as also conjuring the darkened inside of an aircraft body pitched at a strangely watery angle.

(image: Chris Hondros/Getty Images. May 8, 2009, New York City)