Jet Fuel Can't Melt Cynicism

We walk through what is ostensibly the foundation of the new World Trade Center, past craggy rock and concrete pillars. But every stone and pillar, every rivulet of condensation, has been carefully, cynically placed, painted and curated, and is, in fact, made from plaster: fake.

Up top, on the observation deck thousands of feet above the city, we weave between dazed tourists and generic blond wood displays of the types of tchotchkes you'd find in any tourist attraction. They spent millions of dollars to make what could have been any corporate office or mall in America, saved only by the fact that it's in one of the greatest cities in the world, and man, what a view.