New York, 25 Years Later

Photographs by Sasha Arutyunova L ike most New Englanders of a certain generation, my parents viewed New York City with distrust.

They associated their neighbor to the south with “The Bronx Is Burning,” Bernhard Goetz, blackouts, bankruptcy, and the famous New York Daily News headline Ford to City: Drop Dead .

The heart of Manhattan was a decadent playground for the wealthy, while outlying neighborhoods were plagued by desperate poverty and violence.

I grew up only 200 miles away, and yet my parents never took me there as a kid.

But if New York felt menacing and foreign to them, in reality, it is the most American of cities.

New York is a symbol of the nation’s money and power, its diversity and freedom.

It is our capital of culture, a proudly loud and bustling melting pot.

And for those who wanted to humble the world’s sole superpower, New York was the perfect place to strike 25 years ago this week.

Two of its signature skyscrapers were toppled, and nearly 3,000 lives were lost.

The response underscored how much New York belongs to America.

Rescue workers from red and blue states raced to help.

Donations poured in from rich California cities and small Montana towns.

American flags were seemingly everywhere.

For the first time in decades, and less than a year after a bitterly contested presidential election, the nation felt unified.