West Side Highway Becomes Point Thank You For 9/11
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Every year, on 9/11, the West Side Highway is transformed into what is, for many, an unexpected cheer zone.
It's known as Point Thank You.
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It offers smiles to all who pass by, providing a bright spot on one of the darkest days in our nation's history.
When the city was still in shock you could hear them day and night.
"There were lines of people up and down the highway," Lenore Mills told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman. She stood at Christopher Street.
"To encourage all New Yorkers as they go by because those days were so difficult," she said.
"And it turned out to actually help," said Tarpley Mott, who didn't leave the spot for weeks, standing there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "That was the astounding thing for us. The traffic can see us. The people recognize us. They use us as a touch sound."
They maintained their prescence straight through until the last beam was rolled out of the World Trade Center in May of 2002.
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"What they did for us and the courage and the valor is just something that cannot be understated," Mott said of the workers at the WTC site.
They come back every year, this group of a couple dozen. They have the same smiles on their faces, same flags in their hands, and they get the same response from New Yorkers passing by.
