Laura Noonan, New York City
The rushing water of the 9/11 memorial in downtown Manhattan is quiet now. The throngs of people who once surrounded it at all hours of the day and night are absent, driven away by a barrier that went up around the site in March, and by the fear that has kept most visitors out of Manhattan since it became the epicentre of a global pandemic.
A modest number of tourists will be back in the morning, admitted by security guards, face masks all round. When they finish, they might amble to nearby Wall Street, where office workers are slowly refilling the towers that were once heaving, or walk a little further to Manhattan’s southernmost tip where boats are once again taking tourists for close-up views of the Statue of Liberty.