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Copyright 2002 Denver Publishing Company
Rocky=20 Mountain News (Denver, CO)
November 23, 2002 Saturday Final = EditionSECTION: ENTERTAINMENT/WEEKEND/SPOTLIGHT; Pg. 1D
LENGTH: 1060 words

HEADLINE:=20 'AMERICAN GROUND': SEPT. 11 WITHOUT SENTIMENT
BYLINE: Patti Thorn, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
BODY:
Among the many startling images in = William=20 Langewiesche's slim new book, American Ground, is that of a = firetruck=20 trapped in the wreckage of the World Trade Center, its cab stuffed to = the gills=20 with new jeans from The Gap.

Given the = truck's location=20 in the rubble, the implication is clear: These firemen had been looting = the=20 Trade Center store, even before the first tower fell.
It's not exactly a happy revelation to those prone to hero = worship. But=20 Langewiesche simply shrugs at such discovery.
"The world is full of much bigger problems than whether guys = making=20 whatever it is they make are stealing little doodads. I just couldn't = get=20 exercised about it."

In fact, while the = rest of the=20 country was busy making icons out of mere men and wringing its hands = over the=20 disaster, Langewiesche was focusing on a problem that could only = be=20 exacerbated by such sentimentality: How would an army of construction = workers=20 and engineers move 200,000 tons of steel - what used to be the World = Trade=20 Center - out of the middle of one of the country's densest cities?
Langewiesche's clear-eyed account of = that process,=20 filled with amazing detail and understated insight, is unlike anything = you've=20 read about Sept. 11.

American Ground: = Unbuilding the=20 World Trade Center initially ran as a three-part series in Atlantic = Monthly. Now=20 compiled in one volume, the story is garnering raves (including talk of = a=20 Pulitzer or a National Book Award) across the country.

I spoke to the author by phone in advance of his recent = book-tour=20 appearance in Denver.

A writer for Atlantic = Monthly,=20 Langewiesche flew to New York days after Sept. 11. He thought he = might=20 write an article for the magazine.

"I went = in to see if=20 it would be something for us, and by it I mean it would have to be = something=20 significant or we would back out," he said. "Just to give you an idea, = as an=20 alternative, I would go to Afghanistan and find my way to the Northern = Alliance=20 - and I was sort of heading in that direction."

He=20 never made it to Afghanistan.

The disaster = site,=20 indeed, spoke of something big. Even in chaos, a unique American spirit = was=20 evolving. Unfettered by stultifying bureaucracies, men who simply showed = up=20 early on and rolled up their sleeves had taken on the task. Those who = proved=20 competent, regardless of rank or resume, quickly took over.
While other countries might have sent in experts or armies, = he said,=20 "it was this brilliant thing of allowing the players to play . . . an=20 encouraging of innovation, creativity and risk-taking that struck me as = a=20 particularly American thing."

Two men who = ended up=20 overseeing the project, Kenneth Holden and Michael Burton, for example, = were=20 from a little-known agency normally in charge of overseeing municipal = contracts,=20 called the Department of Design and Construction. The two had raced to = the site=20 Sept. 11 and began arranging to bring in heavy equipment and engineers.=20 Suddenly, they were in charge.

Langewiesche was=20 given full access to the site (turns out Holden was a fan of his work). = He spent=20 seven "double-time" days a week with the workers for the first four = months,=20 returning periodically to the end.

Langewiesche=20 talks about life on "the pile," a place where workers with an intense = sense of=20 purpose often shrugged aside safety, though the dangers were = significant,=20 including the possibility of disastrous gas leaks or flooding, should a = critical=20 slurry wall crack.

They moved mountains = while looking=20 for the tiniest particles: a shred of clothing, a "certain brownish = color" that=20 might indicate human tissue nearby.

If = there was a=20 common sense of duty, there was also dissension. And Langewiesche = doesn't=20 blink at reporting it.

On one side: = firefighters imbued=20 with a puffed-up sense of importance, due to national rhetoric at the = time. They=20 fussed over co-workers' remains, often stopping work on the pile to = honor their=20 dead with ceremony.

On the other: police = and=20 construction workers, who resented the firemen's more calloused, "bag = 'em and=20 tag 'em" approach with remains of mere civilians.

The=20 tension erupted in a fistfight between police and firefighters one day, = during a=20 protest by firefighters being denied access to the site.
Despite such stresses, Langewiesche notes that for = many workers,=20 this was a peak experience, offering liberation from the drudgery of = their=20 former lives. Far from sinking into depression, workers were = exhilarated.
"One day psychiatrists from Bellevue came = looking for=20 'customers,' " Langewiesche said. "I thought to myself, 'They're = not=20 going to find any.' . . . Now when it was all over, there was a wave of=20 depression. It's like soldiers returning from war. It's not just that = war is=20 hell; war is also other things. That's why veterans are often so = nostalgic."
Langewiesche's series, the longest to = ever run in=20 the magazine, prompted unprecedented response, including readers' = surfing Ebay=20 to find copies of the sold-out issues, he said.

His=20 prose is affecting for its unemotional precision. I, for one, won't soon = forget=20 his eerie description of a dining room in the Banker's Trust building, = damaged=20 in the WTC collapse. He details the table, laden with fruit, "an omelet = mostly=20 eaten, a bowl of cereal mostly not," the chairs pushed slightly back, as = if the=20 diners had encouraged one another to maintain decorum even in their = flight. He=20 returns through the winter, studying the scene as if it were a tableau = from=20 Pompeii, as the pastries petrified, the coffee turned to "black = crusts."
Not everyone, however, was taken with=20 Langewiesche's work. Some have been offended by the author's = discussion=20 of the more human side of the firefighters.

So be it,=20 said Langewiesche.

"That image could = only be=20 maintained from a distance, that kind of mythmaking. Come on. Whether it = was a=20 necessary emotional response or not, it couldn't bear much relation to = what was=20 happening on the ground."

Langewiesche knows=20 that better than most. Indeed, after reading American Ground, you'll = realize=20 that what you've read until now is only a bird's-eye view of the = unbuilding=20 process. Closer up, life is harder to glamorize. It's twisted and = layered and=20 messy - just like the pile of steel that was eventually loaded onto a = ship=20 headed for China and India.

Unsentimental = to the end,=20 Langewiesche stood on a pier overlooking Newark Bay and recorded = the=20 lonely sight.

NOTES:
Patti Thorn is=20 books editor at the Rocky Mountain News. thornp@RockyMountain News.com. = (303)=20 892-5419.;
BOOKS

GRAPHIC: Color=20 Photo (2), A worker stands atop a smoldering pile of rubble that was the = World,=20 Trade Center two weeks after the terrorist attack. Langewiesche=20 witnessed, workers that eshewed rank and risk to accomplish the enormous = task at=20 ground, zero. ROBERTO BOREA , ASSOCIATED PRESS, CAPTION: While = mythmaking ran=20 rampant in the wake of Sept. 11, William, Langewiesche cast a = clear eye=20 on the aftermath. ANDREW BRUCKER , SPECIAL TO, THE NEWS
LOAD-DATE: November 26, 2002

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