NEW YORK CITY — Standing in Union Square last September, Nick Saponara watched as clouds of smoke billowed into the sky, and beads of wax dripped to the ground.

Drop by drop, the wax from the votive candles became so thick, Saponara thought it might never come off.

But now, a year after the attacks, the candles are gone, the wax scraped away and in their place stand boards commemorating the one year anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.

Saponara, a fifth-year architecture student at Syracuse University, returned to the square Wednesday afternoon during his trip home for the anniversary events. And for the first time since he watched images of the crumbling towers on television, Saponara, of Yonkers, felt the reality of the attack.

‘Today’s experience is the closest thing to being tangible for me,’ he said.

Last year, Saponara could not make it to the city, so he watched with the rest of the nation as events unfolded on television. He returned to his home city that weekend to seas of candles, flowers and New Yorkers carrying signs of missing loved ones.

‘For those people that’s all they had to hang on to,’ he said. ‘A few color copies of people they loved.’

But this week, things seemed normal in the city except for a few subtle reminders of last year’s tragedy.

As the sun rose over the Statue of Liberty, about 300 people gathered in Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park for a nondenominational prayer service. As memorial candles flickered in the wind, New York City Fire Department Chaplain Imam Abd’Allah Adesanya led the group in prayer.

‘God’s light comes and unites us all, binds us together,’ he said. ‘And as we look at this remembrance, let us remember that we are together.’

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields greeted the morning as a new beginning.

‘A new day has just dawned,’ she said. ‘Let us rejoice.’

After the ceremony, signs of life started to creep into New York’s financial district as businessmen started reporting for a typical day of work.

But outside of one building on Water Street, maintenance worker Michael Alicea couldn’t quite decide what to do with the American flag.

‘I’m waiting for orders from above,’ Alicea said, of whether he would be putting the flag at half-staff.

Down the street at Starbucks, things were as usual, except for the basket of red, white and blue ribbons on the counter, said employee Eddie Rivera. An American flag hung on the wall next to a picture of an espresso cup.

A year ago, Rivera worked at the Starbucks in Building 4 of the World Trade Center. He did not mind having a job to go back to on this year’s anniversary, he said.

‘It just feels good to be breathing,’ he said.

Just uptown, crowds of people started gathering at Ground Zero for a moment of silence and the reading of the 2,801 trade center victims’ names.

A man with an American flag draped across his shoulders shouted, ‘God bless America forever and ever.’ Vendors sold American flags on street corners, and a group of Hawaiian natives gave leis to survivors and family members.

‘It’s a never-ending cycle,’ said Mona Wood of the brilliant purple circle of orchids. ‘When you give someone a lei, it’s a symbol of never-ending love.’

Across the street from Ground Zero, Saponara stood in the crowd of people watching as family members made their way through the crowd to the site.

‘Today’s the closest you can get to being here that day,’ he said.

In the Museum of the City of New York, Saponara walks down a row of panels with photos of the towers’ remains after the attack.

‘It was so surreal,’ he said. ‘It was like something you would see on TV.’

The pictures include shots of lost shoes, destroyed offices and dilapidated building pieces. As an intern with Beyer Blinder Belle, the firm selected to design the new buildings, Saponara said he has come to appreciate the original structures.

‘It was almost too late,’ he said.

Back in Union Square, Saponara walks over to where New Yorkers are writing message on brightly colored sheets of papers and positioning them on the remaining section of boards.

Like the neatly sectioned message boards, the events of this year’s anniversary are planned and scheduled to a science, unlike the spontaneous acts of remembrance after last year’s attacks.

As a pack of fire trucks passed by the square, Saponara’s eyes followed the noise.

‘You just wonder,’ he said. ‘That’s what it must have sounded like all that day. But then you realize it’s just New York. That’s the way it is.’

Published on September 11, 2002 at 12:00 pm