On Friday, thousands came to see the Pope at the 9/11 Memorial. A predominantly Latin-American crowd gathered north of 1 World Trade Center on Vesey Street across from the Goldman Sachs building, and by 10 AM, the scrum was six people deep in anticipation of the Pope's 11:30 visit. I asked a cop where His Holiness was expected to arrive from, and he told me, "Just south through the Battery Park Tunnel," something that couldn't be seen from our vantage point. An otherwise five-minute walk south took about 20 minutes due to police blockades and closed streets.
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On Albany and West streets, a smaller, but still sizable, group awaited the leader of the Catholic Church. The crowds recited psalms and rubbed rosaries. Many carried small flags bearing a picture of the Pope along with the message "I <3 NY," or else wore Pope-adorned T-shirts or buttons proclaiming "Love Is Our Mission" and "I <3 Francis." Some cried as the motorcade began to emerge. Slowly, motorcycles came blaring out of the tunnel, followed by the Pope's Fiat. There he was, the man himself, hanging out the car window smiling and waving at his shrieking fans.
Jackson Krule is a digital photo editor at the New Yorker. Follow him on Instagram.