Thousands of traders, brokers, analysts and executives, who make the world's biggest Stock Exchange hum with activity, returned yesterday to Wall Street to do business for the first time since Tuesday, September 11th.
An emotional and sombre procession of commuters, some wearing surgical masks, poured in from the subway stations and the Staten Island ferry, running for the first time since two hijacked airliners ploughed into the towers of the World Trade Centre.
They passed through police checkpoints where they were asked for two forms of identification, and paused to gaze in awe at a devastated landscape, where the very shadows are different now the 110-storey twin towers of the World Trade Centre are gone.
Streets had been cleaned of debris but financial workers and the people who work in the restaurants, bars, newspaper kiosks and concession stores which service the skyscraper canyons around Wall Street, had to cope with cables laid across streets and an acrid smell from the ruins three blocks away.
They looked startled at the National guardsmen in camouflage lounging with semi-automatic rifles on street corners, and lingered to read the home-made posters with the smiling faces of the disappeared who haunt the streets of downtown.
At 9.30 a.m. traders gathered on the New York Stock Exchange floor as chairman Mr Richard Grasso emerged on to the famous balcony with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Treasury Secretary Mr Paul O'Neill, Senator Hillary Clinton and other dignitaries, to pay tribute to the "fabulous men and women who are crawling through the rubble even while we speak.
"These wonderful men and women who put their lives on the line allow us to do what we do," he said, before giving way to a female US Marine major who rendered the patriotic anthem, America to a hushed exchange.
Some traders clutched Stars and Stripes and bit their lips as she sang the words, concluding, "From the mountains to the prairies, God Bless America, my home sweet home".
After a two-minute silence, followed by a huge cheer for the rescue services personnel who were given the honour of ringing the opening bell, the usual pandemonium broke out.
The expected sell-off began, making the Dow Jones the third big casualty of the strike on the Trade Centre.
But the infrastructure of the world's biggest exchange, which normally executes trades worth $43 billion a day, survived the catastrophe more or less intact. Screens were up, phones and Internet worked. Brokers were able to place orders and the system connecting brokers to clearing houses appeared to work.
"It's good to be back in business, we're going to stick our thumb in the eye of the murderers," said Mr O'Neill at the NYSE building where an American flag was draped over the entrance.
At ground zero nearby, rescuers continued to sift through the wreckage of the World Trade Centre, but hope of finding survivors has evaporated.
On Sunday, rescuers reached a train platform 80 feet below the centre's remains but found no survivors.
As the tension drained from the city after its nightmare of last week, City Hall, court houses and other government buildings reopened their doors.
"The life of the city goes on, and I encourage people to go about their lives," said Mayor Giuliani.
The Wall Street subway station remained closed, and only subways on the east side of downtown Manhattan were running. A new ferry service carried passengers across the East River from the borough of Brooklyn. Streets were closed to vehicles and some thoroughfares were barricaded.
Some places downtown had trouble with telephone and electric services and there were telephone problems at police headquarters.
The city telephone giant, Verizon, suffered severe structural damage.
Newspaper vendor Mr Dhiren Shah was able to resume business after losing about $1,000 over the last week. "It's terrible," he said, "We feel like we are missing the landmark of New York."
Mr Dennis Goin, president of Goin & Co, brokerage firm, planned to sleep at his office near the Stock Exchange. He was prepared for a difficult day.
"You might be calling to people who you might call once a month, and when you place that call, you might be told that Joe isn't here anymore," he said.