Atocha Train Station, Madrid, Spain 08/2005
On March 11, 2004, bombs tore a commuter train to pieces at the Atocha train station. The multiple blasts occurred as the train pulled up next to platforms crowded with commuters, killing 191 people and wounding about 1800. Security cameras videotaped the carnage. In time, blame was placed on the Basque separatist ETA but questions remain as to whether the ETA was really responsible.
In August, 2005, my wife and I were passing through Madrid on our way north to Burgos. We were taking a train from the Atocha station. About 16 months had passed since the bombing and signs of the physical destruction were gone.
As we stood waiting on a crowded platform, a commuter train, just like the one destroyed, pulled in. For a moment I glimpsed what it must have been like an instant before the attack: the comfortable familiarity of a morning routine without a hint of catastrophe only seconds away.
The photo above is of the station’s central hall with the train platforms accessed through the line of openings along the walls.