While I mostly agree with the beginning of your answer, (i.e. JFK, Viet Nam eras), maybe because I am in close physical proximity to the 9/11 NYC attacks that day, and for awhile bunch of days/months going forward… including memorials for people, in towns that I lived in that died in the attacks, or at jobs in the city, that when I was commuting more than a few of these people were on the trains that ran from the northern part of Jersey and into Hoboken, and then eventually into the World Trade Center* (* For transparency sake, the train I took was from North Jersey into Hoboken; I then switched to the PATH train that went to 23rd St., as opposed to the PATH train that went through to the World Trade Center). It therefore did have a pretty huge psychological impact on me. The practical impact - less so…. But both enduring.
22 years later, and I still have a preference for getting into the west side of lower Manhattan by the George Washington Bridge going down the W. Side Highway as opposed to going further on the east side in New Jersey and taking the Lincoln tunnel into Manhattan. And why ?
because I absolutely hate that ride’s Manhattan view once the towers were down and the ground is still smoldering. I went down to Jersey City to deliver some supplies for all the emergency workers who are working down there and crossing over the Hudson every day you bring them bags and bags of shampoo and soaps and toothbrushes and towels, and socks and gloves and eyedrops, anything you can think of. I needed to drop them off and you just look up at that skyline. It would weaken my knees and make me want to pass out in the beginning. Now, of course, everything is rebuilt over there, but I still hate that ride and will prefer to start way uptown in Jersey and take the George Washington to hit Matt Manhattan . I don’t know that I’ll ever change that.