Must-see
9/11 Memorial
Two waterfalls where the Twin Towers stood, and the names of nearly three thousand victims
The story
Before you is the National September 11 Memorial. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood here. On the eleventh of September 2001, terrorists flew hijacked planes into them, and both towers collapsed. The two pools before you sit in the footprints of the North and South Towers. Each is nearly an acre. These are the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The water drops thirty feet, then another twenty into a dark square void in the center, whose bottom you cannot see. Around the edges, on bronze parapets, are the names of 2,983 people killed in the attacks of 2001 and in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993. The names are not in alphabetical order. People who were together are placed side by side: colleagues, friends, flight crews, first responders of the same unit. Families could ask for a name to be placed next to another. Every morning, before opening, the staff place a white rose at the names of those whose birthday it is. The design, called Reflecting Absence, is by the architect Michael Arad and the landscape architect Peter Walker. The Memorial opened ten years after the attacks, on the eleventh of September 2011. Look for a pear tree on the plaza. In October 2001 it was pulled from the rubble with burned branches and snapped roots. The city Parks Department nursed it back to health, and in 2010 it returned here. It is called the Survivor Tree.
Visiting
180 Greenwich Street. The Memorial is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., free admission. The Museum below the plaza is open Wednesday to Monday and on some Tuesdays, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., last entry 5:30 p.m.; admission is paid, and tickets must be bought in advance on 911memorial.org.
Sources
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum — About the Memorial
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum — The Survivor Tree
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum — Birthday Roses
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum — Visit
This text was written by AI from open sources. An expert will still check it. Found a mistake? Write to us. Support
