9/11 Memorial
Karen and I both remember exactly where we were when the first of the twin towers was hit: eating at a small sichuan restaurant in Hong Kong with our friend Ward Platt and his girlfirend who's cell phones started going off during our meal.
We watched the collapse of the towers in Ward's apartment. Those images are forever incised in our memory.
New York's 9/11 Memorial really does justice to the tragedy of that day.
The memorial is within the (new) World Trade Center complex and includes One World Trade Centre and Observatory, the Oculus, the Perelman Peforming Arts Centre, Liberty Park, and the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
The Memorial is a paid entrance and we also rented a digital guide device (narrated by Robert De Niro) with headphones (these are absolutely necessary). The digital guide walks you through the exhibition and includes additional information such as the design of the memorial pools and the One World Trade Centre.
The initial path is through a darkened hall and then down via an escalator which runs down next to the Survivors Staircase. This was the last visible remaining original structure above ground level at the site after the collapse of both towers and enabled 200 people to evacuate.
All through the memorial one comes across saved artifacts, original construction material, blocks of concrete, girders, shards of the building as well as a smashed ambulance and fire truck. Parts of the original construction have been integrated into the memorial itself giving us goosebumps. The twisted and severed metal structures (which should not be able to look like that) visually show the massive forces involved in the collapse of the towers.
[Slurry Wall]
(https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/slurry-wall-behind-engineering-feat-made-wtc-possible) On the left and a steel support column on the right with the names of the lost colleagues of the police and fire stations departments.
The exhibition needs few words. Pictures and things are enough. And one is mesmerized by the stories as one is guided through this path of memory. We thought we would pop in and just take a look. We ended up staying for hours, walking from once scene to the next, seeing again what we had almost forgotten from all those years ago. Seeing and hearing video and television clips, photographs and listening to family, friends and colleagues talk lovingly about the people who lost their lives re-breaks your heart; the youngest was only 2 years old. It was hard not to weep at the senseless loss of life, the destruction and devastation. And the brave people who risked their lives to save lives – the list goes on and on.
Outside the memorial building are the two reflection pools. These are "never filled but never empty" and the top of the surrounding walls are etched with the names of the people who died in the attack.
Far, far too many.
Incredibly, it only took 9 months for all the debris to be removed from the site. Most of which was moved to various sites by truck and then barge. Construction teams worked 24 hours a day.
Coincidently, in New York we walked into the Red Wing Shoes store, which a specialises in tough, workwear shoes and boots. While Gavin was eyeing a pair (lord knows why), I browsed the store and found a framed advert telling the story of one of the construction foremen who had worked at Ground Zero. He was wearing out a pair of boots every four days due to the heat of the ground and the rough debris. He then discovered Red Wing Boots which saved his life during an electrical explosion at Ground Zero. This one story made me think of how enormous a task the clearing of the site would have been. The manpower, equipment and logistics to name a few.
Karen found it difficult to take photographs as it felt to her like a sanctuary, filled with souls of all the people involved. A place everyone should see.
