Description
The 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan remembers the people killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001, and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It stands where the Twin Towers stood, in a plaza of oak trees, with a museum underneath.
Two square pools, each about an acre, mark the footprints of the towers. Water falls into them from every side and then disappears into a smaller void in the middle, out of sight. The sound of it covers the noise of the city.
Around the edges, on 152 bronze panels, are the names of 2,983 people: the 2,977 killed on September 11 and the six killed in 1993. They are not in alphabetical order. An algorithm placed them by "meaningful adjacencies": colleagues together, passengers of the same flight, first responders with their units.
About 1,200 requests from families, who wanted their loved ones next to a friend, were added to that logic. In the plaza, look for the Survivor Tree, a Callery pear pulled from the rubble with a single living branch, nursed back to health and replanted here in 2010.
Below the plaza, about 70 feet underground, the museum opened in 2014. It holds the Last Column, the last piece of steel to leave Ground Zero, a fire engine crushed in the collapse, and voices recorded on that day.
The slurry wall, the concrete wall that held back the Hudson River on September 11, still stands inside. Outside, the Memorial Glade honors the rescue and recovery workers who later fell ill or died.
The design, Reflecting Absence by Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker, was chosen in 2004 from 5,201 entries from 63 countries. More than 400 swamp white oaks, planted in rows, clusters and groves, make the plaza feel like a quiet park in the middle of the city.
The memorial opened on September 12, 2011, the day after the tenth anniversary, and the museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014.
Don't miss
• The two reflecting pools.
• The Survivor Tree.
• The museum's Last Column.
• The slurry wall.
• The Memorial Glade.
Did you know?
• The names of ten women who died on 9/11 are followed by the words "and her unborn child."
• The Sphere, a bronze sculpture that stood on the plaza of the old World Trade Center, survived the attacks damaged and now stands in Liberty Park, next door.
Two square pools, each about an acre, mark the footprints of the towers. Water falls into them from every side and then disappears into a smaller void in the middle, out of sight. The sound of it covers the noise of the city.
Around the edges, on 152 bronze panels, are the names of 2,983 people: the 2,977 killed on September 11 and the six killed in 1993. They are not in alphabetical order. An algorithm placed them by "meaningful adjacencies": colleagues together, passengers of the same flight, first responders with their units.
About 1,200 requests from families, who wanted their loved ones next to a friend, were added to that logic. In the plaza, look for the Survivor Tree, a Callery pear pulled from the rubble with a single living branch, nursed back to health and replanted here in 2010.
Below the plaza, about 70 feet underground, the museum opened in 2014. It holds the Last Column, the last piece of steel to leave Ground Zero, a fire engine crushed in the collapse, and voices recorded on that day.
The slurry wall, the concrete wall that held back the Hudson River on September 11, still stands inside. Outside, the Memorial Glade honors the rescue and recovery workers who later fell ill or died.
The design, Reflecting Absence by Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker, was chosen in 2004 from 5,201 entries from 63 countries. More than 400 swamp white oaks, planted in rows, clusters and groves, make the plaza feel like a quiet park in the middle of the city.
The memorial opened on September 12, 2011, the day after the tenth anniversary, and the museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014.
Don't miss
• The two reflecting pools.
• The Survivor Tree.
• The museum's Last Column.
• The slurry wall.
• The Memorial Glade.
Did you know?
• The names of ten women who died on 9/11 are followed by the words "and her unborn child."
• The Sphere, a bronze sculpture that stood on the plaza of the old World Trade Center, survived the attacks damaged and now stands in Liberty Park, next door.