National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is a 16-acre complex located in Manhattan, New York City. Opening on September 11, 2011, on the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed almost three thousand American lives, the complex offers visitors information and artifacts relating to that event as well as an earlier 1993 terrorist attack on the site. The complex was built on the former site of the World Trade Center's iconic Twin Towers, and provides visitors with peaceful areas for reflection. It is meant to honor the memory of those who died as well as the spirit of rescue and recovery that marked the aftermath of the attacks.

Background

On September 11, 2001, the terrorist organization al Qaeda orchestrated a coordinated attack on the United States. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners en route to the West Coast of the United States, intending to crash them into heavily populated business and government sites.

In Lower Manhattan, New York City, two hijacked planes from American Airlines and United Airlines crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, causing catastrophic building collapses. Some 2,753 people perished in the event. Another hijacked plane, American Airlines 77, crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington, DC, killing 184 people. The fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed prematurely in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, likely due to an uprising by the hostages, with 40 fatalities.

The terrorist attacks, subsequently known as the 9/11 attacks, claimed at least 2,977 lives. The event stunned the world and launched global anti-terrorist efforts that would dominate the first decades of the twenty-first century, including the War on Terror, ongoing as of January 2021.

Overview

The United States coped with its losses and searched for those who had enabled and planned the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, the sites of the destructive plane crashes, primarily the World Trade Center site known as “Ground Zero,” required years of cleaning, restoration, and recovery and identification of human remains. One of the organizations committed to this work was the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which, in 2003, decided to create a permanent memorial at the site of the World Trade Center devastation.

In April 2003, the organization held a competition for artists and architects to design a suitable memorial. Following review of some 5,201 applicants, organizers selected the proposals of architect team Michael Arad and Peter Walker for inscribed pools with waterfalls titled Reflecting Absence, which would become a centerpiece of the National September 11 Memorial. The pools and other features of the memorial opened to the public on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, on September 11, 2011. Since then, they have become a beloved place to visit and reflect, away from the bustling city.

Reflecting Absence consists of two pools, each nearly an acre in size, built into the former foundation areas of the destroyed World Trade Center towers. Each pool features a thirty-foot-tall waterfall, whose water spills into a basin and then spills again into a deeper pit. The artists envisioned this as a statement about loss, with the water forever moving and disappearing without ever truly refilling the void. Each pool is lined with bronze plaques inscribed with the names of the 2,983 victims of terrorist attacks, including the 2,977 who died on September 11 as well as six others who were killed during a February 26, 1993, terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center. The names are divided between the pools according to their place of death, and in many cases are grouped by personal or professional relationships between the victims.

Other memorials within the 16-acre complex include an assortment of more than four hundred swamp white oak trees. This variety of tree is native to the locations of all three 2001 crash sites and is thus considered a symbol of these places. A single pear tree also stands within the memorial grounds. This tree managed to survive the 9/11 attacks and was nursed back to health and brought to the location of the memorial, where it stands as the Survivor Tree, a living symbol of resilience.

In the southwestern part of the memorial complex is the 9/11 Memorial Glade, an open area with a pathway and six monuments made of stone and recovered steel from the collapsed buildings. This area is meant as a memorial to the people who suffered health problems or even death caused by toxic materials following the attacks. First responders such as police and fire fighters, recovery and relief workers, survivors and residents of the area, and others who risked their lives and health to save victims or rebuild the area are honored here.

Within the World Trade Center memorial complex, situated between the pools, is the 9/11 Memorial Museum. This building is dedicated to collecting and sharing artifacts and stories about the people and places involved in the attacks, both in 2001 and 1993. The building was dedicated on May 15, 2014, by President Barack Obama and 9/11 Memorial Chairman Michael R. Bloomberg and opened to the public six days later. It has since become a major destination of people from around the country and world.

One major task of the 9/11 Museum is to capture and connect with the past. Much of this is done using the actual archaeological remains of the destroyed World Trade Center towers. Among the most striking of these is the Survivors’ Steps, a staircase from the towers that had been used by survivors escaping the devastation. These stairs were rescued from demolition during the clean-up programs and now provide museum visitors with a poignant reminder of the plight of the victims and survivors.

Two of the main features of the 9/11 Museum are Memorial Hall and Foundation Hall. The former features artwork inspired by the tragedy and recovery efforts, including sculptures and engravings made using recovered metals and other materials from the ruins. One of the most prominent areas of this hall displays color photographs of all the people who lost their lives during the attacks.

Foundation Hall is the largest of the museum areas and incorporates original surviving architectural elements of the World Trade Center complex. In the center of Foundation Hall is the final steel column to be removed from the disaster site, which had been covered with writing, carvings, and other expressions left by countless rescue and recovery workers over their months or work.

The 9/11 Museum includes a variety of artifacts and exhibition galleries meant to capture this unique and terrible moment in American history, as well as celebrate the bravery and resilience demonstrated in its wake. Some features have included exhibits about the renewal of the site, the hunt for al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, rescue animals that served at the site, and collections of personal memories and memorials.

Bibliography

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“9/11 Memorial & Museum.” World Trade Center, 2020, www.wtc.com/memorial. Accessed 1 Apr. 2020.

“About the Memorial.” 9/11 Memorial & Museum, 2020, www.911memorial.org/visit/memorial/about-memorial. Accessed 1 Apr. 2020.

Cohen, Patricia. “At Museum on 9/11, Talking Through an Identity Crisis.” New York Times, 2 June 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/arts/design/sept-11-memorial-museums-fraught-task-to-tell-the-truth.html. Accessed 1 Apr. 2020.

Kuang, Cliff. “The Near-Impossible Challenge of Designing the 9/11 Museum.” Wired, 14 May 2014, www.wired.com/2014/05/911-museum-3/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2020.

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“The Museum.” 9/11 Memorial & Museum, 2020, www.911memorial.org/visit/museum. Accessed 1 Apr. 2020.