Looking back over the recent events marking the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, we’re reminded of the healing power of time – and family support.
The unveiling of the new memorial which took on the 10th anniversary this past Sunday will also bring comfort and peace to those who lost loved ones that fateful day as well. Nearly 3,000 names are inscribed in bronze on the memorial.
The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honour to the people killed in the attacks at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa. and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February of 1993.
Twin reflecting pools at the site are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in the North America. Making the site that much more poignant is that the pools sit within the footprints of where the Twin Towers once stood.
Architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the memorial design selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations. The impact was clear on the faces of visitors this past weekend, as they reflected on the events that happened 10 years ago.
It’s also a vivid reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil.
Another means of helping to keep the memory of those who lost their lives in the minds of New Yorkers and visitors is a yet-to-be-completed museum.
It will include diverse materials such as artifacts, photographs, audio and videotapes, personal effects and memorabilia, expressions of tribute and remembrance, recorded testimonies and digital files and web sites related to the history of the World Trade Center, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and Feb. 26, 1993.
The Museum, which is set to open in September of 2012, plans call for visitors to enter the exhibition along a corridor in which photographs of the nearly 3,000 victims form a ‘Wall of Faces.’
Interactive tables will allow visitors to discover additional information about each person including photographs, remembrances by family and friends, artifacts, and the location of individual names on the memorial plaza. Rotating selections of personal artifacts will also be featured. An adjoining chamber will present profiles of individual victims in a dignified sequence through photographs, biographical information, and audio recordings.
There’s no better means of paying tribute to these people – both the memorial and the museum are essentially timeless. Visitors will have the rare opportunity of seeing firsthand much of what was lost on Sept. 11, 2001. It will also forever be a reminder of a day that ultimately changed not just America but the entire world.
