Moments of sorrow and moments of happiness can never stale from our minds. It has been more than a decade since the ruthless 9/11 attacks but one thought to it, and it seems like yesterday. News channels were flooded with the clips of World Trade Centre crashing down within seconds.
The unexpected sudden aerial assaults on World Trade Centre where more than 40,000 people worked daily struck the heart of New York. The terrorists destroyed one of America’s most dramatic symbols of power and financial strength and left New York reeling.
It is still the most haunting legacy of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. The pain, fear, aghast feeling has still not gone and will never be gone.
As a tribute of remembrance and honor to more than 3000 people killed in the attacks, the World Trade Centre site has been turned into the National September 11 Memorial. It also commemorates the killing of 6 people in WTC bombing of February 1993.
The Memorial has large twin pools set within the footprints of Twin Towers. It features the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The site design was finalized after carrying out a global competition for designing the Memorial that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations.
Reminding the largest loss of life in America, the names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks have been inscribed into bronze panels that edge the Memorial pools. It’s a very sentimental site that affects people world over.
“I was deeply moved by seeing “and her unborn child” engraved next to the names of 11 pregnant women who lost their lives in the attacks”, says a visitor.
It’s been 12 years to it and it still gives shivers to many people. Till date, more than 10 million people have come to pay their respects to lost lives at the memorial site. By spring 2014, visitors will also be able to visit the 9/11 Museum. The Museum will be country’s principal institution for commemorating the loss of lives, examining the implications of the event, documenting its impact and exploring the continuing significance of September 11, 2001.
The exhibition space of the Museum will be located within the archaeological heart of WTC site. It will signify the story of 9/11 through multimedia displays, archives, narratives and a collection of monumental and authentic artifacts.
Above, you can see the close-up view of a salvaged trident beam on display in a glass atrium salvaged from the WTC that were destroyed in the terrorist attacks. This is the entry to the underground Memorial Museum.
The artifacts of the museum tends to make a link of 9/11 events while presenting stories of indefinite loss, compassion and the aftermath of attacks. As many as 24 large artifacts have been installed inside the museum. This includes a cross which was discovered in the rubble, a fragment of a trident column (one of 84 that formed the exterior structure of each tower), a large steel column from The North Tower that was mangled during the inferno, etc.
These artifacts are powerful enough to take us to history with a combination of mixed feelings of fear, sympathy, hatred, and absolute pain.
“When the museum is ready next year, it is sure to bring an experience of profound encounter with history and associated human narratives of loss and remembrance, courage and compassion, resilience and renewal”, said Alice Greenwald, museum director.
Daniel Castorina, the first member of 9/11 Memorial’s visitor services team mentions the difficulties of working with victims’ family members. “I remember my first day working here, I was helping a mother with her son’s name impression,” he said, “She was crying. I was crying. It gets very emotional.”
It was a tough time scribbling this as I was literally in the saddest piece of history of New York and could feel the pain and the agony of that situation. Really waiting for this museum to open; I would love to visit it.
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