The 9-11 Memorial
After the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time, the girls and I made our way down to the September 11th Memorial for a scheduled tour. At first I thought it a bit ridiculous that we had to actually schedule a time, but once we got there I understood why. It was kind of like FastPass at Disney! They want to make sure the crowd flows.
It was an overcast rainy day which added to the mood. To be honest I was apprehensive about going down there – not really knowing what we would see. At the time of the event, we lived on Long Island about an hour east of New York City. More than 10 years later, the events that I experienced the entire week following, are as clear as day in my mind.
We took the subway down to Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan. When we exited the station and turned the corner one could immediately see the Freedom Tower. Well most of it anyway. The top was lost in the clouds. It appeared to just disappear into the sky – quite symbolic I thought actually.
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| The Freedom Tower lost in the clouds |
We made our way down to the entrance and it was actually like approaching a Disney ride – winding barricades looping around and leading us around a corner. Here is where we had to show our passes and have ID available. After about 20 minutes of winding through this maze we made it to the security check. I felt like I was back at the airport. “everything off and on the belt, to go through the Xray machine.” Jackets, jewelry, phones, shoes – everything! Then everything back on and outside to wind around some more.
We finally turn the corner and through the gates, there in front of us are the 2 pools at the base of Freedom Tower. Wow – very powerful. It was a cold rainy day so the landscaping wasn’t too impressive but the emptiness was. I couldn’t believe this is where it all happened that horrible day. The pools were extremely deep. Even on my tip toes I could not see down to the bottom. There were many people milling about, but it was rather quiet. I think everyone was just taking in the magnitude of the place and the memories.
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| Our first glimpse of the Memorial Grounds |
Even though we are fortunate enough not to have known anyone personally that died that day it was very eery to see all the names of those who died written on the panels surrounding the pools. The names were grouped by company and then within that, friends & colleagues were listed next to each other. Those that perished in the North Tower, in flight #11, and in the bombing that occurred in Feb of 1993, were listed around the north pool, while first responders who lost their lives (there were over 400 of them!), those who perished in the south Tower, flights #93, #77 & #175, along with those from the Pentagon, were listed around the south pool. Flowers had been placed by relatives or friends at certain names – that made it all real for me. They were just names to me but to thousands of people these were their family or friends. There were even machines that allowed you to enter a name of a victim and the screen would tell you at which pool it could be found.
I actually felt badly as we took pictures of ourselves smiling. Was that the right feeling to have here? Should we not feel more somber? It is quite an impressive setting with the Freedom Tower being built and towering above us. There will also be a museum but it wasn’t opened yet. We could peak through the windows of the unfinished museum to see columns that were from the original facade of the North Tower.
The emotions of that day came flooding back in a flash and all of a sudden I wanted to cry. I felt the anger all over again – over 10 years later. How is that possible. I remembered every minute of that day and even the smell of smoke we smelled in the air days after the event. The girls were only 3 and 6 at the time, so while Elise only slightly remembers the day, Sara doesn’t have much recollection. Elise recalled that as she got off the bus from Kindergarten that afternoon, we told her, “Something very horrible happened today and thIngs will never be the same”.
The visit to the Memorial had been a very powerful experience. I would recommend it to any visitor of New York City.
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