“Ten years have passed since a perfect blue sky morning turned into the blackest of nights. Since then we’ve lived in sunshine and in shadow, and although we can never unsee what happened here, we can also see that children who lost their parents have grown into young adults, grandchildren have been born and good works and public service have taken root to honor those we loved and lost.”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking at the memorial service in New York
Last week I had the honor of being one of the first among the many millions that are sure to follow to visit the memorial built in honor of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. A mere decade after the terrible attacks that shocked our nation, we have begun to rebuild the infrastructure, and the hole left in our hearts, on both simple and grand scale. This monument is sure to join a long list of memorials and tributes that flake our country’s history and visual culture.
I was happy to see that there was a great number of people both connected directly and indirectly to the event lined up around the block to get tickets for entry. Tourists were taking pictures and reveling in the beautifully constructed scenery while families and friends were showing their love and respect for the individuals honored in long listings of the lives lost. Chocked full of symbolism and aesthetic appeal, architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created a memorial that can speak to anyone who pays it a visit.
The names of each of the many thousands of people who were lost in 2001, as well as the individuals who died in 1993 and lost their memorial when the towers collapsed, are listed along the edges of the monuments, reminiscent of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial Wall. The two square pools at the center of these listings contain the largest man-made waterfalls in North America with a separate waterspout for each individual life lost. This overwhelming number of spouts combines and falls to a pool that serves to remind us of the collective loss of the event. The pool then falls to a small, but ever present, void that runs too deep for us to see but we all feel in our hearts runs beyond our personal comprehension. The waterfalls are continuous and everlasting, much like the eternal flame at the grave of John F. Kennedy, a sign that we will never forget and never let the fire in our hearts extinguish.
A line of trees surrounding the pools marks the original footprints of the two towers before they fell. In addition to practical design, the trees seem to serve as a reminder of the rebirth, growth, and continuation to life that has come in the aftermath of the fall of the World Trade Center. Beyond the memorial itself, the life of the city, and especially the growth of the new World Trade Center buildings, envelope the memorial site as a protector of the memory and as a reminder that though we may stumble in the light of tragedy, we can pull ourselves up and grow loftier and stronger than before.
The National September 11 Memorial is a true work of architectural and artistic genius with a superb use of evocative symbolism and aesthetic simplicity. This site makes America proud and will stand in history along side the likes of the obelisk devoted to Washington, the highly recognizable figure of an enthroned Lincoln, and Maya Lin’s wall of names commemorating the losses of a tragic war. Most importantly it serves as a lasting tribute to the 3000 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the victims of the planes involved, and the six people who died in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
Whatever each persons reason for visiting the site, there is a feeling of strength and renewed appreciation for all Americans and all peoples. We are standing up together to support the claim that despite catastrophic attacks of terrorism, ten years later we are still one strong nation and we can turn a tragedy into a beautiful oasis of love and remembrance.
