Visiting the National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Exactly 14 years ago, the world as we knew it changed in an instant. The word “terrorism” became a part of everyone’s daily vocabulary, many lives were prematurely lost and countless others were greatly affected. Standing at Ground Zero where the World Trade Center “Twin Towers”, in New York City, once stood strong, words initially escape thoughts. A deep, heavy emotion fills the air despite the weather being light and breezy.

9/11 Memorial Pool
9/11 Memorial Pool

I recently visited the 9/11 Memorial and nothing could prepare myself for the experience. I have been to New York City more times than I have fingers and toes, but this was the first time this decade. I have vivid memories of the twin towers. I remember going up to the observation deck, taking the subway from below the site, and seeing the skyscrapers from the Hudson River and around the city.

Panorama of 9/11 Memorial Pool
Panorama of the south 9/11 Memorial Pool

The September 11 Museum cost $24 for adults ($15 for children) and it located mostly underground on the site of where the World Trade Center towers stood. I thought it was a very well done though some of the more memorable exhibits were in areas where photography was prohibited. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. I took many pictures, but decided to only share a few of the most unique and powerful images.

Retaining wall holding back the river at 9/11 Museum
Retaining wall holding back the river at 9/11 Museum
Montage of Missing Persons flyers
Montage of Missing Persons flyers that would fade in and out displaying different flyers
A mangled fire truck. The front end of the truck is nearest to the foreground.
A mangled fire truck. The front end of the truck is nearest to the foreground.
2-inch steel support beam from one of the towers
2-inch steel support beam from one of the towers

Perhaps someday I’ll publish more pictures. The last picture above is almost what hit me most. This was a 2-inch thick steel beam that was bent like a pretzel. The force that it takes to do that, knowing what happened, is almost unfathomable. It was a very heavy day.

Amongst the exhibits that are photography prohibited was a time lapse video of the clean-up and building of the museum as well as recordings of Air Traffic Control and other first-responders’ radio calls. I could only listen to a couple of them before I decided it was too much.

All that said, I think everyone should pay their respects and go to the memorial & museum at least once in their lifetime. It is a must do on a visit to New York City. I was done in about 2 hours time, but didn’t look at all of the exhibits so plan accordingly.

All pictures are copyrighted. Please do not copy them without permission.

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