Into the darkness
A steel beam from the World Trade Center stands in the center of Foundation Hall in New York.
The original slurry wall, built in 1966 to keep out water from the Hudson River when construction began on the World Trade Center, is in Foundation Hall at the National Sept. 11 Museum in New York. In the center of the vast hall is the last steel tower recovered from Ground Zero.
Visitors study the Wall of Faces in Memorial Hall at the National Sept. 11 Museum in New York, where photographs of nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, terrorist attacks are displayed.
Eleven firefighters with FDNY Ladder Co. 3 died Sept. 11, 2001, when the North Tower collapsed. The last transmission from their captain indicated they had reached the 35th floor and were headed to the fire on the 75th floor.
Panels surrounding the 9/11 memorial pools, designed in the footprint of the Twin Towers, are inscribed with the names of everyone who died in the 2001 and 1993 terrorist attacks. On the victims’ birthdays, a rose is placed beside their name in remembrance.
A security guard and tour guide stand in front of “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning” by artist Spencer Finch. The painting is composed of 2,983 individual water colorings. On a nearby wall is a quote from the poet Virgil: “No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory of Time.”
One World Trade Center towers over the Manahattan skyline in New York.
Brenda Berkman leads a tour of the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. The tour is sponsored by the 9/11 Tribute Center, and guides include individuals who survived the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, or those who were connected to the events in some way. Berkman, a retired fire lieutenant, was one of many firefighters who responded to the disaster and who lost many colleagues that day.
NEW YORK – There is a sad irony upon entering the National Sept. 11 Museum in New York City. Security guards direct visitors to lines where they must place items into familiar gray plastic bins on X-ray belts, then walk through metal detectors.
There’s no escaping the feeling that you’re passing through airport security.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 men managed to clear this level of security and board four airplanes, turning them into enemy missiles. Two of those planes struck the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. What remains of those buildings is now a subterranean museum that opened to the public in May.
Once past security, visitors leave the sunny lobby – thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows that showcase the nearby Freedom Tower – and descend below ground to reach exhibits.
Immediately, the mood changes. There are no windows, no bright lights. The walls are dark. There are sounds of low-flying planes, firefighters calling for ambulances and interviews with eyewitnesses, some speaking in different languages.
Photographs of shocked faces are superimposed on a screen. Each person has a hand to his or her mouth, or forehead. Their eyes register disbelief.
A ramp leads down into a large expanse known as Foundation Hall. The originally slurry wall, built to keep out water from the Hudson River, stands as it has done since 1966. In the middle of this hall is the last steel tower that was removed from Ground Zero. It is adorned with memorials, names of the missing or the company numbers of New York fire departments in colorful spray paint.
There are about 60 people visiting, but no one says a word. A few take photographs, but using a flash is not allowed. A man sneezes twice and is met with a whispered trio of “God Bless You,” all in heartfelt tones.
The dedication pedestal for the World Trade Center, dated April 4, 1973, was recovered from the site and is placed in what had been a parking garage.
On Feb. 26, 1993, the first attempt to damage the WTC took place in this garage. Six people died. A man’s button-down white shirt, stained by smoke from walking down hundreds of stairs that day, is on display. That man returned to work on the 104th floor in the tower, dying eight years later in the second attack.
A Tribute Walk honors first responders, and 11 men from Ladder Co. 3 are remembered by a battered fire truck they sped in to the fiery Twin Towers that morning. Another responder is remembered by words he shouted into his radio: “Send every available ambulance, everything you got, to the World Trade Center now!”
Another firefighter recalled that as they stood in the WTC lobby, it got very quiet, and one officer said they might not live through the day. They took the time to shake each other’s hands before heading upstairs to fight the fire far above them.
In addition to the Historic Exhibition, the museum has a Memorial Exhibition, with boxes of tissues strategically placed. In one room hangs a photograph of each of the 2,977 victims. In the center of this Wall of Faces is a small theater where each person is remembered by a sequence of photographs and audio recordings by their loved ones.
One section of the museum has an advisory notice for those not wishing to see photographs of people jumping to their deaths. Posted on the wall are comments from that day. One woman said she felt it was disrespectful to look away because “they were ending their lives without choice.” Another man observed a woman in a business suit standing on a ledge who took the time to pull her skirt down at the hem and smooth it out before leaping to her death. “I thought, ‘how human, how modest.’ I couldn’t look anymore,” he said.
Such scenes will be forever etched in the minds of those who remember that day. But somehow it is the more familiar items, the small details that are the most painful, such as the remains of a beige Touch Tone telephone, its dial burnt and melted, a dusty Rolodex, a receipt from Home Depot, computer diskettes, a portion of an airplane’s seatbelt, a paper burned around its edges but still bearing the heading “Text of Proposed Rule Change.” A hand-scrawled note found outside the Trade Center that day indicated there were 12 people trapped inside a room on the 84th floor. The author of that note, Randolph Scott, was identified through his DNA, which matched a bloody thumbprint on the paper. For a decade his family believed he had died instantly when the plane struck the South Tower.
The last above-ground remnant of the World Trade Center is what remains of a staircase to Vesey Street, where so many people walked out of the darkness to safety.
A docent standing next to a portion of the North Tower’s communications antenna advised visitors that while the museum does contain images and artifacts of death and destruction, signs of determination and resilience also are visible. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives, but more than 14,000 made it out of the buildings that day, she noted.
The museum also strives to show acts of compassion and public service that took place for months after.
As you return to ground level – to windows, sunlight and life – on the escalator, the background music of “Amazing Grace” plays so softly it seems as if you may be imagining it.
Outside were scores of people, many of them school groups waiting in the plaza to take their turns touring the museum.
There is the sound of running water. It is the memorial’s waterfalls, created by twin reflective pools surrounded by panels inscribed with the names of those who died, including two people from Washington County: Angela Reed Kyte and Larry John Senko.
Steelworkers are perched high above the ground working on the new transportation hub.
Ground crews plant flowering bushes on the side of the new One World Trade Center: the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower. Construction workers are everywhere, carrying building materials or hammering, while others sit alongside buildings and eat their lunch. Food vendors tend to their carts. Down the street is a fenced-in athletic field where the sounds of excited children playing soccer can be heard.
It is a very fine day.
The National Sept. 11 Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until Sept. 21; then 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 22 to Dec. 31. Admission is free on Tuesdays, beginning at 5 p.m. Get timed tickets in advance at http://911memorial.org to avoid long waits. Admission is $24. The average visit takes two hours.
The 9/11 memorial is free and open daily, 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.911memorial.org/visit-911-memorial. Visitor passes and security checks are no longer required.
• 9/11 Tribute Center and Tours: In contrast to the large, formal exhibits of the Memorial Museum, the 9/11 Tribute Center is a small, intimate, low-key place. The walls are covered with victims’ photos and missing posters; handmade paper cranes – a symbol of peace – hang over a stairwell. It’s like looking through someone’s scrapbook and sharing memories.
The Tribute Center also offers guided tours of the memorial led by individuals with a connection to Sept. 11: first responders, survivors, those who lost loved ones. The tours offer personal memories and insights as well as an informed appreciation of the memorial’s design and symbolism.
The Tribute Center, 120 Liberty St., is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with walking tours at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Center admission is $15; tours are $10; and combined admission plus tour is $20. For more information, visit http://tributewtc.org .
• One World Trade Center: The observatory at One World Trade Center won’t open until next year. But the gleaming skyscraper itself, with its trademark spire and graceful angles, can be seen from all over the city.
– Associated Press