NATIONAL 9/11 MEMORIAL, MUSEUM, AND ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER
Saturday, April 23, 2016
It all starts here at Saint Paul's Chapel ...
Called the Survivor Church .... Established in 1766 and still in continuous use today ...Witness to the Great Fire of 1776...Host to George Washington on his inauguration as first President of the United States... Survivor of the Terrorist Attacks of 9/11...Support center for attack victims' families and response crews...
After the collapse of the Twin Towers, dust filled the old church cemetery to a level above the tops of the gravestones ... the church was unharmed ...
Our Memorial tour guide is Rob Maass, a native New Yorker and photo-journalist by profession...he gives us an intimate and personal account of events on the exceptionally clear morning of September 11, 2001 ... 3,000 people lost their lives in the collapse of the towers, including 343 New York firefighters ... 50,000 jobs were immediately lost ... the two tallest buildings in New York City, marvels of modern architecture and engineering, abruptly ceased to exist ... everyone in the city seemed to know one or more of the victims personally. The profession of Firefighter is held in high esteem in New York ... an applicant must wait SEVEN YEARS to be allowed to take the entrance examination!
A Memorial waterfall is placed on the exact location of each of the towers ... water cascades into a central pool, then falls into an abyss ... the name of each and every victim is carved into the stone borders of the Memorial ... the sound of falling water drowns out the noise of the city ... it is a highly moving experience for each of us to be here ...
Our visit to the 9/11 Museum is overwhelming ... descending deep into the ground, we see the remains of the immense substructure that protected the World Trade Center site from flooding by the Hudson River ... Support girders, deformed by the intense heat of fires resulting from the aircraft collisions, form strange and arresting works of modern art ...
The Memorial Urn, created by artist Tom Lane of the University of Minnesota, displays the name of every victim of the terrorist attacks ...
The tattered 30-foot American flag that survived the collapse, has traveled to each of the 50 states for repair with a section from a decommissioned U.S. flag from that state, each with its own story to tell ...
A Firefighter pays homage to his slain comrades with a tattoo on his back ...
September 11 Tribute Banner painted by elementary school children in South Carolina ...
Our World Trade Center experience ends with a visit to One World Trade Center, a new 1776-foot high tower erected on the site of the 9/11 tragedy ...
By way of the world's fastest elevator, we shoot up to the Observatory of the 103rd floor in under 60 seconds!
Our view from the Observatory... downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge and the nearby Manhattan Bridge!
Our World Trade Center experience comes to an end... we are moved and exhausted...it's time to head uptown and get some REST!
Stay with us, beloveds! There are many more New York adventures to share!
Affectionately,
Baldy
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