WTC Memorial going strong after one year

Museum and ‘1 WTC’ still in works

 

The World Trade Center Memorial, in the same spots that both the North and South Towers stood in Manhattan, will be celebrating the one-year anniversary of its opening this September 11. On that day last year, the memorial was opened to the victims’ families and to the public on the following day.

Construction of the memorial was started in March 2006. The memorial is made to rest in the “footprints” of the Twin Towers and features downward flowing water on all four square sides. They are the largest manmade waterfalls in the United States. The names of 2,983 victims of the terrorist attacks are inscribed on bronze plates that form the edges of the footprints.

 

Funding for the memorial and museum is provided by sources encompassing private and public funds with a budget of $530 million and an additional $80 million grant from New York for the museum pavilion.

 

The non-profit organization that will manage the memorial lists the below goals as part of its mission statement:

The Memorial Mission:

§ Remember and honor the thousands of innocent men, women, and children murdered by terrorists in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001.

§ Respect this place made sacred through tragic loss.

§ Recognize the endurance of those who survived, the courage of those who risked their lives to save others, and the compassion of all who supported us in our darkest hours.

§ May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance and intolerance.

 

The museum is slated to open within the next year. It will be located approximately 70 feet below the ground and will feature distinctive elements made to mirror some “broken down” appearances of the attacks.

 

Included in the museum will be pieces of steel from the Twin Towers, such as the last piece of steel to leave Ground Zero in May of 2002, and artifacts from the attacks.

 

One World Trade Center, also known as 1 WTC, is the major 104-story project being built in place of where the 8-story 6 WTC once stood. 74 of those floors will be useable above-ground floors and the plaza will also be open to the public, as the previous one was. When 1 WTC is completed in 2013, it will be the tallest building in the western hemisphere and the third tallest building in the world, based on pinnacle height: 1,368 feet tall.

 

Construction of 1 WTC was started in April 2006 and will cost $3.8 billion as estimated earlier this year.

 

On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 9:16 PM, Parveen Chopra <[email protected]> wrote:

That fateful day — what I remember

By Vikas Girdhar

 

Shortly after news of the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11, 2001 broke out, people and TV programs all over were echoing sentiments about how we all will never forget where each one was that day, that hour, that moment when the Twin Towers collapsed.

 

I agree. I feel as if everything that day happened in such an indescribable way and what started off as an ordinary morning quickly changed so many lives and the course of history forever. In one sense, as one tragic update or tidbit of news piled on top of the next, I felt as though things were unraveling too quickly. Who knew what to expect next? In another sense, that day as a whole just felt like something outside the bounds of reality. In that dreamlike haze, time froze. What I was doing didn’t matter and my mind was preoccupied with horrific things I knew were taking place just a few miles away.

 

As I woke up and got ready for another day in what was still the early part of my sophomore year in high school in Hicksville, NY, I remember the weather being especially beautiful. There wasn’t a cloud in sight and the mild temperature was simply a reminder of the summer that had just passed us. Nothing felt out of place as I made my way from 1st period to 2nd period—and then it happened as I was sitting in my math class, 3rd period with Ms. Hollander.

 

What I don’t remember was what we were learning as news started to break out. In hindsight, it wouldn’t have even mattered if I did. What was unraveling was much bigger than any logarithm or algebraic equation could solve. As an aside, what I do remember is the mindless way I feel my school handled the breakout of this news.

 

The principal came on the loud speaker, asked for everyone’s attention and bellowed “there’s a situation going on at the World Trade Center” but nothing more. What is anyone supposed to think after such an uninformed update? The entire class was struck with curiosity and focusing on anything else was out of the question. My way of handling it would have been to provide an informed announcement when it was available to avoid people from driving themselves crazy over assuming or thinking the worst, even if the worst is seemingly what happened—or not say anything until it was available. Such a thing was elementary to me even then. If you’re making an announcement to hundreds of people, the right thing to do would be to try to keep them as calm and their thoughts as collected as possible, not rife with assumptive craze.

 

That’s just my two cents and in the grand scheme of things, I got over that rather quickly. We finally got some updates to confirm what was going on and the rest of the day at school didn’t matter, quite frankly. Everyone knew where the others’ minds were and no one could really focus on much else.

 

At last, it was time to go home. My parents were there to meet me because they had been dismissed from work early that day. All I had all day were fragments of news and information, but as I turned on the television I got all the linked confirmations I needed. Horrific images of a now incomplete skyline, planes crashing, people running, debris everywhere—it was frankly like something out of a movie. Never in my lifetime did I think I would have to live through news like this but at that time, my lifetime only spanned 15 years.

 

It is now 11 years later and I am now in charge of delivering news to people just like myself at that age. I look back and reflect on the wide range of emotions that are summoned by thoughts of that fateful day and it feels like just yesterday. I remember so much about that day because I knew it would be one that would live in infamy for terrible reasons.

 

So much has changed—society, we as a people and each of us individually. Everyone, however, has a different story and account of their experiences of that 9/11. While mine may not be as riveting as others’, I’m sure it echoes the sentiments of the majority.

 

It’s a day we shall remember for the rest of our lives, even in the midst of a changing landscape, a revamped skyline, tighter security and precautionary lifestyles. As we remember those events that took place 11 years ago, let us hope that the those who lost their lives rest in peace and let us pray for brighter future for us all.

Close your eyes this September 11 and think about how lucky we all are to be here and how our lives may have very well been totally different from that day forward.