9/11 Memorial

We had tickets to attend the 9/11 Memorial at 10 am when the memorial opened.  We had to stand in the security line but the line moved quickly and after we got through security we entered the memorial.  The memorial consists of two pools set in the footprints of the original Twin Towers.  Thirty-foot waterfalls, the largest in North America, cascade into the pools and then descend into a center void.  The names of the victims are inscribed in bronze parapets around the pools.

The "Survivor Tree" was found at Ground Zero and it was reduced to an eight-foot tall stump.  The tree was nursed back to health in a NYC park and grew to be 30 feet tall.  In March of 2011 the tree was uprooted by severe storms but it survived.  In December 2011 the tree was returned to the Memorial.

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SM searched for Brady Howell's name and found it and took a picture.  He knows Brady's widow.  It makes the whole memorial a little more real when you know someones' name. 

The museum was closed but I took this photo through the window.  It is a steel trident- a column from the original facade of the North Tower.

And this is the Freedom Tower, now the tallest building standing in New York City.  The day we arrived the construction company placed trellises to make it taller than the Empire State Building.  It will still get higher before it is completed.