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Images and commentary - 2015.
Looking across the North Pool to the Winter Garden. The Garden's arched glass enclosure was demolished following the collapse of the Twin Towers and the damage sustained by the neighboring buildings. In 2006, I was watching silent films there, with the slightly odd feeling of "this wasn't even possible a couple years ago!"
Names of the victims who died in the North Tower. The bronze rim of the North Pool is inscribed with the names of those who were in the tower during the attack, and also the names of the 6 victims who died in the car park bombing in 1993, and the 87 passengers and crew of Flight 11 (North Tower strike).
The rim of the South Pool includes the names of the people who died as a result of the South Tower's destruction, as well as those of the first responders, passengers and crews of Flight 93 (Shanksville, PA crash), Flight 175 (South Tower strike), Flight 77 (Pentagon strike), and those who died at the Pentagon.
Above, looking across the North Pool to the Museum building, while to the left, and at right below, is the roofline of the World Trade Center PATH Station, designed by Santiago Calatrava. This, too, has been subject to nearly as much controversy as anything else in or around the WTC site. In 2015 cost over-runs came under scrutiny, as critics wondered if 4 billion dollars was the right price tag. Yes, billion with a "b."
And in 2015, there was still plenty of construction going on around the site. Fortunately, it doesn't intrude much on the visitor. As I experienced before, there were moments when contemplation could be considered: listening to the rush of the falling water into the 30-foot deep pools, observing the inscribed names, looking across the plaza nestled among a century's worth of office towers. It is an odd place in its way, for it is memorial and it can be moving, but it is in Lower Manhattan, and just beyond these acres the world of commerce goes on its merry way.
And there are the other tourists. As before, I was a bit irked by many of the other people who visited and seemed only to be there because it was on the list of places to go on a trip to New York. If I could prohibit the taking of "selfies" with "selfie sticks" by visitors by the pools I would. But, that's me; probably better that I can't do that.
Following are photographs and commentary from 2013.
The South Pool. These visitors seem to reflect the sort of demeanor that I would expect at a place like this: they appear to be on the site because they want or need to observe it as a Memorial; whether they knew someone lost or not is immaterial - it is the loss that deserves the reflection.
As noted in the Memorial guide pamphlet, the names inscribed are arranged
"...based on layers of 'meaningful adjacencies' that reflect where the victims were on 9/11 and relationships they shared with others who were lost that day, honoring requests from victims' families for specific names to be next to one another."
The individual slabs of inscribed bronze are numbered, and separate names can be located with the help of a database. There are terminals on the wall of the Museum that give access to name and reference number so visitors can locate the name of the victim they are looking for:
Search engine terminals at the Museum.
The South Pool - Roses.
The North Pool, with construction equipment beyond and the foot of the new Liberty Tower near the old post office building.
It was along the east side of the North Pool (to the right in the above photo) that the wind that day blew some of the falling water back over the rim, and across the perimeter - and me. It felt as if the Memorial were including me - I don't know anyone who died either in '93 or '01, but I was moved reading name after name after name and thinking that everyone of them was there to represent someone who was no longer living among us.