I guess I was two or three days late being all significant and stuff, visiting the 9/11 Memorial on its 10th anniversary because I didn’t go until Sept 14. Not that I was allowed in on Sept 11 anyway. The way I heard it, pretty much nobody was.
But if you want a sneak peek and a couple of helpful hints about visiting the 9/11 memorial, should you have the notion, let me be your guide.
First of all, you have to get tickets ahead of time. We got ours about 3 weeks in advance which is way better than the Book of Mormon on Broadway, not to mention cheaper, as tickets to the 9/11 Memorial are free. It’s easy to sign up, but you’ll have to already know at the time of reservation who is going because like Elia Kazan, you must name names.
Link to 9/11 Memorial site to reserve tickets in advance.
Make sure you pay attention to the damn email confirmation that tells you to pick up your tickets at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site (as opposed to the Visitor’s Center), which is like a HALF A MILE AWAY FROM THE MEMORIAL ENTRANCE, which doesn’t sound like much until you have to traverse it a few times. Don’t even go to the Memorial entrance unless you have already gone to the Preview Site first to pick up your tickets. Am I speaking from experience? Maybe.
Did you get your tickets at the Preview Site like I told you? Okay, NOW you can go to the actual 9/11 Memorial entrance.
Things are running so smoothly there, they let us in before our allotted time and the only thing you have to hurry up and wait for as you are guided through a maze like a rat, is the security check like they have at airports, although I think I’m pretty sure I got to keep my shoes on. And they didn’t make you throw out your bottles of water. Or your toenail clippers.
And everyone was so NICE! Of course, it was only the 3rd day they were open, so maybe that will wear off after a while, who knows?
If you are willing to take pictures of names for people, offer that up to your friends ahead of time. I only thought of it at the last minute and threw it up on Facebook and was surprised at the response, and am glad I did it.
There isn’t a whole lot to the memorial. It is just 2 big ass water features that take up 8 acres, the footprint of the original towers and 400 trees that if you were forced to guess how many trees there were, you would have said maybe 45.
All the names of the people who perished on 9/11 as well as the 1993 World Trade Center attacks are engraved on the pools’ borders.
So yeah, after seeing what it is, I guess I, along with many others, wonder what the hell took so long for this thing to be completed. Maybe they hired only one guy to engrave the nearly 3,000 names. Some dude who’s like the Michelangelo of engravers who turned in the lowest bid and won the contract, but only had one employee: himself. And he hammered and chiseled each and every one and that’s why it took ten years.
By the way, the 9/11 Memorial site provides a great smart phone app to help you locate any names once you get there. Of course you can look them up ahead of time, if you’re the responsible type to actually think ahead of time, unlike some people who blithely waltzed into the place expecting to run right into the names because aren’t they alphabetical or something? Again, possibly speaking from experience here.
Each person will be located in a section like, N-2 or S-45. N means the North pool. S means the South pool. The number is just the panel number and goes up to something like 76.
Some of the airline crew have wing pins inserted in their names…
The very nice thing about this memorial is that they have ensured that it doesn’t get too crowded.
This is a sacred place for many people and controlling the crowds makes it much more possible for mourners or people who lost people on 9/11 to take a moment or twelve and meditate and contemplate and reflect and whatever else they want to do without a lot of pushing and shoving and yelling and crowds of people blocking your view of a serene scene. And you can easily get a picture of your loved one’s name because they don’t allow busloads of people to stand in your way.
So to the 9/11 Memorial designers and the visitor coordinators, I say bravo.
Meanwhile construction to the new World Trade Center continues…
Feel free to use these pictures for yourself, just please credit me or link back to my blog.
Wow I could hardly read this… I can’t imagine standing in that VERY SPOT. So gut wrenching…. you are amazing to have posted all this!
Thanks, Katherine. It’s quite the experience to just be there.
Thanks for the tip about getting tickets and where to pick them up. I’ll be going to NYC hopefully later this Fall and will keep this in mind.
I’ve been to the site many times over the past 10 years and my heart sinks every single time.
xo jj
awesome photos, Margaret. I’m glad you got to be there.
What a fabulous post and wonderful photos.
Thank you for sharing such a gorgeous day.
Wow! How cool that I now can say that I know someone who has actually been to the memorial!! Great pics and thanks for the advice!!
Hugs
SueAnn
Thank you and you’re welcome, SueAnn. And I would consider it a must-see whenever you’re in NYC. It’s like a moral obligation to your country or something.
Awesome post, Supreme Goat Mistress of all things Goat and other things not Goat!
Yeah, it did take them quite a while, didn’t it? I will say this, though: while it was more than likely bureaucratic BS, I’m glad they took the time they did and the arrived at the design that we see today. I also read somewhere that they agonized over the order of the names. They tried to make them significantly placed/arranged so that, if you knew the story behind them, you would understand why so-and-so was right next to someone else.
Will you be visiting the Pentagon memorial someday? While the Pennsylvania memorial is very simple, it looks like the Pentagon is a close second to the WTC site.
Any way you dice it, all of the sites have been well thought out and executed. I like that they made the bronze names at ground zero climate controlled: cool to the touch in summer and warm in winter. Well done… 🙂
I would very much like to visit the museum at ground zero when it is completed. I don’t know what happened regarding this stupid little bit of a debacle but even I, as an atheist, would like to see, maybe to touch?, the twisted girders that formed a cross that became somewhat of a rallying point for many people. In the condition that I am with my back (angiogram/surgery next week! woop!) I just haven’t been able to see these places that moved me, and millions of others, so when it happened. I MUST see these places. While I didn’t loose anyone directly related to me, I just feel a deep need to visit and find some closure in a weird way personally for me.
Take care and keep on making us laugh and think, sometimes at the same time. You are a pillar of humanity and I hope to be reading your things for quite some time…
Yours,
Cybershaman
If I ever get my ass to DC (of all places in this country to not have ever visited, I am ashamed to admit at my age that I’ve never been) I may see the Pentagon memorial.
I hope your surgery goes well, B.
And thank you for your kind and generous words about my writing. And my pillar of humanity-ness. 🙂
Amazing ! You did a great job with the pictures and description. A service indeed.
Thanks, Jaffer!
Such a beautiful post. Thank-you for sharing your experiences of your visit.
Thank you, Rebecca. And you’re very welcome!
This is the first Nanny Goats In Panties blog entry to give me chills which surprises me because I was THERE. Nicely done, Margaret!
Thanks, sweetie!
Thank you for the tour as I know I will never get to see for I doubt they let goats in.
How wonderful. I am hoping to go up in the next year to see it. I remember the smell when I left in 2001 and subsequent visits have been to construction sites. I watched the memorials and I appreciate the perspective of someone who visited.
🙂
Traci
Ahhhh, my heart sinks a bit every time I think of that horrible day! Your pictures are just spectacular and makes me feel like I visited too.
I haven’t been to New York since I was a kid durin’ the World’s Fair there.
God bless ya and have a marvelous day sweetie!!!
Thanks, Nezzy! I’m glad it helped to give you an ideas of the place.