9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center
I received a certificate in the mail from the 9/11 Memorial organization. When I was in New York a couple of months ago I had an appointment adjacent to the new World Trade Center site. One of the buildings fronting the construction hosts a visitor center with tributes to the 9/11 tragedy. The current center is temporary with a few exhibits chronicling the disaster and its aftermath. There is also an artist rendering of the planned Memorial Plaza. It looks like it will make for a very nice historical marker and common space. They were looking for $100 donations to help fund the memorial so I gave them one.
9/11 Memorial Certificate
I’ve been to Manhattan many times but I hadn’t been all the way downtown for probably fifteen years. And I think the last time I was in that area was when I went visited WTC. I remember worming my way out of the labyrinthine subway/PATH complex underneath the towers, out into glimmers of sunlight cutting through the shadowy canyons between the towers. Looking up from the base I couldn’t help but say to myself that that’s a tall fucking building. I’ve always enjoyed visiting skysrapers, appreciating the engineering and architecture.
A really enjoyable documentary called Man on a Wire came out a few years ago. It was the story of tight-rope artist Philippe Petit who performed between the towers in an illegal stunt in the 70s. The images of Petit walking the wire a thousand feet in the air are really thrilling. But I found the backdrop of the movie interesting too. It went into the people and politics that got the towers erected in the first place.
Standing on the WTC perimeter now you just see a big empty space. Construction barriers of plywood and plastic mesh limit the view from the street. The tips of tall cranes are visible, pushing out from the belly of the foundation for the new towers. I couldn’t help but raise my head to the sky and stare straight up where those towers had been. They had seemed unmovable and timeless. But in the end as fragile and vulnerable to an unimaginable disaster as the tsunami that wiped out Sendai in Japan.
The new memorial opens on September 11. Probably with a lot of partisan, election-cycle screed. But after that it should settle into use as a quiet oasis of reflection within the hustle and bustle of the surrounding financial complex. I always thought the Vietnam Veterans Memorial got it just right. It doesn’t have statues of soldiers on horses with guns or dates and places of battles. Just the names of those who died inscribed on a long, dark mirror flowing along the curve of a slight hill. Really powerful in its subdued nature and message. Hopefully the 9/11 Plaza will be something similar.
