Trip Report n.12: The 9/11 Memorial

Last year for Memorial Day, after our visit on the USS Intrepid, we were driving through New York and realized that the 9/11 Memorial was finally open. We pulled over to try to figure out how to visit but closing time was approaching and tickets were definitely out of the question. And since then, visiting the memorial has been on our list of things to make sure we do before leaving.

It’s maybe somewhat fitting then that we made it back a year later… Memorial Day is effectively the unofficial start of summer here in the US and I love all the summertime things that go with it. But increasingly, as I get older, I find that it’s also incorporate something that’s actually “memorial” about it. After, it’s meant to honor those that gave a life so that we wouldn’t have to…

The 9/11 Memorial seemed like poignant way to come full circle… We are definitely of the generation (so to speak) that was marked in some way by the event, though we weren’t physically there. For diplo-husband, it was was why he left the private sector to come to the public…for me, it was almost the opposite. Because of all the security and process changes after the event, it was was stalled my own public sector career and effecitvely made me go private. We had a friend from my graduate school program with us for the visit, and for the two of us, the event completely changed the course of our international relations study in the two years that followed…

Of course in the ten years following, lots has happened….in politics…in policy…in military action….in civilian action….but things have also changed personally….and of all the things as a student of international relations that you do expect, there is a total shift in perception that you experience as a parent that you don’t. Seeing the memorial as a parent with my daughter in some ways completely redefines parts of the event that I otherwise didn’t consider or feel in the same way.

When you arrive at the Memorial there is a tremendous juxtaposition between the quiet calm of the memorial itself, and the city that surrounds all four sides, bustling about, full of construction and life. And that’s a good thing…one of the first trips I made when workign with my current company was to New York, already three or four years after 9/11. I was staying at that Hilton right by Ground Zero and the neighbordhood was quiet as can be, my room overlooking the awkward hole in the ground, fences still covered in posters and flowers. The fact that noise and life are back in that area is the way New York should be I think….

Despite all that’s going on, the Memorial itself is full of calm and serenity. The water rushing down the sides of the fountains drowns out all the voices and chatter, though I have to say, people are remarkably quiet in that space. It’s a tremendous amount of space to have right in the heart of a city like New York, and for all the years of arguments about what to do with the space, I think the city and designers did a phenomenal job on how this space turned out….very touching. The falling water of the fountains really balances the city growing up right around it – with the new world tower taking front and center of course…

You’ll see lots of flags, that’s for sure, but as you read the names on the memorial, you realize that the names are from all over…It also makes you realize how unique the make-up of the US really is – you can recognizes names from nearly any nationality there…And the memorial I think really goes out of its way to make the information available in scores of languages for the visitors that really are from around the world…

It’s not yet complete but the museum that will go along with the memorial symbolizes a fallen building, though most of the museum itself will actually be underground…

Unlike many memorials in DC to which you can walk in, please remember that you must book tickets (though they are free, there is a minimum processing charge and suggested donation) but it’s well worth doing. There is some controversy about the quote chosen from Virgil for the memorial in terms of the original context, but as a stand alone for now, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time”, are words that still somehow stay with you long after the visit is over…

Comments

1

Roxanne says:

June 11, 2013 at 2:32 pm

Beautiful photos! As someone who, among other topics, studies memorialization and collective memory, I would love to visit the memorial and cannot believe I haven't had the chance to do that yet. Thank you for telling its story.
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  Ania Ania says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 10:58 pm
  
  Roxanne, how interesting to study memorialization….i have a thing for memorials but never thought to think behind how they form collective memory – any recommended reading on the topic? Looking for something for my next plane ride!
3

Sara says:

June 11, 2013 at 4:44 pm

Lovely photos as always!
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  Ania Ania says:
  
  June 11, 2013 at 10:58 pm
  
  Thanks, Sara!
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snappystreet says:

June 12, 2013 at 1:18 am

What gorgeous photographs.

It looks like you were blesses with beautiful weather as well!
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  Ania Ania says:
  
  June 12, 2013 at 8:58 am
  
  We were indeed – the prior two days were so cold in the NY/NJ area but that day we lucked out….made it all the more beautiful!