Last weekend, my college roommate and I spent our fall break visiting New York City. Our first stop was The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Located on Fifth Avenue, it is the largest art museum in the United States, it is an absolute must see. We then headed to Greenwich Village, located on the west side of Lower Manhattan, and where Washington Square Arch stands it seems just to welcome you in. You can’t help but feel energized because everyone, it seems, has somewhere to go or something to do. There is definitely an air of excitement that grabs you. October is a great time to visit New York City, blue skies, cool sunshine, and crisp air. There is so much to look at, even if you just stroll along Fifth Avenue and Broadway.
On our last day before heading back to school, my roommate and I decided we wanted to see The Reflecting Pools at Ground Zero. We purchased our tickets online the night before and took the train from my home in New Jersey early the next morning. The National Memorial is a tribute to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center, Shanksville, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February of 1993. I was surprised to learn that in February of 1993, a bomb was set off in the basement of the World Trade Center and took the lives of six people, injured over one thousand people, and forced the World Trade Center to tighten its security. The bomb was intended to destroy both the North and South Tower, however only the garage was severely damaged.
The twin Reflecting Pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in North America. The pools sit where the Twin Towers once stood. The names of everyone who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze plaques sounding the Memorial Pools. The museum takes you underground, literally. As we descended the stairs into the Memorial Exhibition, The Survivors’ Staircase was to our right. It was originally two outdoor flights of stairs and an escalator that connected Vesey Street to the World Trade Center. During the September 11 attacks, the stairs became an escape route for hundreds of people from 5 World Trade Center, a ninth floor building next to the 110-story towers.
While the Museum is filled with massive pieces like the staircase, what we found most haunting were the small personal objects. There were reading glasses, wallets, credit cards, metro cards, even a flight attendant’s wing lapel.
Another exhibit we found very compelling was "Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning”. The piece comprises individual sheets of Fabriano Italian paper that each artist has hand-painted in different shades of blue with water colors. Each of the 2,983 squares represents one of the victims in the 2001 and 1993 attacks. My roommate and I came away with not only what was lost on that day but also what was gained. We both came away with an incredible sense of pride in the resilience of New York City and a sense of pride in our country. The message from the Museum at its core is “Never Forget”. But I believe it is more than that. The museum highlighted the heroism and bravery of the country as a whole and that message alone speaks volumes.
