BGuthrie Photos: NY -- NYC -- National September 11 Memorial Museum

NY -- NYC -- National September 11 Memorial Museum:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. 911MU1_161220_030.JPG: About 8:30am September 11, 2001 Lower Manhattan, View from Brooklyn
2. 911MU1_161220_040.JPG: September 11, 2001
3. 911MU1_161220_053.JPG: 8:46am World Trade Center 9:03am
4. 911MU1_161220_072.JPG: Sign, Heritage Trails New York, circa 1995
5. 911MU1_161220_094.JPG: Slurry Wall Segment
6. 911MU1_161220_096.JPG: The Last Column
7. 911MU1_161220_146.JPG: Dedication pedestal
8. 911MU1_161220_163.JPG: Section of steel facade, North Tower, floors 96-99
9. 911MU1_161220_171.JPG: The 1993 World Trade Center bombing
10. 911MU1_161220_186.JPG: Missing posters
11. 911MU1_161220_203.JPG: Segment of radio and television antenna, North Tower
12. 911MU1_161220_216.JPG: Trapped at the top of the North Tower
13. 911MU1_161220_234.JPG: Elevator motor
14. 911MU1_161220_242.JPG: Ladder Company 3
15. 911MU1_161220_252.JPG: Ladder Company 3 truck, New York City Fire Department
16. 911MU1_161220_266.JPG: Shirt worn by US Navy SEAL Team Six member during raid on Osama bin Laden's house
17. 911MU1_161220_270.JPG: 9/11 in the News: The Hunt for Osama bin Ladin
18. 911MU1_161220_274.JPG: Operation Neptune Spear commemorative coins
19. 911MU1_161220_283.JPG: Brick from Osama bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, Pakistan
20. 911MU1_161220_293.JPG: River water line valve
21. 911MU1_161220_304.JPG: Tieback
22. 911MU1_161220_305.JPG: Tieback installation, February 8, 2002
23. 911MU1_161220_308.JPG: The slurry wall
24. 911MU1_161220_317.JPG: Tiebacks, 1969
25. 911MU1_161220_327.JPG: The Last Column: Marker of loss
26. 911MU1_161220_330.JPG: The Last Column: Symbol at Ground Zero
27. 911MU1_161220_343.JPG: The Last Column
28. 911MU1_161220_348.JPG: The Last Column: Cut-down and removal ceremonies
29. 911MU1_161220_358.JPG: Fuel tank remnant
30. 911MU1_161220_369.JPG: The slurry wall
31. 911MU1_161220_375.JPG: American flag flown on the Last Column
32. 911MU1_161220_381.JPG: FDNY Squad 41 ax
33. 911MU1_161220_383.JPG: The slurry wall
34. 911MU1_161220_398.JPG: South Tower column
35. 911MU1_161220_408.JPG: South Tower glass
36. 911MU1_161220_429.JPG: My autograph. Visitor writings are added temporarily and gradually disappear.
37. 911MU1_161220_436.JPG: Construction ramp at the World Trade Center site, September 11, 2002
38. 911MU1_161220_464.JPG: The World Trade Center site, September 27, 2001
39. 911MU1_161220_469.JPG: World Trade Center tridents
40. 911MU1_161220_471.JPG: South Tower facade remnant, September 14, 2001
41. 911MU1_161220_473.JPG: Aluminum cladding
42. 911MU2_161220_001.JPG: Vesey Street stair remnant: The "Survivors' Stairs"
43. 911MU2_161220_014.JPG: Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning
44. 911MU2_161220_016.JPG: No Day Shall Erase You from the Memory of Time
45. 911MU2_161220_044.JPG: Vesey Street stair remnant: The "Survivors' Stairs"
46. 911MU2_161220_061.JPG: Reposed behind this wall are the remains of many who perished at the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001 The Repository is maintained by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York
47. 911MU2_161220_067.JPG: Box column remnants
48. 911MU2_161220_078.JPG: Looking South, 2003 by Daniel Kohn
49. 911MU2_161220_087.JPG: 9/11 Memorial Urn by Tom Lane
50. 911MU2_161220_100.JPG: Engraved Waterford crystal triangles from the 2001 Times Square New Year's Eve Ball
51. 911MU2_161220_115.JPG: FDNY Dream Bike
52. 911MU2_161220_130.JPG: National Tribute Quilt
53. 911MU2_161220_159.JPG: Mural created for the people of New York City
54. 911MU2_161220_162.JPG: South Tower Excavation
55. 911MU2_161220_171.JPG: Section of steel facade, North Tower, floors 93-96
56. 911MU2_161220_173.JPG: Zone of impact, North Tower, World Trade Center, September 11, 2001
57. 911MU2_161220_187.JPG: Box column remnant, South Tower, World Trade Center
58. 911MU2_161220_205.JPG: Tieback tool, circa 1966
59. 911MU2_161220_212.JPG: The Bathtub
60. 911MU2_161220_214.JPG: Excavation
61. 911MU2_161220_219.JPG: Diagram of slurry wall construction method
62. 911MU2_161220_232.JPG: Viscoelastic damper
63. 911MU2_161220_233.JPG: Wind tunnel tests, circa 1965
64. 911MU2_161220_236.JPG: Kangaroo cranes, circa 1969 Steel tridents being readied for delivery to the WTC site, 1968
65. 911MU2_161220_243.JPG: High-Rise Construction
66. 911MU2_161220_264.JPG: Ironworker thermoses
67. 911MU2_161220_270.JPG: The Highest Point The Deepest Point
68. 911MU2_161220_273.JPG: Souvenir key chain: A topping off ceremony celebrating the placement of the last steel bream on the North Tower was held on December 23, 1970. Ironworkers who helped build the tower, then known as Tower A, were given commemorative key chains to mark the accomplishment.
69. 911MU2_161220_280.JPG: Manhattan schist from the World Trade Center site
70. 911MU2_161220_285.JPG: Vertical Transportation and Retail Services Inside the World Trade Center
71. 911MU2_161220_288.JPG: Express Elevators and Sky Lobbies
72. 911MU2_161220_291.JPG: Concourse Mall and Trains
73. 911MU2_161220_297.JPG: Lower Manhattan
74. 911MU2_161220_302.JPG: Radio Row, 1936
75. 911MU2_161220_304.JPG: Architecture of the World Trade Center
76. 911MU2_161220_333.JPG: Architecture of the World Trade Center
77. 911MU2_161220_340.JPG: Protest, July 13, 1962
78. 911MU2_161220_344.JPG: Advertisement, May 2, 1968
79. 911MU2_161220_345.JPG: Street sign, pre-1918
80. 911MU2_161220_352.JPG: Colonial-era finds
81. 911MU2_161220_355.JPG: South Tower grillage
82. 911MU2_161220_363.JPG: The World Trade Center by the Numbers
83. 911MU2_161220_374.JPG: Painting to commemorate a gift of cows by the Maasai to the United States
84. 911MU2_161220_379.JPG: The Shield, 2002 by Red Grooms
85. 911MU2_161220_389.JPG: Remember by Emma Larson, age 12
86. 911MU2_161220_396.JPG: Lady Liberty
87. 911MU2_161220_410.JPG: Hope at Ground Zero FEMA photographs by Andrea Booher
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: National September 11 Memorial & Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (known separately as the 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum) are the principal memorial and museum, respectively. They commemorate the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed 2,977 victims, and the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, which killed six. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. It is operated by a non-profit corporation whose mission is to raise funds for, program, own, and operate the memorial and museum at the World Trade Center site.

A memorial was planned in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and destruction of the World Trade Center for the victims including those involved in rescue operations. The winner of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was Israeli architect Michael Arad of Handel Architects, a New York- and San Francisco-based firm. Arad worked with landscape-architecture firm Peter Walker and Partners on the design, a forest of trees with two square pools in the center where the Twin Towers stood. In August 2006, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began heavy construction on the memorial and museum. The design is consistent with the original Daniel Libeskind master plan, which called for the memorial to be 30 feet (9.1 m) below street level—originally 70 feet (21 m)—in a plaza, and was the only finalist to disregard Libeskind's requirement that the buildings overhang the footprints of the Twin Towers. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation was renamed the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in 2007.

On September 11, 2011, a dedication ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the attacks was held at the memorial. It opened to the public the following day; the museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014 and opened on May 21. Three months after its opening, the memorial had been visited by over a million people. In 2012 the 9/11 Tribute Center collaborated with the 9/11 Memorial to offer private tours, which are hosted by family members of victims, first responders, and survivors.

Background

National tour

In September 2007 the Memorial & Museum began a four-month national-awareness tour of 25 cities in 25 states, and thousands participated in tour activities. The tour began at Finlay Park in Columbia, South Carolina, ending at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Highlights included an exhibition of photographs, artifacts from the site and a film with firsthand accounts from individuals who had directly experienced the attacks. At the opening ceremony in South Carolina, the students of White Knoll Middle School (who raised over $500,000 in 2001 for a new truck for the New York City Fire Department) were honored and retired New York City police officer Marcelo Pevida presented the city with an American flag which had flown over Ground Zero. The main attractions of the 2007 national tour were steel beams, later used in the construction of the memorial, for visitors to sign.

Fundraising

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum conducts a "cobblestone campaign", in which a contributor may sponsor a cobblestone or paver which will line the Memorial Plaza. Donors are recognized on the Memorial's website. When it is completed, a donor will be able to locate their cobblestone or paver by entering their name at a kiosk on the Memorial Plaza. In 2008 the Memorial conducted two holiday cobblestone campaigns: the first for Father's Day, and the second for the December holiday season.

On September 9, 2011, Secretary Shaun Donovan of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development said that the department had given $329 million to the September 11 Memorial and Museum through HUD's Community Development Block Grant program. According to CNN, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey dropped its claim that the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation owed it $300 million in construction costs in return for "financial oversight of the museum and memorial".

The late Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii sponsored S.1537, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Act of 2011, which would provide $20 million in federal funds annually toward the Memorial's operating budget (about one-third of its total budget). The legislation was presented to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on October 19, 2011. In return for federal funding S.1537 would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to accept the donation by the memorial's board of directors of title to the National September 11 Memorial, contingent on agreement by the board, the governors of New York and New Jersey, the Mayor of New York and the Secretary of the Interior. On October 19, 2011 William D. Shaddox of the National Park Service voiced concerns to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources about the agency's ability to provide the funds required by S.1537, testifying that NPS ownership of a property over which it would not have operational and administrative control (as stipulated by S.1537) was unprecedented.

Museum

Main hall of the museum, showing the last column standing at center, and the "bathtub" retaining wall around the foundation at left
The September 11 Museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014 and opened to the public on May 21. Its exhibits include 23,000 images, 10,300 artifacts, nearly 2,000 oral histories of those killed – mostly provided by friends and families – and over 500 hours of video.

History

The underground museum has artifacts from September 11, 2001, including steel from the Twin Towers (such as the final steel, the last piece of steel to leave Ground Zero in May 2002). It is built at the former location of Fritz Koenig's The Sphere, a large metallic sculpture placed in the middle of a large pool between the Twin Towers. Battered but intact after the attacks, The Sphere was moved to be displayed at Battery Park.

In December 2011, museum construction halted temporarily due, according to the Associated Press, to disputes between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Foundation over responsibility for infrastructure costs. On March 13, 2012, talks on the issue began and construction resumed. After a number of false opening reports, it was announced that the museum would open to the public on May 21, 2014.

The museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014. In attendance were a range of dignitaries, from President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to former mayors David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg and current mayor Bill de Blasio. During the hour-long ceremony LaChanze sang "Amazing Grace", which she dedicated to her husband (who was killed in the World Trade Center that day). During the five days between its dedication and the public opening, over 42,000 first responders and family members of 9/11 victims visited the museum.

An opening ceremony for the museum was held on May 21, during which twenty-four police officers and firefighters unfurled the restored 30-foot (9.1 m) national 9/11 flag before it was brought into the museum for permanent display. The gates surrounding the museum were then taken down, marking their first removal since the attacks. Opening-day tickets quickly sold out. Despite the museum's design (to evoke memories without additional distress), counselors were available during its opening due to the large number of visitors.

Design

Designed by Davis Brody Bond, the museum is about 70 feet (21 m) below ground and accessible through a pavilion designed by Sn�hetta. The National September 11 Memorial Museum encloses 110,000 square feet (10,000 m2) of publicly accessible space. The pavilion has a deconstructivist design, resembling a partially collapsed building (mirroring the attacks), and houses two tridents from the Twin Towers. One of the museum's walls is an exposed side of the slurry wall retaining the Hudson River, which remained intact during (and after) September 11. Other Ground Zero artifacts include wrecked emergency vehicles (including a fire engine deformed from the collapse), pieces of metal from all seven World Trade Center buildings, recordings of survivors and first responders (including 911 phone calls), pictures of all victims, photographs from the wreckage and other media detailing the destruction (including the crashes, collapse, fires, those who jumped and the cleanup). The museum is designed to evoke memories without additional distress, particularly to first responders and the families of victims.

The Huffington Post wrote that "walking through the museum is like being transported back to the turmoil, destruction and anguish of 9/11. Exhibits express the disbelief and heartache of New York and the nation."

Controversies

Omission of Little Syria

The World Trade Center site was once part of Little Syria, the center of Arab life in the United States since the 1880s. The cornerstone of St. Joseph's Lebanese Maronite Church, was found under the rubble, next to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at 157 Cedar Street. Local historians and preservationists have requested that the National September 11 Museum include a reference to this history in the Museum's permanent exhibit to "help the thousands of tourists who visit the site to understand that Arab-Americans have played a patriotic role in the country's history." According to the New York Daily News, a museum spokesperson said that its "curators are not planning to include information about the area's Arab-American history in the museum's permanent collection." "Save Washington Street" advocates had approached the museum after hearing there would be a display about the construction of the World Trade Center site and the demolition of Radio Row, the electronic district cleared to make way for the towers. They have also articulated the need for recalling the multiethnic character of "Little Syria", and the Downtown Community House that served it, as extremely important for the historical memory of New York City and of the United States.

Museum operation

Tickets to the museum are $24, a price which has raised concerns. Michael Bloomberg agreed, encouraging people to "write your congressman" for more federal funding.

When the museum opened to victim families and first responders on May 15, 2014, anger by some that it was profiting from souvenirs considered in poor taste was widely covered. Souvenir proceeds would fund the museum and memorial. On May 29, 2014 a U.S.-shaped cheese platter was among items removed for sale, and it was announced that all items sold would be reviewed by victim families for suitability.

Families were further angered after a May 20, 2014 black-tie, VIP cocktail party for donors at the museum. Among the 60 attendees were former mayor Michael Bloomberg and representatives of Cond� Nast. Family members objected to a party near unidentified remains; the sister of victim Robert Shay, Jr. tweeted, "Did you enjoy having drinks on top of my brother's grave last night?" Shay and dozens of other visitors were angered that first responders were turned away from the museum the previous day while staff prepared for the party. She said, "I am outraged that I can't visit my brother's final resting place without an appointment but people like Mike Bloomberg can wine and dine there whenever they want. This memorial and museum is sacred ground and last night it was desecrated." A retired FDNY fire marshal said, "You don't have cocktail parties at a cemetery." A mid-2014 proposal to open a Danny Meyer restaurant in the museum was criticized.

Placement of unidentified remains

In an early-morning ceremony on May 10, 2014 the long-unidentified remains of 1,115 victims were transferred from the city medical examiner to Ground Zero, where they would be placed in a space in the bedrock 70 feet (21 m) below ground as part of the 9/11 Museum. Reaction from the victims' families to the move was divided, with some supporting the decision and others calling the location inappropriate. Among the latter was FDNY Lt. James McCaffrey, the brother-in-law of 9/11 victim and firefighter Orio Palmer, who called a ground-level tomb a more dignified location: "The decision to put the human remains of the 9/11 dead in this basement is inherently disrespectful and totally offensive." McCaffrey said that the remains deserved a prominence equal to that of the Memorial's trees and pools, and that the ceremony was held early in the morning because of opposition to the decision.

Withdrawn proposals

Two centers were proposed and withdrawn from the World Trade Center Memorial plan in 2005:

The International Freedom Center – a think tank intended to draw attention to battles for freedom throughout history. World Trade Center Memorial Foundation member Deborah Burlingame wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the center would have a mission with no direct connection to the events of September 11 and might criticize American policy. Right-wing logs and commentators heavily criticized the center until Governor George Pataki withdrew support for it.

Plans called for the Freedom Center to share space with the Drawing Center in a building known as the Cultural Center. Of the dispute over the proposed centers, one New York Times editorial stated not only that the IFC's opponents make trivial and unconvincing suggestions that both the IFC and the "cultural component" of architect Daniel Libeskind's plans would somehow diminish the scope of the Memorial Museum, but also that the proposal for reducing the size of one of the centers had failed to consider the emotional impact of the space.
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