NYC 9/11 Memorial and Museum

To get from our marina in Liberty Landing State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey to Manhattan we ride the little yellow Liberty Landing Water Ferry that runs from our marina to the Financial District in Manhattan every thirty minutes.

Then a short walk to the site of the new World Trade Center building, standing 1776' tall. Though the external structure is complete, they are still working on the interior and it has not yet opened to the public. 

The memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack by Muslim extremists is a somber, sacred place now with twin waterfalls cascading over what was once the footprint of the twin towers. The Port Authority of NewYork, which controls the site, has started the tradition of placing a single white rose on the name of each of the nearly three thousand innocent people murdered on 9/11 on the day of their birthday.

The lines are long to enter the the museum but move extremely quickly on the hour and half hour. 

One of the remarkable features of the engineering and construction of the original site was the Slurry Wall depicted here. This was, and is, part of the foundation of the twin towers that was deep underground and was built to hold back the waters of the Hudson River. Though this wall cracked during the attack, it did its job and held. If it had failed, the loss of life and property would have been much greater because all of lower Manhattan and the Financial District would have flooded. 

The last steel column removed from Ground Zero was called the Memorial Column. Seen here, starting at the top, are the organizations and the number of personnel they lost while trying to rescue people from the burning towers. PAPD (Port Authority Police Department) - 37; NYPD (NewYork Police Department) - 23; FDNY (New York Fire Department) - 343. The combined loss of these organizations is the largest single loss of rescue personnel ever recorded.

Segment of the Radio and Television Antenna that stood atop of the North Tower.

The remains of the FDNY Ladder Company 3 firetruck after being crushed by falling debris from the South Tower.

Scale model of the twin towers as they looked on the morning of September 11.

Called the Survivor's Staircase because of the hundreds of people who were able to escape down these stairs before the collapse of the towers and the only remaining intact stair case after both towers collapsed.

In much of the museum, photographs of any kind are prohibited due to the emotional impact they have on many of the people who view them. In fact, there are numerous exits from the museum for the people who feel they have seen enough and do not want to subject themselves to anymore emotional trauma by continuing to observe the exhibits and artifacts.