New York: A decade after the Twin Towers were
razed to the ground in the 9/11 attacks, an altered Ground
Zero will be unveiled to the public, with waterfalls,
reflecting pools and hundreds of trees at the site honouring
the memory of the nearly 3000 victims of the terror strike.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has asked citizens to
refer to the new WTC site as the 9/11 Memorial and not as
`Ground Zero` any more.
The `9/11 Memorial` is located at the site of the former
World Trade Centre complex in lower Manhattan and occupies
approximately half of the 16-acre area.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will
dedicate the memorial in a ceremony on Sunday and it will open
to the public on September 12.
"We will never forget the devastation of the area that
came to be known as `Ground Zero`. Never. But the time has
come to call those 16 acres what they are: The World Trade
Center and the National September 11th Memorial and Museum,"
Bloomberg said.
A 104-storey `1 World Trade Center`, 40-storey `4 World
Trade Center` and `7 World Trade Center` have been constructed
at the site.
The memorial has twin reflecting pools, each nearly an
acre in size, and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in
North America.
The pools sit within the footprints where the twin
towers once stood.
The memorial`s design was selected by architect Michael
Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker from a global
competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63
nations.
Inscribed on bronze panels edging the pools are the
names of every person who died in the 2001 attacks in New
York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon as well as the six people
killed in the February 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
The theme of the pools is `reflecting absence`.
The site also has the `Survivor Tree`, a pear tree that
was rescued from the WTC site after the terrorist attacks.
The tree was taken to a nursery in the Bronx near here
and was replanted late last year at the memorial site.
More than 400 trees will be planted at the memorial
plaza, considered to be one of the most eco-friendly sites.
Crews selected and harvested the trees from within a
500-mile radius of WTC, locations in Pennsylvania and near
Washington - the site of the attacks.
The trees would surround the two pools, conveying a
spirit of "hope and renewal`.
Apart from the memorial, work continues on a `9/11
Museum`, which will open on the next 9/11 anniversary in 2012.
The Museum would display artifacts associated with the
events of 9/11 and focus on the "human dimension of history by
narrating the personal stories behind these events."
"By demonstrating the consequences of terrorism on
individual lives and communities, it is our hope that the
National September 11 Memorial Museum can embody the promise
of a world in which it should be impossible for people to go
to work in the morning only to get caught in the vortex of
terrorism," Vice President for Programmes, Memorial Museum
Alice Greenwald Executive said.
Artifacts on display at the museum would include
photographs, audio and video tapes, recorded testimonies,
digital files, recovered property, clothing, workplace
memorabilia, incident-specific documents and original writings
including letters, e-mails and diaries that would help
illuminate people`s experiences during and after the September
2001 and February 1993 attacks.
PTI
