National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The National September 11 Memorial was conceived as a tribute of remembrance and honor to the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Following a global design competition that received over 5,000 entries from 63 nations, the proposal 'Reflecting Absence' by Michael Arad and Peter Walker was selected. The memorial occupies eight of the sixteen acres of the original World Trade Center site, serving as a focal point for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. The design features two massive reflecting pools set within the footprints of the original Twin Towers. Each pool is approximately an acre in size and features the largest man-made waterfalls in North America, with water cascading 30 feet down the sides into a square basin and then dropping another 20 feet into a smaller central void. The names of the victims are inscribed on bronze parapets surrounding the pools, organized through a system of 'meaningful adjacencies' that places colleagues, friends, and family members next to one another. Since its dedication on the tenth anniversary of the attacks in 2011, the memorial has become one of the most visited sites in the United States. It is surrounded by a plaza of more than 400 swamp white oak trees, creating a rustling canopy of green in the summer and a stark, somber atmosphere in the winter. The site stands not only as a graveyard and a place of mourning but also as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring strength of the city of New York.