9/11 We Will Remember!
Standing at the former site of the World Trade Center's twin towers in NYC is sobering. There is a somber, yet reverent feeling in the air -- a pull back to the tragic events of that fateful day in America's history. The area has been beautifully constructed to honor the victims and heroes of 9/11 and caused a huge stirring of added patriotism to swell in our hearts.
St. Paul's Chapel
This Episcopal parish opened in 1697. It was the first Anglican Church in Manhattan and is located right next to where the Trade Center towers stood. It was one of the primary places that took in, housed, fed, cared for and comforted the first responders to the tragedy. For eight months, workers came here for a quick meal, a nap on a hard bench and/or minor medical care after their long and wrenching shifts at the WTC site.
"The fence around the church grounds became the main spot for visitors to place impromptu memorials to the event. After it became filled with flowers, photos, teddy bears, and other paraphernalia, chapel officials decided to erect a number of panels on which visitors could add to the memorial. Estimating that only 15 would be needed in total, they eventually required 400." (from Wikipedia)
There are many of those mementos from that time period on display-- pictures, hats, uniforms, dishes, thousands of peace cranes and artwork and letters sent from people around the world encouraging the crews at work to rescue survivors and sift the rubble. St. Paul's became a place for solace and gathering during that period.
(Additional bits of interesting history: The maroon chair and eagle picture sit on one side of the chapel; it is the area George Washington sat in when he attended services there and prayed after his inauguration as President in 1789. The pale, pastel interior of the church with its cut glass chandeliers has a cozy atmosphere. It is the oldest public building in continuous use in NYC).
Honoring Heroes -- 9/11 Museum
The Lower East Side's Tenement Museum was fascinating! Its focus is the American immigrant's history. Featuring a 5-story brick building that approximately 7,000 people from over 20 countries called home between 1863 and 1935, it is like a time capsule.
Restored and not-restored places depict the lives of immigrants who lived here and feature furniture, dishes, clothing, mementos, stories and even "sweat shops" where sewing was done for the garment industry at that time. The cramped, dark, spaces with no amenities per se, speak of these people's desire to do whatever it took to make a new and better life in this land of opportunity.
Quite a peek into another time! They must have been made of some strong stuff to leave everything they knew -- family, friends, home, country, cultures -- to begin anew in a foreign land. Modern pioneers after a fashion you might say.
A sweeping tribute to those thousands of people killed by terrorist attack on our country on September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993, the museum and memorial reflect honor, respect and resolve.
Cascading fountains mark the downed towers' footprints surrounded by borders etched with each victim's name. It is a solemn reminder of that world-changing event that was also very individual.
The mission statement of the corporation that manages the memorial states it best in one of its goals:
"May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance and intolerance."
In beautiful tribute to those lost that day, the museum is expertly created to pay homage to them and those who served with such compassion in their behalf and for the cause of freedom. It features 23,000 images, 10,300 artifacts and nearly 2,000 oral histories of those killed.
One of my favorite pieces at the museum was the tattered American flag that once hung on a building across from the WTC. The construction superintendent of the WTC clean-up noticed the flag, had it taken down and, over time, took it with him to other locations suffering from disasters. Citizens at those sites began to restore the damaged flag by patching it with pieces of other damaged flags from their community. And so it continued.
Ten years after September 11, the flag had traveled to all 50 states and received patches or threads from flags from each location. It includes pieces from flags that flew at Pearl Harbor, Fort Sumter where the Civil War began, Ford Theater where Pres. Lincoln was shot, and New Orleans where Hurricane Katrina hit hardest, to name a few.
Soaring skyscraper One World Trade Center (or Freedom Tower) dominates that area's portion of the skyline. Its shimmery height sits in the World Trade Center Complex. Interestingly enough, it's height is a symbolic 1,776 feet.
The American spirit is not dampened -- our love of freedom burns on.
Tenement Museum
Restored and not-restored places depict the lives of immigrants who lived here and feature furniture, dishes, clothing, mementos, stories and even "sweat shops" where sewing was done for the garment industry at that time. The cramped, dark, spaces with no amenities per se, speak of these people's desire to do whatever it took to make a new and better life in this land of opportunity.
Quite a peek into another time! They must have been made of some strong stuff to leave everything they knew -- family, friends, home, country, cultures -- to begin anew in a foreign land. Modern pioneers after a fashion you might say.
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