If the sight of Ground Zero seems insufficient to get an idea of what the tragedy of 9/11 entailed, you may want to know that many nearby sights have proliferated, where tributes and exhibitions explain how people experienced the days after the terrible attacks. Certainly, visiting each of these places may seem excessive, but if your itinerary coincides with any of them, you may want to stop on your way.
The 9/11 Tribute Center museum is located on 120 Liberty Street and attempts to explain the tragedy from the point of view of people who experienced it directly in one way or another. It was founded by the September 11th Families Association and consists of five galleries, in which photographs, audio files and objects that were recovered from the ruins are shown. Perhaps, the guided tours around Ground Zero are the most remarkable parts, which are performed by survivors, firefighters, neighbours, volunteers or relatives of victims, who bring along their personal experiences of the tragedy.
Located on Memorial Plaza, on the grounds of the New World Trade Center, you will find the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. This museum pays tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks of 11 September 2001 and of 26 February 1993, both occurred at the World Trade Center.
Another very famous pilgrimage site is St Paul's Chapel. Built in 1764, it is the oldest church in New York and, considering its close location to the disaster area, it is miraculous how it emerged unscathed. Not even a window cracked due to the explosions. In fact, St Paul's already survived the great fire of 1776, whereby it is not surprising that it has become a sanctuary of hope. After the attacks of 9/11, the church served as a place of rest and refuge for those who worked in the rescue effort at Ground Zero. Hundreds of volunteers came to cooperate and many people left flowers, pictures, notes and other memorabilia on the outer fence of the chapel. Most of these objects are still on display in the parish.
This type of exhibitions have been extended and now almost all fire stations in Lower Manhattan and the surrounding districts show tributes to lost comrades on 11 September, which can be clearly seen from the street. The New York City Fire Museum, built as a firehouse in 1904, also offers an exhibition of this kind. Especially poignant is the FDNY Memorial Wall, a monument engraved on the facade of the FDNY Engine 10 Ladder 10 firehouse, located on 124 Liberty Street, at the intersection of Greenwich and Liberty streets. It is a wall with a 17-metre-long bronze engraving illustrating scenes from the rescue work carried out on 11 September and on which the names of the firefighters of this station who died in the 11 September attacks can be read. This sculpted wall, which was unveiled on 10 June 2006, is a tribute to the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the 11 September attacks.
Finally, six months after the attacks two temporary memorials were inaugurated. One of them can be seen in Battery Park. It is The Sphere, which contains the damaged remains of the central fountain that was located in the former World Trade Centre and was designed by Fritz Koenig as a symbol of world peace. On 11 September 2002, the eternal flame that accompanies the current monument was ignited. The second tribute is called Tribute in Light and consists of 88 7,000-W light beams pointing to the sky, thus forming two huge blue columns. Although they are located at some distance from the place where the Twin Towers fell, the effect is daunting. Currently, the lights are only turned on on 11 September.
