National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox building The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum that are part of the World Trade Center complex, in New York City, created for remembering the September 11 attacks in 2001 which killed 2,977 people, as well as the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing which killed six.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. It is operated by a non-profit institution whose mission is to raise funds to program and operate the memorial and museum at the World Trade Center site.

A memorial was planned in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and destruction of the World Trade Center for the victims and those involved in rescue and recovery operations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The winner of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was Israeli-American architect Michael Arad of Handel Architects, a New York City and San Francisco–based firm. Arad worked with landscape-architecture firm Peter Walker and Partners on the design, creating a forest of swamp white oak trees with two square reflecting pools in the center marking where the Twin Towers stood.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In August 2006, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began heavy construction on the memorial and museum.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The design is consistent with the original master plan by Daniel Libeskind, which called for the memorial to be Template:Convert below street level—originally Template:Convert—in a plaza, and was the only finalist to disregard Libeskind's requirement that the buildings overhang the footprints of the Twin Towers. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation was renamed the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A dedication ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the attacks was held at the memorial on September 11, 2011, and it opened to the public the following day. The museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014, with remarks from Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama. Six days later, the museum opened to the public. Template:TOC limit

History

Planning

Template:Quote box Formerly the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was formed as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation to raise funds and manage the memorial's planning and construction. Its board of directors met for the first time on January 4, 2005, and it reached its first-phase capital-fundraising goal ($350 million) in April 2008. This money and additional funds raised will be used to build the memorial and museum and endow the museum.

In 2003, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation launched the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, an international competition to design a memorial at the World Trade Center site to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11. Individuals and teams from around the world submitted design proposals.<ref name=timeline-cnn/> On November 19, 2003, the thirteen-member jury selected eight finalists.<ref name=timeline-cnn/> Reflecting Absence, designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, was chosen as the winning design on January 6, 2004.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It consists of a field of trees interrupted by two large, recessed pools, the footprints of the Twin Towers. The deciduous trees (swamp white oaks)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> are arranged in rows and form informal clusters, clearings and groves. The park is at street level, above the Memorial Museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The names of the victims of the attacks (including those from the Pentagon, American Airlines Flight 77, United Airlines Flight 93, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing) are inscribed on the parapets surrounding the waterfalls<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in an arrangement of "meaningful adjacencies".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> On January 14, 2004, the final design for the World Trade Center site memorial was unveiled at a press conference in Federal Hall National Memorial.<ref name="timeline-cnn">Template:Cite news</ref>

As mandated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation owns, operates and finances the Reflecting Absence Memorial and the Museum. John C. Whitehead, chair of the LMDC and the foundation, announced his resignation in May 2006 and was replaced at the LMDC by former president Kevin Rampe. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg replaced Whitehead as chair of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Foundation executive committee chair Thomas S. Johnson said on May 9, 2006:Template:Clear left

On May 26, 2006, Gretchen Dykstra resigned as president and chief executive officer of the World Trade Center Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Joseph C. Daniels was appointed as president and CEO in October 2006.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The memorial projects were toned down, and the budget was cut to $530 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite delays, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was confident that it would be completed by September 11, 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

National tour

In September 2007, the Memorial & Museum began a four-month national awareness tour of 25 cities in 25 states, and thousands participated in tour activities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The tour began at Finlay Park in Columbia, South Carolina, ending at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Highlights included an exhibition of photographs, artifacts from the site, and a film with firsthand accounts from individuals who had directly experienced the attacks. At the opening ceremony in South Carolina, the students of White Knoll Middle School (who raised over $500,000 in 2001 for a new truck for the New York City Fire Department) were honored, and retired New York City police officer Marcelo Pevida presented the city with an American flag that had flown over Ground Zero. The main attractions of the 2007 national tour were steel beams, later used in the construction of the memorial, for visitors to sign.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Fundraising

Preliminary site plan for the rebuilt World Trade Center

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum conducts a "cobblestone campaign", in which a contributor may sponsor a cobblestone that will line the Memorial plaza. Donors are recognized on the Memorial's website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Donors are able to locate their cobblestone by entering their name at a kiosk on the Memorial plaza.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2008 the Memorial conducted two holiday cobblestone campaigns: the first for Father's Day, and the second for the December holiday season.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On September 9, 2011, Secretary Shaun Donovan of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development said that the department had given $329 million to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum through HUD's Community Development Block Grant program.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to CNN, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey dropped its claim that the 9/11 Memorial & Museum owed it $300 million in construction costs in return for "financial oversight of the museum and memorial".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii sponsored S.1537, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Act of 2011, which would provide $20 million in federal funds annually toward the Memorial's operating budget (about one-third of its total budget). The legislation was presented to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on October 19, 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In return for federal funding S.1537 would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to accept the donation by the memorial's board of directors of title to the National September 11 Memorial, contingent on agreement by the board, the governors of New York and New Jersey, the Mayor of New York and the Secretary of the Interior. On October 19, 2011, William D. Shaddox of the National Park Service voiced concerns to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources about the agency's ability to provide the funds required by S.1537, testifying that NPS ownership of a property over which it would not have operational and administrative control (as stipulated by S.1537) was unprecedented.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Construction

Template:World Trade Center sidebar On March 13, 2006, construction workers arrived at the WTC site to begin work on the Reflecting Absence design. Some relatives of the victims and other concerned citizens gathered to protest the new memorial that day, saying that it should be built above ground. The president of the memorial foundation said that family members were consulted and formed a consensus in favor of the design, and work would continue as planned.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May, estimated construction costs for the Memorial were reported to have risen to over $1 billion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2006, at the request of Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki, builder Frank Sciame performed a month-long analysis that included input from victims' families, the lower Manhattan business and residential communities, architects and members of the memorial-competition jury. The analysis recommended design changes that kept the memorial and museum within a $500 million budget.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Survivors' Staircase, the first artifact placed inside the museum

In July 2008, the Survivors' Staircase was lowered to bedrock, making it the first artifact to be moved into the museum. By the end of August, the footings and foundations were completed. On September 2 construction workers raised the Template:Convert first column for the memorial, near the footprint of the North Tower.<ref name="newsday-firststeel">Template:Cite news</ref> By then, about 70 percent of the construction contracts were awarded or ready to award. A total of Template:Convert of steel were installed at the memorial site.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> By April 2010, the reflecting pools were fully framed in steel, and 85 percent of the concrete had been poured. By April 22, workers had begun installation of the granite coating for the reflecting pools. By June the North Pool's granite coating was completed, and workers had begun granite installation in the South Pool. In July, the first soil shipments arrived at the site, and in August workers began planting trees on the memorial plaza. The swamp white oaks can reach Template:Convert at maturity, live from 300 to 350 years, and their autumn leaves are gold-colored. The "Survivor Tree" is a Callery pear that survived the devastation and was kept for replanting.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In September, workers reinstalled two "tridents" salvaged from the Twin Towers.

In November 2010, workers began testing the North Pool waterfall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Construction progressed through early 2011: installation of glass panels on the museum pavilion's facade began in March, and workers began testing the South Pool waterfall two months later. Most of the memorial was finished in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, with the museum planned for completion the following year. By September 2, 243 trees were planted at the site and eight more were planted in the days before the memorial opened. By then, both pools were completed and the waterfalls were tested daily.

On September 12, 2011, one day after the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the memorial opened to the public with a lengthy set of rules and regulations approved by the foundation's board of directors. The period from September 11, 2011, to May 25, 2014, was known as the "interim operating period", when the memorial was surrounded by construction of neighboring World Trade Center projects; the fence was taken down on May 25, 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Three months after its opening, the memorial had been visited by over a million people.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Design

National September 11 Memorial & Museum in the new World Trade Center complex

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in June 2012

In January 2004, Reflecting Absence, by architect Michael Arad of Handel Architects and landscape architect Peter Walker, was selected from 5,201 entries from 63 countries as the winner of the LMDC's design competition. Two Template:Convert pools with the largest man-made waterfalls in the United States comprise the footprints of the Twin Towers, symbolizing the loss of life and the physical void left by the attacks. The waterfalls are intended to mute the sounds of the city, making the site a contemplative sanctuary. Landscape architect Peter Walker planted many parts of the memorial with white oaks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> More than 400 swamp white oak trees fill the Memorial plaza, enhancing the site's reflective nature.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pedestrian simulations tested the memorial's design. The pedestrian-modeling program Legion was used to simulate visitor utilization of the space, and its design was tweaked to prevent bottlenecks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The fountain was engineered by Delta Fountains.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

WSP Cantor Seinuk was the structural engineer, Jaros, Baum & Bolles provided MEP engineering, and Lendlease served as construction manager.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arrangement of the victims' names

The victims' names in the North Pool

Aerial view of the South Pool

The names of 2,983 victims are inscribed on 152 bronze parapets on the memorial pools:<ref name="names-esquire">Template:Cite web</ref> 2,977 killed in the September 11 attacks and six killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The names are arranged according to an algorithm, creating "meaningful adjacencies" based on relationships—proximity at the time of the attacks, company or organization affiliations (for those working at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon) and in response to about 1,200 requests from family members.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Software made by Local Projects<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> implemented the arrangement.<ref name="names-sci-amer">Template:Cite web</ref> All names are written in Optima typeface, using small capitals, for a "balanced appearance".<ref>Template:Cite web/</ref>

The names of the employees and visitors in the North Tower (WTC 1), the passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11 (which struck the North Tower), and the employees and a visitor of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing are around the perimeter of the North Pool. The names of the employees and visitors in the South Tower (WTC 2), the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 175 (which struck the South Tower), the employees, visitors, and bystanders in the immediate vicinity of the North and South Towers, the first responders who died during rescue operations, the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 (which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania) and American Airlines Flight 77 (which struck the Pentagon), and the employees at the Pentagon are around the perimeter of the South Pool.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Company names are not included, but company employees and visitors are listed together. Passengers on the four flights are listed under their flight numbers, and first responders with their units.

The process for arranging the names was finalized in a 2006 agreement, replacing an earlier plan to arrange the names randomly. According to Edith Lutnick (executive director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund), "Your loved ones' names are surrounded by the names of those they sat with, those they worked with, those they lived with and, very possibly, those they died with."<ref name="nyt-names">Template:Cite news</ref>

The six adult victims of the 1993 bombing are memorialized on Panel N-73 at the North Pool.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The phrase "and her unborn child" follows the names of ten pregnant women who died on 9/11 and one who died in the 1993 attack.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Survivor Tree

The Survivor Tree

A callery pear tree recovered from the rubble at the World Trade Center site in October 2001 was later called the "Survivor Tree".<ref name=downtownexpress-survivortree /><ref name="dnainfo-survivortree">Template:Cite web</ref> When the Template:Convert-tall tree was recovered,<ref name=abc-survivortree/> it was badly burned and had one living branch.<ref name=downtownexpress-survivortree /> The tree had been planted during the 1970s near buildings four and five, in the vicinity of Church Street.<ref name=starledger-survivortree/> Then-Memorial president Joe Daniels described it as "a key element of the memorial plaza's landscape".<ref name="downtownexpress-survivortree">Template:Cite web</ref>

In November 2001, the tree was moved by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to the Arthur Ross Nursery in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for care. It was then replanted in the Bronx on November 11, 2001.<ref name="nyt-survivortree">Template:Cite news</ref> The tree was not expected to survive, but it showed signs of new growth the following spring.<ref name=dnainfo-survivortree /> Although the memorial planning team intended to include the Survivor Tree, its permanent location was unknown at the time.<ref name="nyt-survivortree"/>

Still under the care of the Bronx nursery, the tree was replanted without significant damage in March 2010 after it was uprooted by a storm.<ref name="starledger-survivortree">Template:Cite web</ref> After the replanting, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "Again, we and the tree refused to throw in the towel. We replanted the tree, and it bounced back immediately."<ref name=downtownexpress-survivortree/> Also a few cuttings were taken from the original tree, which have become new trees themselves.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Survivor Tree has become a symbol of hope and rebirth; according to Arthur Ross Nursery manager Richie Cabo, "It represents all of us."<ref name=dnainfo-survivortree /> In an August 29, 2011 Port Authority press release (after Hurricane Irene), Daniels said: "True to its name, the Survivor Tree is standing tall at the Memorial."<ref name="portauthority-survivortree">Template:Cite web</ref> Keating Crown (a survivor of the attacks) said, "It reminds us all of the capacity of the human spirit to persevere."<ref name=dnainfo-survivortree /> A Place of Remembrance: Official Book of the National September 11 Memorial describes the tree as "a reminder of the thousands of survivors who persevered after the attacks".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In December 2010, the tree, then Template:Convert tall,<ref name=dnainfo-survivortree /> was returned to the World Trade Center site in a ceremony attended by Bloomberg, city officials<ref name="abc-survivortree">Template:Cite web</ref> (including Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Port Authority executive director Chris Ward), survivors and rescue and recovery workers.<ref name=dnainfo-survivortree /><ref name=abc-survivortree/> Although the tree is a prominent part of the memorial,<ref name="911memorial-survivortree">Template:Cite web</ref> six other "survivor trees" have been planted near New York City Hall and the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Of these survivor trees, three are callery pears and three are little-leaf lindens.<ref name="downtownexpress-survivortree"/>

Memorial Glade

Trees in the National September 11 Memorial

In May 2018, plans were revealed for a path through a "memorial glade" at the National September 11 Memorial. The glade and path honors first responders who later got sick or died after inhaling toxins at the World Trade Center site. According to 9/11 Memorial & Museum president Alice Greenwald and former Daily Show host Jon Stewart, the path was to be located on the southwest side of the memorial plaza, at the approximate site of a temporary ramp that first responders used during the cleanup effort. The path includes six large battered stones that, in the words of Michael Arad, "appear to jut up and out of the plaza as if violently displaced, and convey strength and resistance". Several pieces of debris from the original World Trade Center were also placed along the path.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The glade opened on May 24, 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Sphere

The Sphere in Liberty Park

The Sphere, a monumental cast bronze sculpture by German artist Fritz Koenig, was commissioned for the old World Trade Center and completed in 1971.<ref name="Sphere">Template:Cite web</ref> It stood on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza until the September 11 attacks. The sculpture was damaged but survived the attacks and was relocated to Liberty Park, adjacent to the Memorial, in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Controversies surrounding the Memorial

Mohammad Salman Hamdani

Although victims'-family groups agreed that names would be grouped by workplace or other affiliation, NYPD cadet Mohammad Salman Hamdani was not included with the other first responders or the other victims whose remains were found in the wreckage of the North Tower. His name appears on the memorial's panel S-66 for World Trade Center victims (next to a blank space along the South Tower perimeter), with those who did not fit into the groups created by the memorial committee or who had a loose connection to the World Trade Center. Hamdani's mother, Talat, has campaigned for the Memorial to acknowledge her son as a police cadet and first responder.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hamdani received a full police-department funeral after his body was found (months after the attacks), and 204th Street in Bayside, Queens, the street on which he lived, was renamed in his honor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Arabic-language brochures

Although the memorial's brochures were initially translated into at least ten languages, these languages did not include Arabic.<ref name="nypost1">Template:Cite news</ref> The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) questioned this decision in letters to memorial directors, and ADC director of communications and advocacy Raed Jarrar said: "Our fear is that there is a political intention behind the exclusion".<ref name="nypost1"/> A memorial representative told the New York Post, "As Arabic-speaking visitors currently represent our 25th-largest group, Arabic translations are not yet among the initial foreign-language editions."<ref name="nypost1"/>

In 2015, the ADC made an official complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which had given hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to the September 11 Memorial through block grants to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The committee stated that the Memorial's decision to not publish Arabic-language brochures violated HUD's Limited English Proficiency rules for grantees. In December 2017, the ADC announced that the Memorial had signed a settlement agreement whereby its commemorative guide would be translated into Arabic and made available.<ref name="adc">Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:AnchorMuseum

The National September 11 Museum building

Main hall of the Museum, showing the Last Column standing at center, and the original Slurry Wall of the "Bathtub" retaining wall around the foundation at left

The September 11 Museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> and opened to the public on May 21.<ref name="seven" /><ref name=":3" /> Its collection includes more than 40,000 images, 14,000 artifacts, more than 3,500 oral recordings, and over 500 hours of video.<ref name="seven"/>

History

The underground museum has artifacts from September 11, 2001, including steel from the Twin Towers (such as the Last Column, the last piece of steel to leave Ground Zero in May 2002). In December 2011, museum construction halted temporarily due to disputes between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Foundation over responsibility for infrastructure costs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On March 13, 2012, talks on the issue began,<ref name="Musuem Construction Updates">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> and construction resumed on September 10, 2012.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After a number of false opening reports, it was announced that the museum would open to the public on May 21, 2014.<ref name="two">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="three">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="latimes">Template:Cite news</ref>

Damaged fire truck of the New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 3 on display

Part of one of the hijacked aircraft

The museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref> In attendance were a range of dignitaries, from President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to former mayors David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg and then-mayor Bill de Blasio. During the hour-long ceremony LaChanze sang "Amazing Grace", which she dedicated to her husband Calvin Gooding, who was killed in the World Trade Center attack.<ref name="MuseumDedication">Template:Cite news</ref> During the five days between its dedication and the public opening, over 42,000 first responders and family members of 9/11 victims visited the museum.<ref name="five"/>

An opening ceremony for the museum was held on May 21,<ref name="seven">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> during which 24 police officers and firefighters unfurled the restored Template:Convert national 9/11 flag before it was brought into the museum for permanent display.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="nbcny">Template:Cite web</ref> The gates surrounding the museum were then taken down, marking their first removal since the attacks.<ref name=nbcny/> Opening day tickets quickly sold out.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite the museum's design to evoke memories without additional distress,<ref name="four">Template:Cite news</ref> counselors were available during its opening due to the large number of visitors.<ref name="five">Template:Cite news</ref>

Design

Designed by Davis Brody Bond, the museum is about Template:Convert below ground and accessible through a pavilion designed by Snøhetta.<ref name="nytimes">Template:Cite news</ref> The National September 11 Memorial Museum encloses Template:Convert of publicly accessible space.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The pavilion has a deconstructivist design, resembling a partially collapsed building (mirroring the attacks), and houses two "tridents" from the Twin Towers. One of the museum's walls is an exposed side of the slurry wall retaining the Hudson River, which remained intact through the September 11 attacks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> About half of what Daniel Libeskind originally wanted to preserve of the wall is visible in the museum.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Other Ground Zero artifacts include wrecked emergency vehicles (including a fire engine deformed from the collapse), pieces of metal from all seven World Trade Center buildings, recordings of survivors and first responders (including 911 calls, pictures of all victims, photographs from the wreckage, and other media detailing the destruction [including the crashes, collapse, fires, those who jumped, and the cleanup]).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Waterford Crystal "Hope for Healing" panels from the Times Square Ball for New Year's Eve 2002—which were inscribed with the names of emergency organizations and countries that had taken casualties in the attacks—were also donated to the museum's collection.<ref name="911museum-crystals">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The museum is designed to evoke memories without additional distress, particularly to first responders and the victims' families.<ref name="four" />

The Huffington Post wrote that "walking through the museum is like being transported back to the turmoil, destruction and anguish of 9/11. Exhibits express the disbelief and heartache of New York and the nation."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Controversies surrounding the Museum

Little Syria

A neighborhood that was once called Little Syria, a center of Christian Arab immigrant life in the United States beginning in the 1880s, once existed just south of the site of the World Trade Center.<ref name=LittleSyria/><ref name="remembering">Template:Cite web</ref> The cornerstone of St. Joseph's Lebanese Maronite Church was found under the rubble, next to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at 157 Cedar Street. Both congregations were founded by Christians who had fled Ottoman oppression in the Middle East.<ref name=LittleSyria>Template:Cite news</ref> Activists lobbied for the Museum to include a permanent exhibit about the neighborhood to "help the thousands of tourists who visit the site to understand that immigrants from Ottoman lands have played a patriotic role in the country's history,"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> arguing that it was important to memorialize the multiethnic character of "Little Syria."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The old Christian Syrian neighborhood was demolished in the 1940s due to the construction of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel.<ref name=LittleSyria/>

Museum operation

Template:Multiple image General admission tickets to the museum are $33,<ref>visit.911memorial.org</ref> a price that has raised concerns. Michael Bloomberg agreed, encouraging people to "write your congressman" for more federal funding.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

When the museum opened to victim families and first responders on May 15, 2014, anger by some that it was profiting from souvenirs considered in poor taste was widely covered.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Souvenir proceeds would fund the museum and memorial.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="NBCNews">Template:Cite news</ref> On May 29, 2014, a U.S.-shaped cheese platter was among items removed for sale, and it was announced that all items sold would be reviewed by victim families for suitability.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Families were further angered after a May 20, 2014 black-tie, VIP cocktail party for donors at the museum. Among the 60 attendees were former mayor Michael Bloomberg and representatives of Condé Nast. Family members objected to a party near unidentified remains; the sister of victim Robert Shay, Jr. tweeted, "Did you enjoy having drinks on top of my brother's grave last night?" Shay and dozens of other visitors were angered that first responders were turned away from the museum the previous day while staff prepared for the party. She said, "I am outraged that I can't visit my brother's final resting place without an appointment but people like Mike Bloomberg can wine and dine there whenever they want. This memorial and museum is sacred ground and last night it was desecrated." A retired FDNY fire marshal said, "You don't have cocktail parties at a cemetery."<ref name=NBCNews/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A mid-2014 proposal to open a Danny Meyer cafe in the museum's atrium was criticized.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Placement of unidentified remains

In an early-morning ceremony on May 10, 2014, the long-unidentified remains of 1,115 victims were transferred from the city medical examiner to Ground Zero, where they would be placed in a repository space in the bedrock Template:Convert below ground as part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Reaction from the victims' families to the move was divided, with some supporting the decision and others calling the location inappropriate. Among the latter was FDNY Lt. James McCaffrey, the brother-in-law of 9/11 victim and firefighter Orio Palmer, who called a ground-level tomb a more dignified location: "The decision to put the human remains of the 9/11 dead in this basement is inherently disrespectful and totally offensive." McCaffrey said that the remains deserved a prominence equal to that of the Memorial's trees and pools, and that the ceremony was held early in the morning because of opposition to the decision.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As of 2025, 11 of the remains have been identified and have been removed and repatriated to their families.

Withdrawn proposals

Two centers were proposed and withdrawn from the World Trade Center Memorial plan in 2005:

• The International Freedom Center – a think tank intended to draw attention to battles for freedom throughout history. World Trade Center Memorial Foundation member Deborah Burlingame wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the center would have a mission with no direct connection to the events of September 11 and might criticize American policy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Right-wing blogs and commentators heavily criticized the center until Governor George Pataki withdrew support for it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• The Drawing Center Art Gallery at the World Trade Center – an art gallery that was in SoHo at the time.

Plans called for the Freedom Center to share space with the Drawing Center in a building known as the Cultural Center. Of the dispute over the proposed centers, one New York Times editorial argued that the IFC's opponents made trivial and unconvincing suggestions that both the IFC and the "cultural component" of architect Daniel Libeskind's plans would somehow diminish the scope of the Memorial Museum, and noted that the proposal for reducing the size of one of the centers had failed to consider the emotional impact of the space.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Other 9/11 memorials

Template:Main In addition to the one at the World Trade Center site, a number of other memorials have been built by communities across the United States. Many are built around remnants of steel from the Twin Towers that have been donated by a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey program; over 1,000 pieces of World Trade Center steel have been distributed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List of national memorials of the United States
• Memorials and services for the September 11 attacks
• Allison Gilbert, journalist and voice of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum audio tour
• Pamela Stafford, creator of New Hope mural
• Casualties of the September 11 attacks
• The Outsider (2021 film)

External links

• Template:Official website
• Photos of the memorial (archived January 30, 2013)
• The 9/11 memorial – Interview and footage of the WTC site
• Google Virtual Tour of the National September 11 Museum
• Michael Arad 9/11 Memorial Papers at N-YHS