Reflections on the 9/11 Memorial

Reflections on the 9/11 Memorial

Posted: September 22, 2011

VISITOR: I've been to a lot of memorials—Gettysburg, Valley Forge—and I think it's very important for people to have that memory of the sacrifices that were made.

VISITOR: It's very moving, and it's graceful, and it's also dignified. It's beautiful. The only other memorial that I can think of that comes close would be the Pyramids.

VISITOR: It's stunning. It's so peaceful, it's so vast, it seems a very fitting tribute. And as long as it takes you to walk around, you realize how many lives were lost.

VISITOR: You see all the names around the two pools, and it's in your face. You really see the names, and you see the people and where they died. It's something.

VISITOR: I'm really impressed by the design. I like the fact that the architect chose to put the pools in the footprint of the buildings. I thought that was really ingenious. The middle part of the pool, you can't—from no angle can you see how deep it is. It's profound because it represents that it's just endless.

VISITOR: You can actually reach right under the names and touch the water, which I thought was fascinating. The vistas, the rebuilding also, as a New Yorker, is very inspiring.

VISITOR: This is not just for now. It's for generations in the future to learn about what happened.