Volta
Culture11 September 2011

National September 11 Memorial

Also called: 9/11 Memorial, Reflecting Absence

On 11 September 2011, the tenth anniversary, two memorial pools opened in the footprints of the fallen towers, with the names of 2,983 people inscribed in bronze around them. In 2014 the new One World Trade Center opened beside them.

The memorial pool in the south tower’s footprint, with names inscribed on the bronze parapet
The memorial pool in the south tower’s footprint, with names inscribed on the bronze parapet

Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0 · Source

The memorial leaves the footprints of the two towers empty and sets in each a square pool of nearly an acre. Water pours down the four walls and disappears into a deeper void at the centre. Designed by the Israeli-American architect Michael Arad, it is called “Reflecting Absence”.

Bronze parapets around the pools carry the names of the 2,983 people killed on 11 September 2001 and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They are arranged not alphabetically but so that people who worked together, flew together or asked to be near one another stand side by side.

In November 2014 the new One World Trade Center opened beside them, its height of 1,776 feet (541 m) recalling the year of American independence.

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The map in 2011

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States and rulers at the time
United States — President Barack Obama
Places
World Trade Center

Before and after

Earlier
2007 Korea–US Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
Later
2018 Singapore Summit

Themes that include this event

  • The September 11 Attacks1988 – 2014

    Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the four airliners hijacked on the morning of 11 September 2001 and the fall of the twin towers, the closing of the American sky, twenty years of war in Afghanistan and the death of bin Laden, and the memorial pools in the towers’ footprints