National September 11 Memorial and Museum

New York City is home to more than 200 buildings soaring 500 feet or taller, and the highly recognizable skyline of Manhattan's skyscrapers is a familiar scene in movies, postcards, and photographs. It seems your eye is forever being drawn up, up, up to appreciate the creative architecture, the beautiful palette of colors, and the myriad reflections off smooth glassy surfaces of buildings. In stark contrast to this towering city is the National September 11 Memorial. Two pools with the largest man made waterfalls in the United States are located within the footprints of the former Twin Towers, and no matter where you stand the falls appear to be flowing into a bottomless void. They are intended to symbolize the loss of life and the physical void left by the terrorist attacks in 2001, and the impact is quite effective. The sound of the falling water drowns out the sounds of the city making the site a contemplative sanctuary. Victims' names are inscribed on the outer walls of the waterfall, deeply etched, deep enough for visitors to insert sprigs of flowers and written notes of remembrance. A callery pear tree that managed to live through the devastation has since been nurtured back to health and replanted at the memorial site, and is now called the Survivor Tree. It was dark when we finished our tour of the indoor museum, and unexpectedly we were witnesses to the Tribute in Light, an illuminated memorial of two beams of blue light projecting 4 miles into the night sky. There really are no words to describe the range of emotions and reactions I felt during our visit to the Memorial and Museum. Hopefully the pictures can provide a small glimpse of the experience.