9/11 Museum and Memorial

by Heather Alper

Both the 9/11 museum and the 9/11 memorial are powerfully striking. They are extremely well structured and trigger deep emotions in visitors.

The memorial’s use of water is interesting. The square gap in the ground creates a feeling of absence. The water flowing into the large hole appears to symbolize life going down the drain. Furthermore, the seemly endless second square that the water flows into appears to indicate that the civilians’ lives are eternally lost and mourned over.

The museum’s use of space and light is extremely effective in portraying the story of 9/11. Upon entering the exhibit, there is a large picture of the New York City Skyline. A shadow is cast upon the upper left corner of the photo–coming from the darkness of the following exhibit. This shadow appeared to be approaching the towers. This was very well done because the variation in lighting served to symbolize the impending doom approaching the World Trade Center.

The museum also tugged on my emotional strings because of the way it is personalized. Throughout the museum, there are different gadgets available to pick up that one puts to one’s ear to hear audio recordings. Some devices play dialogue between staff involved in handling the 9/11 attack. You can hear the shock and fear in their voices. There are also powerful recordings that play the messages family members left for their loved ones while on the doomed flights. They were forced to tell their families that they were on a hijacked plane and they hope they will make it home, but that the chances of making it off the plane safely were not in their favor. Passengers were expressing their love for their families and their distress regarding their horrible fate. This was extremely powerfully striking and evoked a sense of sorrow and empathy. Unfortunately, the people who made those calls never got to speak to their families again.