Monumental decisions: memorials under way to honor victims of Sept. 11: from flowers at fence lines to towering beams of light, Americans remember those who died in the terrorist attacks until permanent memorials are built

VFW Magazine, May, 2002 by Shannon Hanson

Americans have a long history of memorializing the dead. Presidents (Washington, Lincoln), wars (Korea, Vietnam) and violent events (Oklahoma City and USS Cole bombings) are commemorated with symbolic structures where the living can go to remember and honor those who died.

After the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, people around the world began memorializing the unknown victims at once. As the days passed, Americans knew they would need a place to visit and reflect. While there are no current plans for an all-inclusive Sept. 11 memorial, the dead of all three hostile events of that day will be remembered individually.

WORLD TRADE CENTER

In the days following Sept. 11, spontaneous shrines to victims began appearing in lower Manhattan. Flowers, candles, photographs, artwork and written expressions of grief accumulated all over the city. Without one gathering place for everyone to mourn, New Yorkers created their own memorials.

The New York Historical Society opened the exhibit "Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning," which examines these shrines and includes pieces of them. According to the New York Times, curator Dr. Steve Zeitlin said such tangible tributes transformed the city "into a palace of memory, where the magnitude of the expression attempted to match the magnitude of the loss."

From these initial remembrances for the 2,830 killed, New York City now has two temporary memorials. March 11, the six-month anniversary of the attacks, saw the unveiling of "The Sphere" near ground zero. The 45,000-pound steel and bronze sculpture once stood in the fountain of the trade center plaza. It was damaged in the attack, and is now the centerpiece of a families-only area in Battery Park.

Also presented on that day was Tribute in Light, two pillars of light that were beamed into the sky every night until April 13. In ideal weather conditions, the ghostly towers, created by 88 spotlights one block from ground zero, were visible 20 miles away. Con Edison donated the estimated $10,000 worth of electricity.

Though most temporary memorials came together smoothly, a permanent World Trade Center memorial probably won't. A debate has erupted over the future of the 16-acre site where the towers stood. As Jean Marbella reflected in the Baltimore Sun: "The city finds itself caught between two conflicting impulses: looking back in remembrance or rebuilding for the future."

Family members want the entire site dedicated as a memorial, since it is a burial ground for more than 2,100 unrecovered victims. But those whose livelihoods depended on the business area would like to see it return as close to normal as possible.

"Urban settings are fairly loath to designate any ground off limits because civilizations are kind of layered on one another," said James Young, author of The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning.

But Ron Shiffman, director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development in Brooklyn, told the Baltimore Sun that a consensus does seem to be forming: "Most of the groups interested in redeveloping the site want a memorial included and the street grid to be restored in place of the former plaza."

Whether this kind of compromise satisfies the victims' families remains to be seen.

The next question is what kind of memorial should it be? The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. was created to handle the rebuilding project and is grappling with ensuring that everyone is represented in the decision-making.

According to the National Journal, decision-makers include "five advisory councils (representing victims' families; downtown residents; retailers; tourism and arts interests; and VIPs of politics, business and labor) ... the mayor, the governor, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which owns the land), [Larry A.] Silverstein [a developer who holds the lease], various interest groups and more."

These groups must come together and find a common idea that is timeless, tasteful and designed with the memory of Sept. 11 still fresh in everyone's minds. Based on. these criteria, Jonathan Rauch of National Journal suggests a cemetery.

Cemeteries "are profoundly moving because they recognize that there are times and places where the dead speak more eloquently than the living," he wrote. "Part of the site should be returned to the living, but part should remain forever what it became after Sept. 11: a place of burial and mourning."

Other suggestions have included a cemetery at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, which now holds much of the rubble and remains from ground zero. Fred Bernstein, an architectural writer in New York, also suggested building two piers into New York Harbor. Each pier would be the exact size of one of the towers in width and length, allowing walkers to experience the full size of the buildings.

In U.S. News & World Report, Linda Kulman wrote: "Whatever shape the memorial assumes, says New York architect Marion Weiss, it must address `the terror of forgetting,' the fear that lies behind all memorials."