9/11 Memorial & Museum

One World Trade Center or Freedom Tower (far left) is the tallest U.S. building

This post details the final destination of my December 2025 spotlight NYC tour. While the tour visit to Ellis Island and the immigrant experience was sobering, this visit to the World Trade Center (WTC) site was the most overwhelming, so many lives lost.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 will always be remembered no matter how much time has passed. I was living in my native NJ and remember exactly where and what I was doing that morning, countless others can do the same. The words Never Forget are seared in our collective memory.

Previously, I had been in the World Trade Center when the North and South towers were under construction and later attended a concert in the plaza. The December 2025 visit was my first trip back to the site. 

So much has changed in the years since the attacks and subsequent rebuilding. This post shows some of the buildings and structures there now.

Completed in 2014, One World Trade Center, known as One WTC or the Freedom Tower, is the main building of the rebuilt complex. It was designed by American architect David Childs, who recent died (March 2025). It's a prominent landmark in lower Manhattan with its distinctive spire. The skyscraper is the tallest U.S. building, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the 7th-tallest worldwide, and is the only U.S. building on the top 10 tallest list (Dubai has the tallest, then Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and China with the most at five.) . 

One World Trade Center or Freedom Tower

The skyscraper bears the same name as the original WTC North Tower destroyed in 2001. It's on the northwest corner of the 16-acre WTC site, on the site of the former 6 World Trade Center. Construction started in 2006 and was completed in May 2013 when the skyscraper's spire was installed making the building and its spire reach a total height of 1,776 feet. Yes, a deliberate reference to the year the U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed. 

The Koenig Sphere, damaged but still standing in Liberty Park

It was quite amazing to see this sculpture. The Koenig Sphere is a monumental 25-foot, 25-ton metallic sculpture made of cast bronze. Although badly damaged, it was the only remaining work of art to be recovered largely intact from the ruins of the Twin Tower. 

Created by German artist Fritz Koenig as Sphere for a Plaza Fountain, the sculpture was formerly positioned at the center of Austin J. Tobin Plaza between the Twin Towers from 1972 until 2011. After being dismantled and stored near JFK International Airport, the sculpture was installed in Battery Park between 2002 and 2017, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey moved it to Liberty Park, overlooking the 9/11 Memorial and its original location. 

North Tower Memorial Pool 

The footprints of the North and South Towers of the WTC are marked by twin reflecting memorial pools. These two large, nearly acre-sized pools sit in the original square footprints of the towers each nearly an acre in size. Each pool features the largest man-made waterfall in North America. Each pool has a 30-foot waterfall that cascades into a deep, central void, where the towers once stood to symbolize loss and remembrance. The names of 9/11 victims are engraved around the edges of the pools on bronze panels. A flower is placed by the name on his/her birthday.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum or the 9/11 Memorial & Museum honors the 6 people killed in the February 26, 1993 explosion at the WTC and the 2,997 who died September 11, 2001, and those who risked their lives to save others.

It is operated by a non-profit institution whose mission is to raise funds to program and operate the memorial and museum at the WTC site. The museum contains exhibitions and educational programs that highlight events before, during and after 9/11 through artifacts, photos, and testimonies. 

The Memorial Exhibition (In Memoriam) honors victims with a Wall of Faces and also with exhibits of personal items. There is a very emotional impact standing inside the room of this exhibit even though I did not know any of these people, such sadness for lives lost both ion the attacks and rescue attempts.

Here are photos and descriptions of some of the other exhibits. As with any tour, there was limited time, so I tried to take in as many exhibits as possible.

WTC North and South Towers before 2001 attacks

Construction of the WTC started in August 1966. At 110 stories each, 1 World Trade Center, North Tower and 2 World Trade Center, South Tower, provided nearly 10 million square feet of office space. The towers were the tallest buildings in NYC, and briefly were the tallest buildings worldwide at over a quarter of a mile high. The North Tower stood at 1,368 fee and the South Tower at 1,362 feet. In 1974, they were surpassed by the Sears (Willis) Tower.

Dedication pedestal was found damaged, but largely intact

The first tenants moved into 1 World Trade Center in December 1970 and into 2 World Trade Center 13 months later before construction of either was completed. The world’s then tallest buildings were dedicated in 1973. A stainless steel pedestal was installed on the 5-acre plaza to commemorate the event: In commemoration of the skill and industry of the thousands of construction workers and Port Authority personnel whose efforts created the World Trade Center | World Trade Center dedication day April 4, 1973

Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning

The quote, No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory of Time, is from The Aeneid by Roman poet Virgil. New Mexico artist Tom Joyce forged each letter from pieces of recovered WTC steel. The mosaic is by New England artist Spencer Finch. Each of the 2,983 squares represents a victim of the 1993 or 2001 WTC attacks. Every one of the watercolor squares is a shade of blue. The artwork revolves around memory showing that our perception of the color blue might differ from that of another person. 

Remnants of box columns

Steel columns, called box columns, formed the rectangular shape and hollow center provided structural support for the Twin Towers to create their distinctive facades. At the end of the recovery period, what remained of these columns was cut to a level elevation leaving the remnants visible. The North Tower footprint was outlined by 84 columns; the South Tower had 73 columns.

Survivors' staircase

This 37-step portion of staircase made of granite and concrete was the last visible remaining original structure above ground level at the WTC site. It was originally an outdoor flight of stairs and two escalators, which connected Vesey St to the Austin J. Tobin Plaza at the WTC. The stairs were an escape route for hundreds of evacuees from 5 World Trade Center, a 9-floor building adjacent to the Twin Towers. In 2010 it became part of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Prior to the attacks it weighed 175 tons and was 22 feet high.

South Tower column

This column once stood in the core of the South Tower, probably between floors 30 and 33. During the tower’s collapse, extreme stresses caused the multi-ton piece of steel to fold over onto itself. Three of the four welds that held the column together split open.

Section of steel facade, North Tower, floors 93-99

Highjacked Flight 11 ripped through the north facade of the North Tower and created a gash from the 93rd to 99th floors tearing apart steel columns weighing many tons. The underbelly of the aircraft mangled this facade segment with force sufficient to twist and shred the steel. 

Segment of radio & TV antenna, formerly on North Tower

A transmission tower, about 360 feet tall, assembled on top of the roof of the North Tower began broadcasting TV signals in 1980. Transmissions for most stations failed after Flight 11 hit the North Tower on 9/11/2001. All transmissions ended by 10:28 am when the tower collapsed.

Lady Liberty stood outside a NYC firehouse

Weeks and months after the WTC attacks, a Statue of Liberty replica stood honor guard outside a NYC firehouse on 8th Ave and West 48th St. It's uncertain how the fiberglass statue suddenly appeared there. Its arrival soon resulted in ongoing, spontaneous ornamentation with messages and tributes left. Neighborhood volunteers arranged the offerings, along with other items that accumulated on sidewalks near the firehouse.

Covered with uniform patches, miniature American flags, money, mass cards, rosary beads, condolence notes, souvenir postcards, angel figurines and mementos from mourners and passersby, this unique memorial was donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum in memory of firefighters from Engine 54/Ladder 4/Battalion 9 which lost 15 men on 9/11. 

Garage door from Brooklyn Heights fire company

This garage door is from a firehouse in Brooklyn Heights, home to FDNY Engine Company 205 and Ladder Company 118. The door features a mural honoring 8 members of the fire companies who were killed responding to the 9/11 attacks. Lt. Frank Visco, a former member of the firehouse helped develop the tribute with FDNY colleagues and a high school student, Kit Carbone, who sketched a design which includes the Brooklyn Bridge and a star for each firefighter who died. Vesco, Kia and her artist father painted the mural in 2002.

Ladder Company 3 Truck, NYC Fire Department

This battered fire truck is a central and very powerful artifact at the 9/11 Museum. FDNY Ladder Company 3 is located in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Ladder 3 responded to the WTC and when the North Tower collapsed, the truck was crushed and damaged beyond repair. It symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice of first responders, particularly its crew led by Captain Patrick (Paddy) John Brown, who perished when the North Tower fell. Recovered from the rubble, it was lowered into the museum's exhibition space and is preserved with other artifacts, including rescue tools, as a tribute honoring fallen firefighters.

The Last Column is a 58-ton, 36-foot high piece of welded plate steel that was part of Column 1001B, one of 47 columns that supported the inner core of the South Tower. When the tower collapsed, this remnant remained anchored in bedrock, buried beneath the wreckage. It now stands in the center of the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s Foundation Hall, the column is covered in thousands of markings and tributes placed on the beam by workers and family members. 

Here's how and why the markings began to appear. George Luis Torres, FDNY Squad 41, began searching for survivors of 9/11 and also for six men from their unit who were missing. In March 2002, a tool marked Squad 41 was found.  When it became harder for Torres to keep track of the beam, he asked an on-site construction manager, the brother of a missing Squad 41 firefighter, to mark the location on an exposed beam. 

SQ 41 was sprayed on the column in yellow paint to indicate where traces of the men were found. Later, recovery workers asked the manager to spray E 214 and L 111. Within 24 hours the column was covered with other unit identifications and the first attachments of memorial tributes that grew over the months.

The Last Column beam became a symbol of loss, remembrance and of the community at ground zero. It was removed from the site on May 30, 2002, to mark the end of the recovery effort. The beam was brought to the 9/11 Museum in 2009.

The Oculus, directly across from the 9/11 Museum, is a transit hub and mall

Directly across the street from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum is The Oculus, an architectural landmark, transit hub and shopping mall designed by noted Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It serves as a major gateway connecting PATH trains, NYC subways, shops, restaurants and the  WTC complex. All seven buildings of the original were destroyed, along with the PATH train station that served millions of commuters who traveled daily to Lower Manhattan.  

Construction began in 2004 and 12 years later, it opened to the public. The structure’s white metal-clad steel ribs reach up and out to symbolize a hand releasing a dove, symbolizing peace and resilience after 9/11. The Oculus is in alignment with the sun’s solar angles each September 11 from 8:46 am, when the first plane struck, until 10:28 am, when the second tower collapsed. Called the Way of Light, Calatrava positioned the building slightly tilted from the street grid to achieve the effect.

Interior view of the Oculus

The Oculus is the third largest transportation center in NYC. (I checked and read that Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal are larger.) Its lays claim to being one of the most expensive train station worldwide. Opening 10 years later than planned, it cost double the original $2 billion dollars budget due to the elaborate design, use of custom-made materials and the need to hurry construction. 

About its name, I learned that it comes from the strip of windows or skylights along the spine of the roof. Oculus is the Latin word for “eye,” which, in architecture, refers to a round or eye-like opening usually in the center of a dome or wall which serves as a natural light source usually with a view of the sky. 

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This was quite a long post about my first (and most likely last) visit to the WTC site post 9/11. If you should, you may be amazed, like myself, by the quiet atmosphere and whispered voices of others touring the grounds, especially in the museum.

Just wondering if anyone wants to share where you were and what you were doing what on 9/11/2001. It was my first day of being downsized. I was home when a friend called and told me to turn on the TV. I did for the next 48 hours.