Today, I write about the 9/11 Museum at the One World Trade Tower Center in Manhattan. The new tower is quite magnificent, if only one, but the grounds surrounding show where the original two towers stood, with their enormous fountains that are a memorial to those who lost their lives that terrible day. I can't say the museum's artifacts are exciting to see, nor do they elicit the same response as when we go to a museum and see beautiful objects. Rather, they serve as a remembrance of the horror, the utter destruction. Since everything was virtually disintegrated, there are only some personal artifacts, which are sad to see, i.e. someone's wallet, another person's shoe, a note pad with appointments, etc. Then there are the enormous girders, foundation walls, elevator engines, etc that almost look like gruesome sculptural pieces. It's something to see, but perhaps just once.
But! among the excavations for constructing the new building, workers found some interesting Colonial artifacts from early New York. Most of lower Manhattan was built over a landfill. These artifacts pre-date the Revolutionary War, unearthed in 2006. One of them a clay pipe bowl, another a key, a letter "A", and a tiny minute man figure. It's fascinating to imagine who they might have belonged to.
As time will permit, I will highlight some other finds from my trip, but for now, I am drowning at the desk!
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