Stringham Family: New York WTC Museum April 2015

Sunday, October 11, 2015

New York WTC Museum April 2015

The World Trade Center Museum is a must for everyone's visit to New York. This was also a misty day but we planned on spending most of it in the museum so it didn't bother us. First we walked around the waterfalls. When they were deciding whether or not to rebuild the towers, a big part of me thought "why not rebuild" then I experienced that hallowed ground and learned that to rebuild would most definitely not be the best thing. In a city full of buildings it is the absence of the buildings that makes the impact.

The museum wraps around the foundations of the original towers about 6 or 7 stories. The museum itself it huge. When you first enter the stairs to go down you see this wall of blue. That was something that stood out to most people. Each square was a shade of blue painted by those who lived to experience it. They said the sky was a beautiful clear blue. This is a little out of the ordinary because New York often doesn't have "blue" skies.

There are certain rare dates in history when asked if people remember where they were or what they were doing they will always remember the exact place and activity. Everyone knows where they were during 911.

Make sure to bring your tissues when you visit. Even someone as tough skinned as me had a hard time not letting the tears flow. The hardest part for me was the hall of beepers.

Each first responder wears a beeper that goes off when the wearer doesn't move for 2 hours (I think) In the hall of beepers is a recording of all those first responders who didn't make it out. You can think you understand the size of this disaster but it was made truly known to me when I heard all those beepers. The sounds went off for days until their batteries wore out. Not until I heard that did I understand the enormity of the situation and those were just the responders.

The museum is full of real video's and accounts of so many souls who lost their lives on that tragic day. Behind one wall is a video of those who had fallen/jumped out the windows to their death. Talk about heart breaking. One last heart breaking experience is this room with video of peoples accounts of those who had died in the towers. It was recordings from family, friends, and loved ones telling us a little about the deceased. On the outer ring of that room are pictures of everyone who was killed in the tragedy. However one thing that I thought was very sad were the leaf pictures. For those that lost their lives that they didn't have a picture of. I had a hard time with the fact that no one could come up with a single picture for that person. Did they not have family? Someone to mourn them? How could they not have a picture for someone to remember them?

One more thing that I had never know was the political steps taken right after the tragedy. As soon as it happened we went to high alert for our military def con one. Russia follows us closely and we didn't want them to thing we were at war with them so one of the first political phone calls was to Russia telling them to stand down. We didn't believe it was them. Our wonderful president was smart enough to know that would most definitely cause World War III. but even more surprising was Russia's answer. They acknowledged the act of terrorism and told us they were already standing down and how could they help us.
There was so much in this museum we spent a good 3-4 hours reading, watching, and experiencing things that led up to and happened during that unforgettable day. It was quite an emotionally exhausting day but something I feel everyone should experience.
For the record I remember where I was. I was at home in our little 4plex on Sarah Circle in Orem with my little Ellie getting ready for the day when my neighbor knocks on my door and asks if I have the TV on. I told her no and she promptly told me to turn it on, something big just happened. We turned on the TV (it didn't matter what channel they were all airing the video). I remember time stood still, everyone was glued to their TVs trying to understand what just happened and what it meant for all of us. After hours of viewing talking and trying to understand this great tragedy we finally noticed the toll it was taking on our little girl. She was less than a year old. We had to turn it off and find the good in the world.