Architect Michael Arad designed the World Trade Center-site memorial, entitled “Reflecting Absence,” to honor the 2,983 people killed on September 11, 2001 (in New York, Pennsylvania, at the Pentagon) and during the February 26, 1993 bombing. Opened on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the two memorial pools were built upon the actual footprints of 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower), respectively. In Arad’s words, “Its scale is massive and personal, its impact individual.”
I knew that my first impression of the 9/11 memorial would be profoundly moving but wasn’t sure what to expect. Obviously, this would be no splashy, gravity-defying fountain with upward-facing theme. No, these gravity-sucking, downward-focused pools gripped me emotionally, as intended. Michael Arad eloquently summarized his design: “You have to make that absence tangible, physical, something that, when you walk up to the edge of that void, you feel it. It’s not just in your head, it’s in your heart.” How these two towers, after standing sentry over Manhattan for almost three decades, could be obliterated in terrorist-piloted acts of evil is still incomprehensible. Arad’s words rang true for me, even though my first visit to the site was over twenty years after the event. The horrors that unfolded that September 11, 2001 morning impacted our nation forever.
Design
The pools, constructed by Delta Fountains, are an engineering marvel. Thirty-foot-high waterfalls frame identical one-acre square memorial pools. In the center of each pool, the water cascades into a smaller square whose bottom is unseen, an inestimable deep pit when viewed from above. The memorials’ seeming simplicity belies the engineering expertise that designed and now sustains these catchment basins: 16 pumps to circulate 26,000 gallons of water each minute, circulating over 480,000 gallons of recycled water—every day in all types of weather.
Symbolism
The pools identify the towers’ footprints, commemorating a vibrant storied past now relegated to sorrowful sinking silence. Invisible water depths symbolize the physical devastation caused when the massive twin towers collapsed in dust and debris. Emotionally, the waterfalls represent the grief and sorrow that flowed down and down and down—to the unfathomable depths of survivors’ wounded hearts.
Since the memorials opened in 2011, their dedicated employees continue to uphold the memory of lives lost. On the deceased victims’ birthdays, memorial workers place white roses on the names etched into the bronze parapets. What a beautiful act of love and service by those who care for the fountains and honor the deceased! Restaurant workers. Finance experts. Passengers on a seemingly-random airplane flight. Office workers on a Tuesday morning. First responders. Rescue personnel. Unexpected heroes. Dads, moms, grandparents, siblings, children. Unborn babies who should now be in this world as 20-somethings. Innocent victims—so many precious people—killed in the attacks. And yet, in this memorial, these lives are remembered and honored.
Lord, as the God of all comfort, please be with those whose 9/11 losses are pervasive and ongoing. Be with those who are still facing their sorrow. The one whose unborn child might be graduating from college now. The daughter whose father won’t walk her down the wedding aisle this summer. And the widowed wife grieving the husband who is absent as she ages. Lord God, comfort all who grieve and bless them with hope and a future, as only you can. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
