Memories and Memorials
The events of Sept. 11, 2001, left their mark on the nation's psyche, changed the course of its history and produced far-reaching effects that will be felt for years to come.
But 9/11 also left physical marks on the nation's landscape: the memorials in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa.
In New York, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, to give it its official title, is located at 180 Greenwich St., the former location of the twin towers.
Conducted by a nonprofit institution whose mission is to raise funds for and operate the site and museum programs, the memorial is a forest of swamp white oak trees with two square reflecting pools in the center marking where the twin towers stood.
The underground museum has artifacts from 9/11, including steel from the twin towers.
This memorial has special meanings for some Butler County residents such as retired Delta Air Lines pilot Scott Kerr of Butler.
Kerr was grounded in Los Angeles because of the ban on flights in American air space in the wake of the attacks.“My attention quickly turned to my sister. She was living and working in Manhattan. Her office was in the shadows of the World Trade Center in the financial district,” said Kerr.Kerr said his sister heard and felt the impacts of the jets hitting the towers but didn't know what was happening until her building was evacuated.She later learned she had lost a very close friend named Lindsay in the collapse of the south tower.Kerr said, “An odd coincidence with ties to my home and family later surfaced.”Kerr's father spent his 40-year career with Matthews International, founded and headquartered in Pittsburgh. It's Bronze
Division had been commissioned to create a larger-than-life kneeling firefighter for a Missouri firefighters memorial.“It was created in Italy and had arrived at JFK (Airport) on Sept. 9, but was held up in customs,” said Kerr.“On the day it was released from customs, Sept. 17, the New York Post ran a full-cover page photo of a kneeling fireman in the ashes of the trade tower, almost identical to the bronze statue,” said Kerr.The bronze figure became a symbol of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in 9/11, according to Kerr.“Matthews International donated it to New York, along with two additional plaques,” said Kerr.“It became a makeshift memorial in front of the Milford Hotel until it was permanently installed,” he said.
When air travel began again later that September, Kerr said his next flight and layover took him to New York.“As an airline employee losing industry comrades, we were given access to 'Ground Zero' and allowed to view the site prior to any cleanup,” said Kerr. “It was a surreal scene I cannot describe and will never forget.“Oddly enough, our layover hotel at the time was the Milford Hotel,” he said. “The temporary home of the bronze firefighter statue was at the main entrance to that hotel.”Jared Sullivan and the rest of his classmates at Moniteau High School were the first seniors to go to New York City after 9/11 in May 2002.Sullivan said, “We all went to Ground Zero during that trip. It wasn't like now, the cleanup was still under way.“Surrounding the cleanup area there were blocks and blocks of fencing covered in thousands and thousands of flags, pictures, letters...” he said.“No one spoke a word. It was so surreal and the only sounds you heard were the machines and the jackhammers breaking up the concrete piles,” he said.“I've been to New York City several times since that trip my senior year,” he said. “I've been to the memorials, the fountains, the museum. And every time I still feel the same experience at Ground Zero: respect and silence.”
In Washington, D.C., the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial dedicated to the 184 lives lost in the attack on the Pentagon are represented by “Memorial Unit” benches.Surrounding the benches are 85 Crape Myrtles (trees that will grow up to 30 feet tall) and the Age Wall, which grows one inch in height per year relative to the ages of the victims.Each Memorial Unit is a cantilevered bench, a lighted pool of flowing water and a permanent tribute, by name, to each victim, in one single element. Each memorial bench is made of stainless steel and inlaid with smooth granite. Each Memorial Unit contains a pool of water, reflecting light in the evenings onto the bench and surrounding gravel field.Each unit is also specifically positioned in the Memorial to distinguish victims who were in the Pentagon from those who were on board American Airlines Flight 77. At the 125 Memorial Units honoring the victims of the Pentagon, visitors see the victim's name and the Pentagon in the same view.
At the Memorial Units honoring the 59 lives lost on Flight 77, the visitor sees the victim's name and the direction of the plane's approach in the same view.Roberta Balas of Butler Township visited the Pentagon Memorial during a 2010 visit to her grandfather's grave in Arlington National Cemetery.“It was very solemn,” she said. “Then I had a business trip to Harrisburg. On the way back I saw the signs for the Flight 93 memorial.”“It is a very, very quiet vast area,” she said. “There's this big boulder where the plane crashed.”The Flight 93 National Memorial commemorates the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.The memorial is located in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pa., about 2 miles north of Shanksville and 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
The national memorial was created to honor the passengers and crew of Flight 93, who stopped the terrorists from reaching their target by fighting the hijackers. A temporary memorial to the 40 victims was established soon after the crash.A concrete and glass visitor center opened in 2015, situated on a hill overlooking the crash site and the white marble Wall of Names. An observation platform at the visitor center and the white marble wall are both aligned beneath the path of Flight 93.Annette Smith of Saxonburg said she visited the Flight 93 site in October, less than a month after the attacks.“There was a row of wooden angels, one for every soul lost, teddy bears, flowers and other mementoes dedicated to those who lost their lives,” said Smith.“Although I was there to pay respects, I had a feeling of uneasiness. It was eerily silent, similar to the Custer battlefield. What should have been a bucolic scene was now a sacred graveyard,” she said. T
