I guess it's inevitable that over time the emotions diminish and this has to be a good thing. There's a distinction between dignified respect and indulgent sentimentality. We have an obligation to remember the past but not reman in it.

I'm trying to imagine what a 9/11 'interactive visitor centre' might look like. I suppose it would have to be focused around the twin towers and their unprecedented mid air dustification which twice created a dust cloud so thick it blocked out the sun for several minutes in lower Manhattan. The exhibit could also show the seismic data for WTC1 and 2 which was so small (due to most of the building having turned to dust before it hit the ground) as well as the undamaged 'bathtub' (slurry wall) which kept out the Hudson river and was not breached. Had it been breached by two 500,000 ton towers crashing to the ground as solid material the Hudson would have seeped in and entered the subway tunnels, flooding much of lower Manhattan.

The exhibit could show the shocking lack of solid debris on the ground, which enabled the 14 survivors of Ladder 6 to survive in Stairwell B of WTC1 without being squashed or buried. They walked out by themselves! And then there was Pasquale Buzzelli who also survived despite being caught out on the 22nd floor of WTC1. He also was not squashed by the 88 floors above him or the 22 floors below him. During the destruction he 'floated' down to just above the lobby level and when the dust cleared he was also left staring up at blue sky wondering where the 1/4 mile high tower which he had been inside moments earlier had disappeared to. No doubt movies will be made about these survivors one day in the future!

It would be good to see hurricane Erin incorporated as part of the exhibit too. Few people talk about this hurricane which was closest to NY and strongest at 8am on the morning of 9/11. Sitting just offshore, it caused dry thunder in all three NY airports on 9/11 but despite having headed directly for NY for four days in a row it miraculously stopped at 8am on 9/11 and by the afternoon it had already made a 110 degree turn and headed back out to sea.

It would be impossible to have an 9/11 visitor centre without exhibits for the other five buildings destroyed in New York on that day. WTC 3 was a 22 story hotel which all but vanished, as did most of WTC 4. WTC 5 and 6 had huge holes cut into them and WTC 7 was completely destroyed at 5:20pm on 9/11. Its seismic signal was barely discernible from background noise, as recorded at all the local seismic stations, despite the building weighing 230,000 tons and coming down in about 7 seconds. This would suggest it too turned largely to dust in mid air. This 47 story building hardly spilled across the two lane street between itself and the post office building.

And then there was Bankers Trust (40 stories tall) which suffered some damage but was then repaired by about 2005. As soon as repairs were finished it was immediately dismantled again piece-by-piece and during deconstruction its steel beams seemed to be rusting away...

There would also have to be an exhibit on the 1400 cars which were 'toasted' in peculiar ways. Some of them were blocks from the WTC complex. Some had missing engines as if they had melted away, yet plastic lights were not melted. A display case could also show the only filing cabinet to be recovered from the towers. It came from Ben and Jerry's in the basement. Every other filing cabinet went missing, as well as all doors and doorknobs, glass, carpets, vending machines, desks, chairs, wiring, computers, phones, steel floor pans and every person above about the 30th floor. Yet paper, plastic ID cards and stuffed toys survived. In fact the entire WTC complex was covered in dust and piles of unburned paper. Not a single fragment of the 3000 porcelain toilets was found.

Other strange and ongoing effects would also have to be represented in the exhibit, such as the huge marble facade of the neighboring WFC building which also just disappeared. And the rubble field continued to 'fume' (as distinct from steam or smoke) for months and even years afterwards in places. From day one and for years afterwards truckloads of brown potting soil were trucked into ground zero, scattered about and then scooped up and trucked out again. Dust samples were observed to have broken down to the size of DNA. In fact much of this dust floated up to the upper atmosphere as shown by satellite photographs.

There is so much which is utterly unique, unprecedented and shocking about that tragic day a decade ago that any exhibition would have to be huge to do it justice. This awful event has already 'changed the world forever', and it has the potential to redefine civilisation completely if enough people were ever to grasp what really happened. But I guess, as with all 'historic events', without an accurate, truthful and complete record of what actually happened this event will become just a vague memory, reduced to little more than a single image of horror coupled with a pang of fear, sorrow and confusion. Perhaps it has already become that.

More details of what was actually present at the WTC site can be found here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NbBxDGSkI

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What's up, just wanted to tell you, I loved this post? It just so very helpful. Keep on posting!