Am I The Only One Who Missed This?

This was sent to me by my dad, who lives in Smallerville, out there on the Left Coast. He had never heard of this memorial, and neither had I. How is it that something this impressive, and this kind, how this kind of gift, is overlooked? The 9/11 memorial, a gift from Russia, dedicated on September 11, 2006.

Zurab Tsereteli was in his home in Moscow on the morning of September 11th, 2001 watching television as he readied for work. But he was stopped as he watched the images from America, stunned to see the Twin Towers collapse into nothingness.

Zurab Tsereteli began to cry.

That day, as he went to work at the Academy of Art, he drove past the American Embassy and marveled at the mass of people gathered outside the gates to pay their sympathies, to be together, and to mourn. He began to cry again as he watched these strangers weep.

He set to work that day on a proper and appropriate form through which to express his feelings about the attacks. He went through many various sketches and 'forms' until he found an appropriate form.

The tear drop.

Zurab traveled to New York City shortly after the September 11th and went to ground zero. He wanted to create a memorial to the victims, but not one that would rest atop the ruins and the the bones of the dead. He began to search for the perfect site on which to erect the memorial.

After speaking with friends and colleagues who were in New York that day, Zurab learned of the boats and ferries that were used to shuttle survivors away from the Towers. He heard of the New Jersey residents who worked in the towers. He began looking at New Jersey, where the monument could be on the waterfront and settled on a never before seen area of the peninsula at Bayonne.

Here, the World Trade Center was once the backdrop to the waterfront, and the site had been a military instillation which the town converted park-space. from that spot, when they had been standing, the Twin Towers looked almost as if they were building. His bronze monument reflects that image with a jagged tear through the center, and a 4-ton nickel tear drop suspended from the top. The tear represents not only the sadness and grief over the loss of life on 9/11 and previous attacks on the World Trade Center, but also hope for a future free from terror.

The names of those who lost their lives that day are inscribed in granite at the base of the monument. It stands in direct site of the Statue of Liberty and, beyoind that, ground Zero.

To learn more, go HERE