The Great Ballpark Chase: A Moment of Silence

timothynrussell
One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center in New York City.

It’s been said that every generation has an event or series of events that you’re immediately able to recall where you were when it occurred.

For Baby boomers, it’s the President John F. Kennedy assassination; for Generation X, it’s probably when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff.

But there is one event that transcends. It requires just three numbers: 9-1-1. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City that shut down the country and killed 2,997.

During my recent baseball trip with Coast 2 Coast Sports Tours this summer, I had a chance to visit the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to visit the Memorial and relive that horrible tragedy. But I am glad I decided to go into the museum. It’s quite well done and respectful of everything.

On that fateful day, I do remember where I was. It might be a little easier than most. We had just taken my dad to the hospital the evening of Sept. 10. After successful angioplasty surgery, we left for home to get some sleep.

The next day, on the way back to the hospital, we stopped for gas. I heard a brief item on the radio, that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought it might have been a private jet or something like that.

I didn’t think much of it during the short ride to the hospital. But when we got there, you could tell something was up. There was increased security and you had to show ID to access patient rooms.

It wasn’t until we got up to my dad’s room in the cardiac care unit that we started to piece things together. My dad was sitting in a chair, watching the TV.  Honestly, it almost felt like it was a movie.

Since his room wasn’t far from the nurses’ station it was not uncommon that day for both doctors and nurses to pop in to see what was happening.

The most noticeable thing you see as you approach the Memorial site are the reflecting pools. Each are about an acre in size and are the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. Surrounding the pools are granite boundaries listing each victim’s name from all three attack sites. The pools are built in the footprint of the North and South towers.

Reflecting Pool
A reflecting pool at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

The Memorial includes material evidence, first-person testimony, and historical records, along with the ongoing repercussions of the attacks. There are more than 10,000 artifacts in the collection, but only about 10 percent are on display at any given time.

Obviously, it is still considered a place of reverence, so it is quite subdued and solemn.

As you enter the Memorial and start to descend below ground, the first thing you see are two tridents, from the facade of the North Tower. Both are about 80-feet tall and weigh about 50 tons. They are known as tridents, because of the three-prong tops.

A pair of North Tower tridents greet vistitors as they descend into the Memorial.

Some of the other highlights inside the museum include the survivor stairs. It was originally an outdoor flight of stairs and two escalators, which connected Vesey Street to the WTC’s Austin J. Tobin Plaza. During the attacks, the stairs served as an escape route for evacuees from 5 World Trade Center, a nine-floor building next to the Twin Towers.

After the collapse of the towers, it included 37 steps, a fragment of the terrazzo paving from the Tobin Plaza, space for the escalators and reverence an entrance to the Cortlandt Street station for the No. 1 subway line. Steps sixteen and seventeen were basically demolished by debris as well as the chrome railings.

Some of the artifacts and sights at the National September 11Memorial and Museum include, clockwise from upper left, a fire engine that was damaged when the towers collapsed, first responders tagged this piling, steel girders from Floors 93-96, the survivor stairs, and a quote by Virgil greets guests upon entering.

There are also memorial sites at the other two September 11, 2001, attack sites. The Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA, site commemorates the thwarted hijacking of Flight 93, which was believed to be targeted for the U.S. Capitol building. Forty passengers fought the hijackers and forced the plane to crash land in an open field in the Pennsylvania countryside.

I have visited this memorial, but before the visitors’ center was completed. It is as moving as the New York memorial, although quite smaller in scope. It is still a great place to pay your respects and reflect on the events.

The other memorial I have not visited. That is at the Pentagon Building in Arlington, VA, The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial captures the moment (9:37 a.m.) when Flight 77 was flown into the building. Each of the 184 passengers have a memorial unit. Each unit is a cantilevered bench, a lighted pool of flowing water, and has the passengers name inscribed.

There are several other memorials to the attacks around the country. My alma mater, Eastern Michigan University, has a beam and memorial on campus. Michigan Memorial Cemetery in Flat Rock, MI, has a section devoted to the attacks. There is also a memorial at the Michigan Capitol Building in Lansing.

Officials decided it was important to rebuild the World Trade Center landmark. While it was being built, it was called Freedom Tower, but has now become officially known as One World Trade Center.

The tower had a planned height of 1,776 feet, which is significant in U.S. History. The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. By comparison, the original North Tower was 1,368 feet tall while the South Tower was 1,362 feet tall.

So even with the rebuilding, where does that leave us now?

It’s been two decades now since the attacks. To think that there are some adults out there that weren’t born when the attacks occurred is pretty wild.

And while it evokes a sense of patriotism throughout the country, it also sparked questions of civil liberties. Some of those continue today.

Without getting too political, those questions have created a division that has yet to be solved, by either party.

In a way, the fires of 9-11 continue to burn.

Previous Installments of the Great Ballpark Chase by Tim Russell

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