Construction and memorial site in one: Ground Zero

By Hilke Segbers Sep 6, 2011, 3:06 GMT

New York - There are few places in the world which can dumbfound people so much as Ground Zero in New York.

The passenger jet airplane suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda terrorists against the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 killed 2,749 people.

Soon, the 10th anniversary of the attacks will come around. But what is there to be seen on Manhattan Island's south-western point? The clean-up work at the site, which belongs to the port authorities of the states of New York and New Jersey, was declared completed back in 2002.

Many years and countless debates followed on the idea that the site might not best be declared a memorial, a place for people to reflect.

Instead, the decision came down in favour of new high-rise buildings, a museum and a memorial site. Today, all this adds up to Ground Zero being a huge construction site.

Visitors can walk around the outside of the entire complex. In the fence surrounding it, huge gates open up to let cement trucks and construction workers pass in and out.

Trying to quickly scamper inside to get a better look at the construction site won't work - police who are there to guard the grounds keep a sharp eye on tourists and may even scold photographers who are getting too close.

But one corner further on, a couple of visitors are voluntarily putting on the blue uniforms of the New York Police Department cops and posing for pictures.

Nearby, a group of Japanese are taking snapshots of each other in front of the bronze memorial plaque for the 343 New York firefighters who died trying to rescue people in the doomed twin towers.

Many photographs of the missing and dead which had once hung on the outside fences around Ground Zero now can be seen in the Tribute WTC Visitor Center. The photo exhibition, initiated by relatives of the 9/11 victims, is just one of several around the site, but is the only one located directly on it.

Final tributes scribbled on notepad paper by the survivors are deeply moving, such as this one: 'Mom, I love you and tonight I promise to wash the dishes.'

On the evening of September 11, 2001 however, a fine white dust settled over Manhattan - and nobody came to wash it off.

The Tribute WTC Visitor Center also displays objects which were retrieved from the rubble, such as a 4-metre-long, bent steel girder, a pair of dust-covered shoes, a crumpled briefcase, and a scorched firefighter's helmet.

At the next corner stands the St. Paul's chapel. As if by miracle, it was not damaged by the falling debris from the twin towers. In the days and weeks after the attacks, the chapel became a place of quiet prayer for the search teams combing the disaster site.

Outside the chapel, the din of the construction work brings one back to reality. A lot has already been completed, but there is still a lot of building to be done. The new skyscrapers are to be completed by 2014.

The architect of the entire complex is Daniel Libeskind. But his designs have been revised several times in the process.

The most prominent feature of the new site is World Trade Center 1. At 541 metres, it would be the tallest skyscraper in the United States. It was designed by US architect David Childs, and already, most of the 105 stories of the building have risen up.

But other office buildings will also be located on the grounds - all of them named 'World Trade Center' but each with a numeral. World Trade Center 2 was designed by British architect Norman Foster, and at 411 metres will become New York City's second-tallest building.

The focal point of the complex will be the World Trade Center Memorial with a museum and memorial site, parts of which will be opened on the tenth anniversary day.

At those places where formerly the North and South towers of the WTC stood, there will be water basins - replicating the exact location of the two buildings' foundations - from whose edges overflowing water will fall 9 metres to an underground level. Already, 400 oak trees have been newly-planted to surround the basin area.