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Hunter Berry
APUSH
Mr. Reinking
28 April 2016
Virtual Visit: 9/11 Museum and Memorial
On September 11 of 2001, the deadliest terrorist attack in American history was
implemented. Four commercial airliners were hijacked by terrorists of the Al-Qaeda organization
under the leadership of terrorist Osama Bin-Laden, and flown into American symbols of power
across the nation. One plane was flown into the Pentagon, a major military ops and command
base for the government, one plane (believed to be targeting the White House or Capitol
Building) crashed into a field, and the deadliest of the two attacks occurred when two planes hit
each of the Twin Towers. As a result of the attacks and rescues, 2,977 people died, striking both
fear and hatred into the hearts of Americans across the entire nation.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks, President Bush and NYC Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, along with other leaders and NYC organizations, expressed their wishes to create a
memorial and museum to all that died in the attacks, as well at the 1993 Trade Center Attack.
After beginning fundraising efforts that would eventually be met 2008, construction workers
arrived on March 13, 2006 to begin construction and design on the site of the memorial and
museum, which was to be on the footprints of the original towers, in the exact location they
stood years before. With a 500 million dollar budget and 20 million additional dollars from the
federal government, the city began its work on the area, which would include a park with
waterfalls and trees, one tree nicknamed The Survivor Tree after it managed to live through the
attack on the towers. The scenery was meant to block out the sights and sounds of the city and

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create a sanctuary of peace, symbolic because of its counter to the fear of the actual attack day.
On September 12, one day after the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the city opened the 9/11 and World
Trade Center Memorial, specially designed to commemorate everyone who deceased in the
attacks, with bricks of victims names surrounding and covering the memorial walls. On May 21
of 2014, the 9/11 Museum was opened to the public to further commemorate the attacks and
allow visitors to remember the dreaded day and learn about the victims. Its exhibits include
23,000 images, 10,300 artifacts, nearly 2,000 oral histories of victims and over 500 hours of
videos. Artifacts induced a flag from the towers and some the surviving steel support beams.
Today, visitors are free to roam the grounds of the memorial and museum and learn more
about the deadly attacks, its victims, and the impact the terror attack had on families, the city of
New York, and the entire county as a whole. While I haven't been here in my numerous trips to
NYC, I hope to be able to do so one day soon and learn moe about something that had as much
impact on the country and the world as 9/11.