Ground zero to open for first time on anniversary
Print Edition
THE September 11 memorial plaza in New York will be open on the night of the attacks’ anniversary this year, marking the first time the general public will be able to visit ground zero on the commemoration date.
The plaza will be closed to the public during a remembrance ceremony and much of the rest of the day, but will open from 6pm to midnight for those who want to pay their respects and view one of the most evocative observances — the twin beams called the Tribute in Light — from an especially “meaningful vantage point,” memorial President Joe Daniels said in an e-mail sent on Thursday to victims’ families.
A symbolic shift for a site that was inaccessible to the public for years after the attacks, the plan reflects its increasing openness as more gets rebuilt.
The plaza, with its reflecting pools etched with the names of the dead, opened in 2011. But to control crowds amid construction elsewhere on the World Trade Center property, tickets and security screening were required until this spring.
Security maintained
Since the underground memorial museum opened in May, open access has been allowed during days and evenings at the plaza, which joins the streets of lower Manhattan even as it serves as a place of remembrance protected by police and security guards.
Museum officials said security measures will be in place for the public hours on September 11, but that they couldn’t disclose details.
The night hours on September 11 will provide visitors a solemn setting for looking at the Tribute in Light that opened on March 11, 2002. It has become a moving, quietly powerful element of the anniversaries since.
Formed from 88 bulbs in two squares that echo the fallen Twin Towers, the light memorial reaches 6 kilometers skyward, according to the Municipal Art Society, the group that orchestrates the annual project.
The museum will be closed to the public throughout the day.
A private anniversary ceremony will be held on the plaza in the morning, a tribute that has centered on reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in the 2001 attacks, as well as recognizing the six people killed in the 1993 trade center bombing.
“Remembering those we lost is something we do every day,” Daniels said in his message.
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