9/11 Memorial

Visiting Ground Zero is a sad experience.

During Year 1, we have visited Ground Zero a few times.  The 9/11 Memorial with its cavernous eternity pools is a fitting tribute. 

If you choose, you can also visit the nearby museum or observatory at the top of 1 World Trade Center.

From the eternity pools, 1WTC soars 1,776 feet skyward to the tip of its spire, making it the tallest building in NYC and the Western Hemisphere.

 

Recently, mountain climber Jimmy Chin scaled the spire and recorded a short virtual reality film.  You can view the film on your computer or on your phone with (or without) a VR viewer.  Check out the film here.  (If you have seen the film Meru, you will remember Jimmy Chin as the team member who filmed the attempt to ascend Meru, aka the Shark's Fin.  If you haven't seen Meru, you might want to.)   

After you immerse yourself in the film, you might feel differently about visiting Ground Zero.  A visit will be sad, but it might also be uplifting.

8/26/2016 Update:  Since sharing this post, I found an interesting short video that shows the development of the area around 1 World Trade Center over the past 500 years.  That's right, half of a millennium.  

The video is obviously a virtual time lapse film depicting the changing landscape and skyline of Lower Manhattan.  The perspective of the video is 1WTC, first starting under the bed of the Hudson River (yes, 1WTC and many, many other buildings and streets in Lower Manhattan are built on landfill) and then rising high into the air over 500 years.  Very cool.  Check it out here.