Mahi Mahi – Jun 4; NYC & The 9/11 Memorial & Museum

Have you heard of the movie – Plains,Trains & Automobiles.

Well how about – Uber, Trains, Taxi, and Subway.

An early 7am rise again this morning, but not for travel by boat, we were off to see the Big City, the Big Apple, New York-New York !!!

We started with an 8am Uber pickup at the marina, for a short ride to the Crouton- Hudson train station.

We boarded the train about 8:30am for an hour long ride into NYC & Grand Central Train Station.

We arrived safely at Grand Central Station about 9:30.
The Station did not look so Grand.

From there, we next took a $45 taxi ride, from Grand Central to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. The taxi ride was only 6 miles, but 45 minutes long, and $45 🙁

It was well worth the effort, the visit to the museum & memorial was very somber, but also very awe inspiring to hear the stories of heroism on that infamous day.

It will be easiest to tell the story with the pictures, so I will just show the photos and attach descriptions of each exhibit at the museum.

Before we start, the tour guide mentioned that the 9/11 Museum & Memorial is dedicated to the 9/11 Victims & First Responders at The North & South World Trade Centers, but it is also dedicated to memories of ; The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, The Pentagon Attack, & the Flight #93 Heroes who most likely saved The White House or The Nations Capitol Building.

The morning of September 11, 2001 it was a beautiful blue sky morning.

Some quick Facts / Timeline

4 Airplanes, 3 Locations Hit, 1 Plane Crashed
7:59am = AA Flight #11 from Boston to LA takes off (#1)
8:14am = United Flight #175 from Boston to LA takes off (#2)
8:20am = AA Flight #77 from Dulles (Washington) to LA takes off (#3)
8:41am = United Flight #93 from Newark to San Fran takes off (#4).
8:46am = AA #11 crashes into the North Tower, floors 93-99
9:03 am = United #175 crashes into the South Tower, floors 75-85
9:37am = AA #77 crashes into the Pentagon.
9:59am = The South Tower Collapses.
10:07am = Passengers of United #93 induce a crash, most likely saving the US Capitol !!!
10:28am = The North Tower Collapses.

It became 102 minutes of time, which changed the world forever !

The 9/11 Museum & Memorial was opened exactly 10 years after the event, on September 11, 2011.

Photos & descriptions from the 9/11 Museum Tour

The Memorial Wall & Virgil Quotation
“No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory of Time.”

This quote is indicative of the museum’s mission to honor and remember the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The quote is from a poem written by a Roman poet named “Virgil”. Each letter was forged from pieces of recovered World Trade Center steel by New Mexico artist Tom Joyce.

These words are part of a larger art installation in the 9/11 Memorial Museum created in 2014 by artist Spencer Finch, titled “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning.” The installation is the focal point for Memorial Hall, the area between the two main exhibitions at bedrock in the museum.

Every one of the 2,983 watercolor squares is its own shade of blue – one for each of the 2001 and 1993 attack victims – and the artwork as a whole revolves around the idea of memory. Our own perception of the color blue might not be the same as that of another person. But, just like our perception of color, our memories share a common point of reference.

The North Tower Antenna

At our next stop, the tour guide showed us a Section of the North Tower Antenna. This 19.8-foot-long fragment was about one-twentieth of the 360-foot-tall transmission tower atop the North Tower. The massive antenna provided the signals of most of major New York City broadcasters until it went off-the-air on the infamous morning. The signals then had to be rerouted to the Empire State Building Antenna.

The Elevator Motor

The Twin Towers were the first skyscrapers to use a system of High Speed Elevators. Each tower had 99 elevators, and 4 High Speed Elevators. They were the largest in the world when installed.

Ladder Company 3

It was 9am shift change time. When the attack occurred all 11 members of Company 3 volunteered, even the guys who had just completed the night shift. All 11 team members are known to have reached the 35th floor by 9:21am, and all 11 men of Ladder Company 3 were killed inside the North Tower when it collapsed at 10:28a.m

The North Tower Impact Beam

This piece of steel, once part of the façade of the North Tower, was the point of impact where hijacked AA flight #11 pierced the building from floors 93 through 99.

The Foundation Wall

This is the Foundation Wall which separated the base of the North Tower from The Hudson River. If this wall would have breached, it would have flooded all of Manhattan. All of the objects protruding from the wall are part of the structural tie backs into the ground behind the wall, like a normal seawall in a marina.

The Last Column

As the recovery at the World Trade Center site neared completion, the Last Column, a 58-ton, 36ft tall piece of welded plate steel, was removed from the site in a solemn ceremony on May 30, 2002. In the weeks that followed, recovery workers, first responders, volunteers and victims’ relatives signed the column and affixed to it memorial messages, photographs, and other tributes. This actually became the 1st piece of the museum.

The North Tower Column Remnants

The towers went 1/4 mile into the sky. The towers were supported by these steel columns anchored 70 feet below ground. A total of 84 columns defined the towers perimeter. Recovery workers cut the columns to their current height shown in the photos. Family members viewed this as sacred ground and did not want it dug up to remove the columns.

The Vesey Street Stairs

The Vesey Street stairs, are also known as the “Survivors’ Stairs”.
Over 15,000 people made it to safety on this path.
During the attacks of September 11, 2001, the stairway became a vital safety route for many of the survivors. The stairs were one of very few exit areas which had overhead covering, protecting the lucky people who actually made it out from falling debris. Many people made it out but were killed by the falling debris.
The stairs were mostly intact immediately after 9/11, but they were significantly damaged during the nine-month recovery period. The stairway is also the only exhibit above ground of the World Trade Center.

The 9/11 Flag

The tour ended with a walk through a room which held a photo & family mementos of each victim. Photographs were not allowed in this room, but there were 4 very tall & very long walls covered with photos of each victim. In an adjacent room was a non-stop movie running biographies of each of the victims family members describing the personalities of their lost loved one.

The Memorial Pools

After the Museum, we walked outside to The Memorial Plaza & 9/11 Memorial Pools.
The Memorial Plaza is an 8-acre park composed of nearly 400 white oak trees, and the largest manmade waterfalls in the United States. Set on the footprints of the original Twin Towers, each pool is approximately 1-acre in size. The names of every person who died in the terror attacks of February 26, 1993 & September 11, 2001 are honored in bronze around the twin Memorial pools (we are showing only one of the 2 twin pools).

The Pools are continiuosly filled with water that cascades down 30 feet into a basin and then further down 20 feet into a void that is never filled and cannot be seen. This symbolizes the loss of life and the lingering void left after the 9/11 attacks

As I stated in the beginning, it was quite a somber day during the tour, but also an uplifting day to see how we Americans can pull together to help each other, and how the “American Spirit” cannot be defeated.

After the 9/11 Museum & Memorial, we were hungry and thirsty. We looked up the closest place to the memorial. Carrigher’s Irish Pub. It didn’t look like much from the street, but the below ground bar looked like something out of a Frank Sinatra movie.

https://www.carraghersnyc.com/

After a quick appetizer of mini Lamb Chops & Smithwicks, we were off for the next adventure – the NYC subway 😱

Mikie was not totally up for the subway, preferring the $45 return to Grand Central via taxi, but Jerry talked me into it.

I was quite sure that with my boyish youthful looks, that I was gunna be raped & pillaged. I was also uneasy because I am the tour guide, and had no idea on where to go, or how to use the infamous subway.

So we started with a discussion with the friendly NYC Policeman. He told us to go to the station at Broadway & Fulton, and take the Green 4/5 line.

Luckily, the police officer was right on, his directions were impeccable.

The subway station was not like what I saw in the movies, it was actually nice and clean up top in the main complex.

The subway itself, did look like the scenes in all the murder mysteries.

After we used the subway to get back to Grand Central Train Station, then we had to figure out where to go, what line to get on, and how to buy the tickets.

With the help of some Dutch tourists, we figured out how to buy the tickets from the kiosk machine. Then with the help of another one of NYPD’s finest, we found out which line to go to for our train back to the marina. Above ground, Grand Central Station did look Grand.

Along the way, we encountered an American Indian guy playing music. Jerry exchanged musical backgrounds and we left the guy a tip.

We got back to Crouton on the Hudson & Half Moon Bay Marina just in time for me to request an Uber, right before my phone went dead 🙃.

Nitie Nite,

Mike, Deena, Jerry