9/11 Memorial Visitor Center

Located on the first floor of the West Street Building at 90 West Street, the 9/11 Memorial Visitor Center provides an overview of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center.

"Harley-Davidson Firefighter Special Edition Ultra Classic Electra Glide Motorcycle. Firefighter Ed Martin from Vancouver, Washington, purchased a Harley-Davidson special edition motorcycle and transformed it into a tribute bike. Pictured on this motorcycle are his own portrait and that of New York City firefighter and 9/11 responder, Joe Torillo."

“Robert Gschaar (March 8, 1946 - September 11, 2001) presented a $2 bill to Myrta Alvarado when he asked her to marry him. Describing their romance as second chance for two people who had been married before, he placed a second symbolic $2 bill in his own wallet. On September 11, 2001, Robert was on the 92nd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center where he had recently begun a new job as an insurance underwriter at Aon Corporation. He spoke with Myrta on the telephone after the first plane hit and said he was evacuating and would call her back later. She never heard from him again. When the NYPD's World Trade Center Property Recovery Unit notified Myrta that Robert's wallet had been found, Myrta felt the $2 bill inside yielded the proof that she needed to accept her husband's death.”

"On the morning of September 11, 2001, Battalion Chief Brian O'Flaherty witnessed the hijacked Flight 175 strike the South Tower of the World Trade Center from his post in the Brooklyn Navy Year. Chief O'Flaherty responded to a command center inside the Marriott Hotel (3 WTC), a strategic location between the two towers. When the South Tower collapsed, showering steel and other debris onto the hotel, O'Flaherty was wounded. He game his battered helmet to Battalion Chief Edward Henry, who had lost his own helmet during the chaos. Henry left the lobby, intent on aiding those in distress, while O'Flaherty remained inside to provide assistance to the injured. Both men survived, despite injuries, a fact that Chief O'Flaherty attributes in part to the helmet that protected them both."

"A layer of aluminum covered each structural column that formed the facades of the Twin Towers. The aluminum alloy, created especially for the World Trade Center, gave the buildings a unique silvery, reflective surface. Thin and lightweight, most of the aluminum cladding separated from the steel during the fall of the buildings on September 11, 2001. Some pieces catapulted to the streets below, heightening the danger faced by those in the area. Other pieces crumpled and melted under the intense pressure from the collapse and heat of the fires that raged for months afterwards."

"The Flight 93 National Memorial extends over 2,200 acres in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. It includes the reclaimed coal mine site where hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, killing its seven crew members and 33 passengers. Designed by Paul and Milena Murdoch, the plan was selected through an international competition. This memorial - which will be implemented in phases - incorporates a tower with wind chimes, a visitor center, and a tree-lined pathway leading to a wooded area and the field where the plane tunneled into the earth. Phase one of the Flight 93 National Memorial providing public access to the landscape of the crash site, opened on September 11, 2011."

"The Pentagon Memorial is located on the west side of the Pentagon, the command center for the United States military in Arlington, Virginia. It is dedicated to the 184 people killed inside the building and on hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, which pierced through three of the compounds five concentric rings. Benches dedicated to Flight 77 victims face west towards the open sky, while benches dedicated to Pentagon victims face east towards the Pentagon. Designed by Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman, who submitted the design to an international competition which attracted more than 1100 entries, the Pentagon Memorial was dedicated on September 11, 2008."