Survivor Tree

Today's main event was the 9/11 memorial. It's not completely finished, but most of it is open to the public as long as you reserve a ticket time slot. It's free, but they won't let you inside without a reservation.

The process to get inside the memorial is quite tasking. It's exactly like going through TSA security at the airport. Though they were a lot nicer when the alarm went off as I walked through. There's no pat down. No invasive body searches. The security guy just asked me to lift up the bottoms of my pants. I have a feeling it was just my jewelry that set it off. I didn't have a concealed weapon so he let me pass.

There are two pools that they constructed in place of the original twin towers. They looked bottomless. It was quite eerie. Each pool is surrounded with names of all the victims from the attacks, including the ones from the Pentagon crash and the plane that crashed in PA. The North pool also had names from the first attack back in 1993.

There's a museum still under construction which will include remnants of the towers and objects and victims' belongings. It should be open later this year.

On our way out we saw a crowd of people around a fenced tree. Some people were tossing coins at the bottom of it. Curiosity led me to a volunteer who told us the story of this "miracle" tree.
This is a Callery pear tree that was planted back in the 70s when the world trade center was first built. It is the only living vegetation that survived the 9/11 attacks. It was discovered in Oct 2001 with burnt branches, snapped roots and a blackened trunk, by the gardener who used to work at the center. It was transported to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for recovery and then brought back in 2010.
They call it their survivor tree. People throw coins at the bottom of the tree for luck and as a donation to the memorial site. You can touch the tree. If you are lucky enough to see it, the trunk has 2 different textures. The bottom half is rough while the top half has smooth new branches from the last 10 years of regrowth. It really is quite a miracle.

Once the memorial is finished there will be over 400 oak trees planted to provide a peaceful canopy of new life. Granted it will take years for those trees to envelope the whole site, but for our children or children's children that are lucky enough to see it, I'm sure it will be quite beautiful.

When I get back home, I'll post the pictures I took at the memorial. In the meantime, here is the Survivor Tree.

Callery pear "survivor" tree