We’ve been talking a lot about 9/11 around here lately, for the obvious reasons. The other day, a few of us were trading thoughts on the pros and cons of the new memorial at Ground Zero and it occurred to me that it isn’t just New York and Washington and Shanksville that remember. Indeed, I’ve seen 9/11 memorials in half a dozen small towns in as many states. One of my favorites is at DeKorte Park in the Meadowlands, about twenty minutes from where I grew up and the area that was my beat in my first newspaper job.
The memorial is known as “The Cove,” and it is set at the edge of a marsh with the New York City skyline as a backdrop. Two piers with 110 planks each (representing the 110 floors of the towers) jut out into the water.
Next to them, a weathered steel silhouette of the New York City skyline as it looked on September 10, 2001.
There are a pair of aluminum footprints on the deck below, and if you put your feet there and look east, this is what you see.
It’s sober, simple, and elegant — and it hits you right between the eyes.
Does your town have a 9/11 memorial? Share it with us. You can e-mail us here with photos and, if you can, a bit of back story.