“When I was growing up in New Jersey, going to the World Trade Center was a school trip,” I said to Lou Barani. “And it will be again,” he replied with enthusiasm and a smile as we walked through the 9/11 Museum, which is in the midst of construction and scheduled to open in 2012. Once it’s complete, expectations are for more than 1,500 visitors each hour.
The 9/11 Memorial is scheduled to open on September 11, 2011. It is a park populated with 400 swamp white oak trees selected for their beauty, strength against the elements and the expectation they will grow to more than 60 feet tall, eventually creating a peaceful canopy. Also within the Memorial is a single pear tree, called the Survivor Tree, as it survived the attacks and has been replanted in the park.