The 9/11 Memorial Museum is more than just a museum. It is also a grave of the remains of those unknown victims who perished on 9/11. The remains of those killed should not be walled off from the public, nor placed seventy feet below ground level to be flooded by a storm.

One realizes that the 9/11 families view this site as a final resting place where they can come to mourn, grieve, reflect, and honor their loved ones, but this site is also a sacred place for all of us. Like the Gettysburg Cemetery, the USS Arizona Memorial, and the Normandy American Cemetery in Normandy, France, these sites are national shrines. No one should be walled out. All people who want to show respect should be allowed to do so.

Perhaps one day the remains will be placed above ground, for example, under the survivor tree with an eternal flame like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Then everyone will be able to view the area where the remains lie.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum should be controlled by the United States Department of the Interior and the
National Park Service because it is a national memorial. It should not be privately operated. It should not be commercialized. It should not be under the control of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Also, the museum admission is too costly. It should charge an affordable general admission and extend the free time on Tuesday evenings to include Tuesday afternoons.

As one enters the museum, there is a huge space that seems to serve no purpose. Perhaps the curators wanted to convey the feeling of immense space, like the feeling one would get upon entering the former lobbies of the World Trade Center. Perhaps the curators wanted to express a sense of loss. Walking through the museum, there are many areas where exhibits are obscured. One of the most powerful exhibits is off to the side encased in the wall, and if you miss the caption, you will not get the full meaning of this powerful artifact.

It is a massive piece of steel meshed with concrete and everything else in the mix. It was formerly five floors of the World Trade Center that are now welded and seared together as one piece by the fire. One could not help but wonder how many human remains were trapped in the mix. This exhibit touched me, yet I almost missed it. It must be more prominently displayed. The lighting can also be improved. It should be placed in such a way that people can walk around it and look at it up close and from all angles. In some respects, it almost looks like just a piece of discarded construction site material.

Another exhibit that was misleading is a twisted steel girder mounted to the wall. There is no caption. So, one might think that it is an abstract piece of art mounted on the wall. Once I learned what it represented, a former section of a steel beam that was part of the façade of the North Tower now twisted out of shape like a pretzel, it took on a whole different meaning. One wonders how many people will pass this object by without realizing the true significance of this artifact and be deeply touched.

There is another exhibit area where many mundane everyday objects, such as eyeglasses, telephones and photographs are displayed. There are so many objects that it is overwhelming to observe everything. Many of the artifacts are lost to view. Many have no captions, and many items are displayed in a haphazard manner. This exhibit can be greatly improved, if the artifacts were displayed properly, lit well, and their captions were not obscured. These are some of the ideas that would correct this problem.

One of the most interesting exhibits in the museum is a wall. A wall that played such a decisive role on 9/11 by not being breached. The [Slurry] Wall that held back the Hudson River from flooding Lower Manhattan, the PATH train tunnels and saving millions of people from death and perhaps preventing WWIII. This wall should be permanently acknowledged as the great retaining wall of honor that it is. It should be lit better; captions should be displayed prominently, and a then-and-now illustration of the wall would help to further clarify its significance so people can fully grasp the importance of this slurry wall in the annals of history. It must be noted as such. Many people just pass the wall without giving it a second thought. The curators must transfer knowledge to the public who will view this museum and all its artifacts, so that they come away with a new knowledge and a greater feeling for humanity.

This is an ongoing critique because the museum is so huge and has so many artifacts that it would take many more visits to view all the exhibits and to complete this paper. I am sure each time I return – and I will return – there will be other discoveries made, flaws observed, and recommendations set forth that should be taken seriously to improve this 9/11 Memorial Museum at Ground Zero, so that it can become one of the world’s truly renowned museums.