Memorial sights in New York City
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African Burial Ground
Sitting among the financial movers and shakers and beautiful, old, official buildings is a quiet piece of very important history: the African Burial Ground. During preliminary construction of a downtown office building in 1991, builders were shocked to find more than 400 stacked wooden caskets, discovered only 16 to 28ft below street level. When it became clear that the boxes held the remains of enslaved Africans (nearby Trinity Church graveyard had banned the burial of Africans at the time), construction was halted, an investigation was launched and all hell broke loose. As a result, the site became permanently protected as a National Historic Landmark, and today it’s pa…
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B
Irish Hunger Memorial
This compact labyrinth of low limestone walls and patches of grass is the creation of artist Brian Tolle, and is meant to increase awareness of the Great Irish Famine and Migration (1845–52), which led so many immigrants to leave Ireland for the opportunity of a better life in the New World. Representing abandoned cottages, stone walls and potato fields, it was created with stones from each of Ireland’s 32 counties. The winning proposal in a design competition organized by the Battery Park City Authority in 2000, Tolle’s sculpture is an even more fitting metaphor than he probably meant it to be: it’s turned out to be a delicate piece, and has already required extensive re…
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C
WTC Tribute Visitors Center
Operated by the nonprofit Families’ Association, this center serves as a temporary memorial to the September 11 disaster. It features a gallery of moving images and artifacts, including battered firefighting uniforms, and the opportunity to join one-hour tours of the WTC site’s perimeter.
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