National September 11 Memorial Museum

When the World Trade Center's twin towers fell during the tragic events of September 11, 2001, it prompted years of soul-searching over what would be a fitting monument to replace these lost icons. The ultimate product was this humbling museum in Lower Manhattan & the Financial District, surrounded by the melancholy reflected pools of the neighboring National September 11 Memorial, offering a touching memorial to those killed in the catastrophe.

The museum is aesthetically fascinating and deeply sad, incorporating portions of the ground destroyed by the collapsed skyscrapers, as well as fragments of the towers themselves. Its artifacts, movies, pictures, and audio recordings offer a thought-provoking and introspective look at the disaster, the circumstances leading up to it (including the 1993 World Trade Center car-bombing), and the tales of loss, perseverance, and hope that followed.

Escalators drop to the museum's basement galleries from the museum's glass entry pavilion, which hauntingly conjures a collapsed tower in memorial to the catastrophe. Visitors stand in the shadow of two 70-foot-high steel structural tridents as they descend below the surface, which was originally placed in the bedrock at the base of the North Tower to help maintain the original construction. These burned survivors, which resemble huge, rusted forks, are just two of the many sad items that bore mute testimony to the September 11 destruction within this haunting museum.

Location: 180 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10007

Website: 911memorial.org