Visitors find peace as 9/11 memorial opens to public

NEW YORK -- The plot of land known for a decade as "the pile," "the pit" an

d Ground Zero opened to the public Monday for the first time since that terrible morning in 2001, transformed into a memorial consisting of two serene reflecting pools ringed by the chiseled-in-bronze names of the nearly 3,000 people lost.

The 9/11 memorial plaza opened its gates at 10 a.m. under tight, airport-style security. Visitors walked among hundreds of white oak trees on the 8-acre site and gazed at the water on the exact spots where the World Trade Center's twin towers stood.

They also ran their fingers over the names of the 2,977 people killed in the terrorist attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, as well as the six who died in the bombing of the trade center in 1993.

"It's so surreal. When we walked in, those images were popping in my head from 10 years ago," said Laura Pajar, a pharmaceutical industry researcher from Las Vegas. "But when I saw the memorial, all of that went away. This is so peaceful, and you kind of forget about what happened, and you look toward the future."

Jim Drzewiecki, a volunteer firefighter from Lancaster, N.Y., said he was shaking as he walked up to the memorial entrance and stood next to the pools.

"It makes it clear how devastating -- to see the number of people who lost their lives at this location," he said. He added: "I'm actually still shaking. It could have been me on that flight."

Eileen Cristina of Lititz, Pa., who a decade ago volunteered her services as a massage therapist to the landfill workers who handled the trade center debris, was moved to tears.

"For me, the water element is very important, because water is so cleansing. Water can cleanse the energy of the area," she said.

Visitors sat on benches and clustered for photos in front of the trees. Some wept, some embraced. Others made pencil-and-paper rubbings of the victims' names. Sun gleamed off the bronze parapets on which the names were inscribed.

The memorial plaza opened to the families of the victims for the first time Sunday.

Although thousands of construction workers have come and gone from the site over the years, Monday marked the first time that ordinary Americans without a badge, a press pass or a hard hat were able to walk the grounds where the victims were once entombed in a mountain of smoking rubble.

About 7,000 people were issued tickets for opening day. About 400,000 have reserved tickets for the coming months, memorial president Joe Daniels said.

Admission is free, but access is tightly controlled. Visitors need to obtain passes in advance, allowing them to enter at a specified time. No more than about 1,500 at a time are allowed in.

The museum portion of the complex is still under construction. The museum pavilion, a tilting structure that evokes the sections of the trade center facade that remained standing after the towers fell, is scheduled to open on the attacks' 11th anniversary.