A phoenix rises: Ground Zero is to be turned into a contemplative park with underground museumThe memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attack has received an unexpected boost after a mysterious person left $10,000 in a donation box at the Twin Towers site.
The containers are left out for small change donations from the public, but as staff checked it this week they were surprised to find a wad of 99 $100 bills and five $20 bills deposited inside.
Despite surveillance in the area, the generous donor has not yet been identified.
The anonymous gift will go towards the 9/11 Memorial Museum which is currently under construction at the Ground Zero site and due to open in 2012.
Located 70 feet below ground, the cavernous space is among the very foundations of the Twin Towers and incorporates the slurry wall that stopped the Hudson River from inundating the financial district as well as the last column of steel removed from the World Trade Center site.
A set of stairs used by survivors to exit the building has been preserved as an exhibit as has a ramp, used first when the Twin Towers were built and later by rescuers clearing the rubble and families accessing the site to hold memorial services.
Visitors will be able to walk down the ramp to the 'bedrock' - the original foundations of the buildings where concrete column bases still stand - and experience an interactive exhibit telling the story of the 9/11 tragedy.
Progress has been slow on the project, but organisers have reassured the public that the museum will indeed open in two years' time.
Beyond the major exhibits there will also be a display of the unidentified items belonging to victims that were found at the site and there will be a private room for family members.
Between the private and public areas a quotation from Virgil's Aeneid will adorn the walls reading: 'No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory of Time'.
As work continues underground, a memorial above ground is also underway, with two floating pools of water to be placed in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by gardens and 400 trees to create a green 'contemplation area'.
source: dailymail
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