Oklahoma City National Memorial

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Oklahoma City National Memorial
IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
Location:	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Coordinates:	35°28′22″N, 97°31′2″W
Area:	6.24 acres (3.12 federal) 25,300 m²
Established:	October 9, 1997
Total Visitation:	301,018 (in 2003)
Governing body:	National Park Service & Oklahoma City Nat'l Memorial Foundation

The Oklahoma City National Memorial is the largest memorial of its kind in the United States. It honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were changed by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown Oklahoma City on the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was destroyed in the 1995 bombing.

The National Memorial was established on October 9, 1997 and, as with all National Park Service historic areas, was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places the same day. The memorial is administered as a partnership between the National Park Service and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation.

The National Memorial Museum and the Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism are the other two components. The Memorial Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.; Sunday, 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. The Memorial Museum is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's days.

The memorial was formally dedicated on April 19, 2000 - the fifth anniversary of the disaster.

The Field of Empty Chairs, east Gate of Time, and Reflecting Pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

[edit] Memorial features

The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial consists of the following segments on 3.3 acres (13,000 m²), and can be visited 24 hours a day, 362 days a year.

The Reflecting Pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial

• The Gates of Time: Monumental twin bronze gates frame the moment of destruction - 9:02 - and mark the formal entrances to the Outdoor Memorial. 9:01, found on the eastern gate, represents the last moments of peace, while its opposite on the western gate, 9:03, represents the first moments of recovery. Both time stamps are inscribed on the interior of the monument, facing each other and the Reflecting Pool.

The outside of each gate bears this inscription:

• Reflecting Pool: A thin layer of water flowing over polished black granite, the Reflecting Pool runs east to west down the center of the Memorial (also see reflecting pool).

Flowers and personal items left on several of the 168 memorial chairs on the 10th anniversary of the bombing.

• Field of Empty Chairs: 168 empty chairs hand-crafted from glass, bronze, and stone represent those who lost their lives in the tragedy. A bombing victim's name is etched in the glass base of each chair. The chairs represent the empty chairs at the dinner tables of the victim's family. The chairs are arranged in nine rows symbolizing the nine floors of the building, and each person's chair is on the row (or the floor) on which the person worked or was visiting when the bomb went off. The chairs are also grouped according to the blast pattern, with the most chairs nearest the most heavily damaged portion of the building. The westernmost column of five chairs represents the five people who died but were not in the Murrah Building when the bomb went off (two in the Water Resources Board building, one in the Athenian Building, one outside near the building, and one rescuer). The 19 smaller chairs represent the children killed in the bombing. Three unborn children died along with their mothers, and they are listed on their mothers' chairs beneath their mothers' names.

The only remaining original portion of the Murrah Building is the wall on the east and southeast border of the Field of Empty Chairs. This wall is inscribed with the names of more than 800 survivors from the building and the surrounding area, many of whom were injured in the blast.

After surviving the bombing, The Survivor Tree elm became an emblem of the Memorial.

• The Survivor Tree: An American elm on the north side of the Memorial, this tree was the only shade tree in the parking lot across the street from the Murrah Building, and commuters came in to work early to get one of the shady parking spots provided by its branches. Photos of Oklahoma City taken around the time of statehood (1907) show this tree, meaning it is currently at least 100 years old. Despite its age, the tree was neglected and taken for granted prior to the blast. Heavily damaged by the bomb, the Tree ultimately survived after nearly being chopped down during the initial investigation, in order to recover evidence hanging in its branches and embedded in its bark.

Once thought to be slowly dying, the Survivor Tree now thrives, in no small part because the specifications for the Outdoor Memorial design included a mandate to feature and protect the Tree. One example of the dramatic measures taken to save the Tree: one of the roots that would have been cut by the wall surrounding the Tree was placed inside a large pipe, so it could reach the soil beyond the wall without being damaged. A second example is the decking around the Tree, which is raised several feet to make an underground crawlspace; workers enter through a secure hatchway and monitor the health of the Tree and maintain its very deep roots. According to its caretaker, the Tree itself has an estimated remaining lifespan of 30 to 40 years.

The inscription around the inside of the deck wall around the Survivor Tree reads:

Hundreds of seeds from the Survivor Tree are planted annually and the resulting saplings are distributed each year on the anniversary of the bombing. Thousands of Survivor Trees are growing today in public and private places all over the United States; saplings were sent to Columbine High School after the massacre there, to New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and to many others.

The Memorial Fence and east Gate of Time.

• The Memorial Fence: An ten foot tall (3.05 m) chain link fence was originally installed around the area that is now the Reflecting Pool and the Field of Empty Chairs to protect the site from damage and visitors from injury. The Fence stood for more than four years and became famous itself, with visitors leaving stuffed animals, poems, keychains, and other items there as tributes. During the construction of the Outdoor Memorial, 210 feet (64 m) of the Fence was moved to the west side of the Memorial, along the 9:03 side or the 'healing' side. The remainder of the Fence is in storage. Visitors may still leave small items along and in the Fence; the mementos are periodically collected, catalogued, and stored.

• Rescuers' Orchard: A grove of Oklahoma redbuds (Oklahoma's state tree), Amur Maple, Chinese Pistache, and Bosque Elm trees are planted on the lawn around the Survivor Tree.

• Children's Area: More than 5,000 hand-painted tiles, from all over the United States and Canada, were made by children and sent to Oklahoma City after the bombing in 1995. The tiles are now stored in the Memorial's Archives, and a sampling of those tiles is on the wall in the Children's Area, along with a series of chalkboards where children can draw and share their feelings. The Children's Area is north of the 9:03 gate, on the west side of the Museum.

Across the street from the memorial is the statue And Jesus Wept.

• And Jesus Wept: On a corner adjacent to the memorial is a sculpture of Jesus weeping erected by St. Joseph's Catholic Church. St. Joseph's, one of the first brick and mortar churches in the city, was almost completely destroyed by the blast. The statue is not part of the memorial itself but is popular with visitors nonetheless.

• Journal Record Building: North of the memorial is the Journal Record Building which now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, an affiliate of the National Park Service. Also in the building is the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a non partisan think tank.

[edit] Image gallery

The Field of Empty Chairs as seen at night	The western Gate of Time	The Memorial Museum in the former Journal Recorder building	Field of Empty Chairs
The Survivor Tree

[edit] References

• The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.

[edit] External links

• Oklahoma City National Memorial Official website
• NPS website: Oklahoma City National Memorial
• Oklahoma City National Memorial - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• NewsOK.com report and archive on the Oklahoma City Bombing
• Aerial view of the Memorial: Google Maps

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 35.472761° -97.517079°
  • Satellite image from WikiMapia, Google Maps or Windows Live Local
  • Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image from TerraServer-USA