We were in two minds about our visit to Ground Zero. We had seen the site from the Convention Centre during our City Tour when we first arrived in New York. From across the road we could see both of the new towers and we could see the tour groups moving through the site.
To get into Ground Zero we needed to pre purchase a ticket on line stating the number of people to tour including exact names, the day of the tour and the time we wanted to book for the tour. There is no charge for the booking, but without the tour registration we would not have been able to get through the security check. We had time on our last day in New York so I got our reservations done on the hotel Internet service where we could print out our tickets. We booked an end of the afternoon tour when we thought that the crowds would not be so large. In the morning we had done a tour of Brooklyn and then went straight to Ground Zero. The queues were not too bad as we all had our allocated time to enter the site and once we got through our security check the rest was easy.
The site was very impressive and I was happy that we had found enough time to have a close look at what was being done there. It is all "work in progress"with the two towers and the Museum partially completed. The two pools where the Twin Towers once stood were a very sobering sight. The steady water flow down the sides and into the middle of the pool was beautifully designed. I could not help but shed some tears walking around the walls of the pool where the thousands of names are of those that were lost. The park area which is very new was peaceful and welcoming with lawns, trees and gardens. I was personally very impressed with the effort that was being put in for the Memorial.
It was worth a bit of inconvenience over getting the tickets as I now have a memory that will stay with me forever and I am looking forward to seeing the finished project in the future.I imagine the purpose of issuing bookings is for crowd control so that too many tourists do not turn up at the same time.
I understand that Hurricane Sandy caused some damage there after we left and the site was closed to tourists for a while.
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