Most visitors to the 9/11 Memorial spend their time at the reflection pools or inside the museum. But a self-proclaimed “9/11 history enthusiast” pointed out the artifacts from that day that many walk right past without a second look.
Esther Westerveld/Wikimedia CommonsThe Koenig Sphere is widely recognized as the most iconic surviving art piece from the 9/11 attacks.
In a trending video with more than 800,000 views, a history buff shared two pieces of 9/11 history that she thinks should get more attention: the Koenig Sphere and the Liberty Street pedestrian bridge.
“I know that absolutely no one asked, but as a 9/11 history enthusiast, this is my favorite thing to see when I visit Ground Zero,” content creator Carolina (@caricontrary) says.
She goes on to share information about the damaged Koenig Sphere that’s still standing and a damaged but perfectly functional skywalk. “Most tourists see either and have no idea the history they each hold,” Carolina says. “There’s so much around here with so much history in it, and it is so fascinating to me.”
The Koenig Sphere: The Sculpture That Survived The Collapse Of The Twin Towers
The 45,000-pound bronze sculpture had been the centerpiece of the World Trade Center Plaza for nearly 30 years before Sept. 11, 2001. It survived the collapse of the Twin Towers and was then stored at John F. Kennedy International Airport until March 2002, when workers set about the task of reassembling it in Battery Park.
Ten ironworkers, six engineers, and its “nervously pacing artist” worked around the clock putting the damaged pieces back in place, the Tribeca Trib reported in 2017.
Bri Rodriguez/FEMA News PhotoThe Koenig Sphere standing amid the rubble of Ground Zero.
The Sphere was dedicated on March 11, 2002, the six-month anniversary of the attacks.
“Now people know the piece better than before,” Koenig told the Tribeca Trib after the sculpture was restored. “Before it was just a sculpture. It’s not just a piece of art because it has history. Bad history.”
When the Port Authority announced in 2016 that the Sphere would finally return to the World Trade Center site, Koenig told CNN he was “glad to hear about The Sphere coming back to the area she was made for, deeply destroyed and surviving at least.”
Michael Burke, who lost his firefighter brother in the attacks, told CNN of the location choice: “If it’s good enough for the artist, it’s good enough for me.”
The Sphere has been in Liberty Park since 2017, deliberately kept in its damaged state. “There’s something about this that’s incredibly fascinating to me,” Carolina says in her video, “and also very powerful in terms of having survived all of that damage.”
But the Koenig Sphere isn’t the only remnant of 9/11 near the site.
Marks Of 9/11 On The Liberty Street Pedestrian Bridge
The second landmark Carolina points to in her video is the pedestrian bridge on Liberty Street that leads over West Street to Brookfield Place. “If you look closely,” she says, “you can still see some of the damage from when the World Trade Center collapsed.”
As The New York Times reported in 2016, most visitors to the 9/11 Memorial and Brookfield Place don’t know the damage is there at all. There are dents, dings, holes, and gashes on the bridge’s aluminum panels, most likely caused when the South Tower collapsed on 9/11. Those who do notice them tend to feel a powerful sense of attachment.
Public DomainThe Liberty Street pedestrian bridge can be seen in the upper left corner of this aerial view of Ground Zero taken on Sept. 23, 2001.
“I always loved looking at those holes,” architectural historian Christopher Gray told the Times.
The panels were slated to be replaced in the summer of 2016 as part of a broader reconstruction project. Rather than simply discard them, Brookfield Property Partners worked with the National September 11 Memorial Museum and the New York Fire Department on a plan to salvage at least some of the damaged pieces.
“If they can be preserved, we would be honored to have them,” Jan Seidler Ramirez, the chief curator of the museum, told the Times. “It is so important to remind people that it wasn’t just seven buildings that were destroyed and contaminated.”
The N.Y.F.D. also explored installing panels at the New York City Fire Museum or in firehouses as memorials.
“Here we are, 14 and a half years later,” Ramirez said in 2016, “and we’re still slowly getting around to repairing the damage from that single morning.”
All That’s Interesting reached out to Carolina for comment via TikTok direct message and comment.
After reading about the Koenig Sphere and the hidden remnants of 9/11 near Ground Zero, discover 25 powerful artifacts recovered from the World Trade Center site and the heartbreaking stories behind them. Then, look back at the most powerful photographs taken on Sept. 11, 2001.