2021 marks the 26th anniversary of a bleak day in Oklahoma City history, when we learned to believe in domestic terrorism. Where Americans set bombs in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and managed to kill 168 Americans, 19 of which were under 6 years old. The record says there were some 680 additional injured people, but 26 years later there are still a lot of people traumatized by what occurred on that day. Observe 168 seconds of silence for each of the people who lost their lives on April 19, 1995.
Books written about that day run the gamut from why did this happen, to why did this happen to me, to how I survived and moved forward. Read the ones that will make sense to you. Reading is a personal journey and the more you can get out of it, the better the experience. If you don’t know what happen that day find out for yourself. History is not just some dusty old stories. History is something we should never forget, as it has a way of repeating itself.
If you are ever in Oklahoma City, visit the memorial. The following is according to Wikipedia.org.
Memorial features
The Field of Empty Chairs, east Gate of Time, and Reflecting Pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The Survivor Tree is visible in the upper left corner.
The Oklahoma City National Memorial as seen from the base of the reflecting pool.
After surviving the bombing, the Survivor Tree became an emblem of the Memorial.
The Memorial Fence and east Gate of Time.
The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial consists of the following segments on 3.3 acres (13,000 m2), and are accessible day or night.
- 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.[2][6]
The outside of each gate bears this inscription:
We come here to remember Those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.
- Reflecting Pool: A thin layer of water flows over polished black granite to form the pool, which runs east to west down the center of the Memorial (also see reflecting pool) on what was once Fifth Street. Although the pool is flowing, visitors are able to see a mirror image of themselves in the water. Visitors seeing their reflections are said to be seeing “someone changed forever by what happened here.”[2][6]
- Field of Empty Chairs: 168 empty chairs hand-crafted from glass, bronze, and stone represent those who lost their lives, with a name etched in the glass base of each. They sit on the site where the Murrah Building once stood. The chairs are arranged in nine rows to symbolize the nine floors of the building; each person’s chair is on the row (or the floor) on which the person worked or was located when the bomb went off.[7] 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 (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.[2][6]
- Survivors’ Wall: The only remaining original portions of the Murrah Building are the north and east walls, known as the Survivors’ Wall. The wall has several panels of granite salvaged from the Murrah Building itself, inscribed with the names of more than 600 survivors from the building and the surrounding area, many of whom were injured in the blast.[6]
- Survivor Tree: An American elm on the north side of the Memorial that was heavily damaged by the bomb, but survived. 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 in public and private places all over the U.S.[8]
- The Memorial Fence: A 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) chain link fence was 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, becoming notable as the place where visitors left stuffed animals, poems, keychains, and other items 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, cataloged, and stored.[2][6]
- 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.[2] The trees represent the rescuers who came to the aid of the survivors; hence the rescuer’s orchard surrounds the survivor tree. The non-native species represent those rescuers who came from outside Oklahoma to help.
- 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. Most are stored in the Memorial’s Archives, and a sampling of tiles is on the wall in the Children’s Area. Chalkboards provide a place 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.[2]
- Journal Record Building: North of the memorial is the Journal Record Building, which formerly housed the offices of The Journal Record. It now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, which features numerous exhibits and artifacts related to the Oklahoma City bombing.[4]
- Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Plaza: Located just south of the Field of Empty Chairs, above the underground parking garage, is the raised Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Plaza. An original part of the federal building, the plaza had a garden and seating areas, as well as a playground for the daycare center. Visitors to the Memorial can walk across the plaza, where the original flagpole is used for the American flag.[
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