Built to honor, memorialize, remember, and cherish, New York City's memorials are painful yet integral reminders of those whose chests no longer rise and fall.
Whether a Siberian Husky who raced through a freezing cold to save hundreds of lives, a firefighter who raced back into a burning World Trade Center, or a poet whose words remain ignited in collective mind of our culture, NYC has planted gardens, built lighthouses, and erected statues in order to pay homage to those whose lives were lost.
We didn't get all of them, as our city is far richer in history and memories than anyone can fully grasp.
We did, however, write this article to pay respect to seven of NYC's most significant tributes and memorials.
Read on to learn about them, and then head out to see them for yourself.
1. Shakespeare Garden (Central Park West and West 80th Street)
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Located in Central Park, Shakespeare Garden's four acres ripple with plant life. Specifically, the flowers and plants mentioned in Shakespeare's poems and plays.
What would Shakespeare say if he could see the gorgeous, vibrant garden? We can't say for sure, but probably something like, "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and gives life to thee."
Or, something like that. The point is, Shakespeare predicted his insane fame, and probably wouldn't be all that surprised to see his fantasy garden flourishing.
What he definitely would be, though, is delighted. The garden grows more than 80 plans, including irises, crocuses, primroses, and also features bronze plaques with quotations from the Bard's masterpieces. It's located on the park's West Side between 79th and 80th Streets.
2. Balto (East Drive and East 67th Street)
The famed Central Park statue of Balto the sled dog pays homage to the Siberian husky who led more than 20 sled dog teams through a sub-zero blizzard in January of 1925 to bring medicine needed to fight a horrible, deadly diptheria epidemic in Alaska.
At the time there were 1,420 people in Nome, and only enough antitoxin to treat 300. Twenty teams of over 200 dogs covered the frozen terrain, and Balto's team covered the 674-mile trip from Nenana to Nome in only five days and seven hours - a world record time.
Within days, the epidemic was over.
Balto rose to instant fame, becoming a darling of America. The bronze sculpture bearing his likeness was created by Frederick G.R. Roth and was dedicated the same year as Balto's famous journey.
3. Strawberry Fields (Central Park West and West 71st Street)
Strawberry Fields is a 2.5 acre area of Central Park built to memorialize one of the most forward thinking songwriters of all time, John Lennon.
Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono lived in the Dakota Apartments located adjacent to what's now delineated Strawberry Fields where John Lennon was murdered on December 8th, 1980.
To commemorate Lennon's life, talents, and memory, City Council Member Henry J. Stern decreed this area, Ono and Lennon's favorite in Central Park, Strawberry Fields in 1981. It was constructed by the Central Park Conservancy, architect Bruce Kelley, and a $1 million donation from Yoko Ono.
The memorial is located on the park's West Side between 71st and 74th Streets.
John Lennon may have been a dreamer, but he's not the only one.
4. The National September 11 Memorial (200 Liberty Street)
chriswragge "No day shall erase you from the memory of time" -Virgil This quote has had a profound effect on me since the moment I knew it would be displayed in the museum 5 yrs ago during the planning phase. Behind this wall is a sealed NYC medical lab where thousands of unidentified remains and DNA is stored. Museum visitors have NO access to it, it adds to the emotional weight of visiting the museum.
The National September 11 Memorial was built to honor and remember the 2,977 people killed in the September 11th attacks in 2001 at the World Trade Centers, near Shanksville Pennsylvania, at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed during the World Trade Center bombing in February of 1993.
The memorial is replete with twin reflecting pools, each nearly an acre in size. They're the largest manmade waterfalls in North America, and sit where the two Twin Towers once stood.
The names of every person who died in the attacks are inscribed into bronze panels around the Memorial pools' edges, etching their legacies into NYC's landscape indefinitely.
This powerful, healing, and devastating site memorializes the largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest loss of rescue personnel in American history.
,5. African Burial Ground (290 Broadway)
gigi.nyc For all those who were lost For all those who were stolen For all those who were left behind For all those who were not forgotten That's the inscription above, etched on the wall of the ancestral libation chamber at the #AfricanBurialGround in lower #Manhattan #NYC A sacred space in Manhattan, this site was the burial ground of free and enslaved Africans in the 17th century in what was then New Amsterdam, later New York. Lost to history due to landfill and development, the grounds were rediscovered in 1991. The #NationalParkService celebrated 99 years yesterday. #FindYourPark in your area! #NPS99 #ThisisNewYorkCity #FYPyes
NYC's African Burial Ground is the nation's earliest known African and African American cemetery, in which an estimated 15,000 women, men, and children were buried.
From about the 1600s until 1794, both free and enslaved Africans were buried in the 6.6-acre burial ground, outside the boundaries of what was then known as New Amsterdam.
These sacred grounds were rediscovered in 1991 during the planning stages of the construction of a Federal office building.
The site's discovery is known as the "most important historic urban archeological project in the United States." It was awarded designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and was named a National Monument in 2006.
6. Titanic Memorial Lighthouse (Fulton and Water Street)
wasabi_rabbit Did you know that in April 1913, one year after the sinking of the #Titanic, the #TitanicMemorialLighthouse and #TimeBall located at the @southstreetseaport were dedicated to the passengers, officers and crew who we lost in the sinking? We are proud to call this neighborhood our home. #WR #NYC #history #community
When the RMS Titanic smashed into an iceberg on April 15, 1912, 1,503 people tragically lost their lives.
On April 18th, the Carpathia streamed into the New York Harbor carrying the Titanic's stunned survivors. NYC was desolate to learn of the deaths of so many New Yorkers, including co-owner of Macy's Isadore Strauss and his wife Ida, John Jacob Astor IV, and Benjamin Guggenheim.
Within a week the Seamen's Benefit Society announced the idea of erecting a memorial lighthouse on their new Seamen's Institute designed to shine over the harbor where the Titanic was supposed to arrive.
It was dedicated on the anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, and now sits outside the South Street Seaport Museum.
7. New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza (55 Water Street)
juliazhulia Days like these make it so hard to go back inside #perfectweather #lunchbreaks #blueskies
This memorial reminds us all of the bravery and sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the Vietnam. 1,741 of those whose lives were lost were residents of NYC.
In 1982, NYC Mayor Edward Koch founded a 100-member commission to create this memorial, with the goal of reflecting the conflicting emotions of the Vietnam War as well as innovating a "living memorial" to assist Vietnam veterans in need of jobs.
There were 3,000 letters, poems and diary entries submitted from across the country, 80 of which were chosen to be a part of the memorial. Mayor Koch dedicated the Memorial on the tenth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, by bursting fireworks into the night sky over the East River.
To this day people leave cards, pictures, and flowers along the wall's granite shelf to honor those whose lives were lost.
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