The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a memorial in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry N ...

on April 19, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

on the former site of the

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States federal government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m. the building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing ...

, which was destroyed in the 1995 bombing. This building was located on NW 5th Street between N. Robinson Avenue and N. Harvey Avenue. The national memorial was authorized on October 9, 1997, by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's signing of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Act of 1997. It was administratively listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

the same day. The memorial is administered by Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation, with

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

staff to help interpret the memorial for visitors. The memorial was formally dedicated on April 19, 2000, the fifth anniversary of the bombing. The museum was dedicated and opened 10 months later on February 19, 2001.

History

On April 19, 1995,

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third o ...

parked a Ryder rental truck filled with explosives in front of the

. The resulting explosion killed 168 people and destroyed the entire north face of the building. Months after the attack, Mayor

Ron Norick Ronald J. Norick (born August 5, 1941) is an American politician. A Republican, he served as mayor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from 1988 to 1998. He is the son of James H. Norick, who served as Mayor of Oklahoma City from 1959 to 1963 and 1967 to ...

appointed a task force to look into a creation of a permanent memorial where the Murrah building once stood. The Task Force called for 'a symbolic outdoor memorial', a Memorial Museum, and for creation of Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. Six hundred and twenty four designs were submitted for the memorial and in July 1997 a design by Butzer Design Partnership, which consists of husband and wife Hans and Torrey Butzer, was chosen. In October 1997, President

signed law creating the Oklahoma City National Memorial as a unit of the

to be operated by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Trust. The total cost of the memorial was $29.1 million; $10 million for the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial, $7 million for the Memorial Museum, $5 million for the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and the rest for other costs. The federal government appropriated $5 million for construction with the state of Oklahoma matching that amount. More than $17 million in private donations was raised. On April 19, 2000, the fifth anniversary of the attack, the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial was dedicated. On February 19, 2001, the Memorial Museum was dedicated. In 2004 it was transferred from the NPS to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation, designating it an affiliated area of National Park System. The Oklahoma City National Memorial since its opening has seen over 4.4 million visitors to the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial and 1.6 million visitors to the Memorial Museum. The Memorial has an average of 350,000 visitors per year.

Memorial features

The Memorial Fence and East Gate of Time at the Oklahoma City National Memorial

The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial consists of the following segments on 3.3

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (13,000 m²) and are accessible day or night. * The Gates of Time: Monumental twin

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

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:

''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 Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

to form the pool, which runs east to west down the center of the Memorial (also see

reflecting pool A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface. Design Reflecting pools are ...

) 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." * Field of Empty Chairs: One hundred and sixty-eight empty chairs hand-crafted from

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

, 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. 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. * 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. * Survivor Tree: An

American elm ''Ulmus americana'', generally known as the American elm or, less commonly, as the white elm or water elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America, naturally occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to Flor ...

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. * The Memorial Fence: A

chain link fence A chain-link fence (also referred to as wire netting, wire-mesh fence, chain-wire fence, cyclone fence, hurricane fence, or diamond-mesh fence) is a type of woven fence usually made from galvanized or linear low-density polyethylene-coated st ...

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. * Rescuers' Orchard: A grove of Oklahoma

redbud ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to warm temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds. They are characterised by si ...

s (Oklahoma's state tree),

Amur Maple ''Acer ginnala'', the Amur maple, is a plant species with woody stems native to northeastern Asia from easternmost Mongolia east to Korea and Japan, and north to the Russian Far East in the Amur River valley. It is a small maple with deciduous ...

, Chinese Pistache, and Bosque Elm trees are planted on the lawn around the Survivor Tree. The trees represent the rescuers who came to the aid of the survivors; hence the rescuers' 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. * Journal Record Building: North of the memorial is the Journal Record Building, which formerly housed the offices of ''

The Journal Record ''The Journal Record'' is a daily business and legal newspaper based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its offices are in downtown Oklahoma City, with a bureau at the Oklahoma State Capitol. ''The Journal Record'' began publication in 1937, though an ...

''. It now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, which features numerous exhibits and artifacts related to the Oklahoma City bombing. * 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.

Adjacent memorials

Two churches were located across the street from the Murrah Building. Both were heavily damaged by the blast. Each church was repaired and both constructed memorials on their property. While not part of the official memorial they are open to the public. * Heartland Chapel: Across the street from the 9:01 gate is an open air wooden chapel erected by First United Methodist Church of Oklahoma City. The altar is made from church stones damaged by the bombing. A substantial portion of the funding for the chapel was provided by the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community. * '' And Jesus Wept'': Across the street from the 9:03 gate is a sculpture of Jesus weeping erected by St. Joseph's Catholic Church, one of the first brick-and-mortar churches built in the city. Jesus faces away from the devastation, covering his face with his hand. In front of Jesus is a wall with 168 gaps in it, representing the voids left by each life lost.

References

;Bibliography * ''The National Parks: Index 2001–2003''. Washington:

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

External links

Oklahoma City National Memorial
Official website * NPS website
Oklahoma City National Memorial

NewsOK.com report and archive on the Oklahoma City Bombing
* Aerial view of the Memorial
Google Maps
* Delta Fountains' technical overview of the reflecting pool
Reflecting Pool OverviewOklahoma City National Memorial & Museum on AdventureRoad.com
Visitor Information & Travel Planning {{authority control 1997 establishments in Oklahoma Museums established in 1997 Museums in Oklahoma City National Memorials of the United States Oklahoma City bombing History museums in Oklahoma Monuments and memorials in Oklahoma Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma National Park Service areas in Oklahoma Labor monuments and memorials Protected areas of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Tourist attractions in Oklahoma City 1997 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma City