There was definitely something eerie and uncomfortable about visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, but on my first visit to New York a few of years ago, it was a location I had to visit.
You can't call it an attraction, even though some of the tourist 'guides to New York' speak of it as such. It's a place that reveals not only the enormity of the September 11 tragedy, but how it affected the people of The City in the smallest of ways for years to come.
The exhibition includes items large and small. One of the most confronting for me was an item recovered some blocks away from the World Trade Centre site.
The window
On display, a piece of American Airlines Flight 11 fuselage. I was unaware and shocked such an item had ever been found, and was also surprised it managed to survive the impact.
Antenna
The North Tower was 530m tall, and 110m of this was a broadcast antenna which was added to the top of the tower.
The antenna was used to broadcast radio and television signals across the New York area. All transmissions went off air at 10:28am, when the tower collapsed.
Fire Truck
Of the 2977 victims killed in the September 11 attacks, 343 were firefighters. The exhibition features FDNY Ladder truck 3, rusted, crushed and burned under the rubble of the collapsed towers.
Ladder 3 was parked on West Street near Vesey Street just one block away from the Trade Centre buildings.
Steel column
These columns made up part of World Trade Centre's iconic look. Rising up from more than 20m below ground, they rose up to around the fifth floor where they branched out to become three columns providing support for the building above.
The staircase
This staircase used to link World Trade Centre's plaza to the street below. The stairs and the escalator which was next to it were a desperate survival route for hundreds of people who evacuated the buildings during the attack.
Originally marked for demolition, the concrete construction was saved and is now known as the 'Survivors' Stairs'.
These are just a few of the hundreds of items on display. Smaller exhibits include items as small as fragments of glass, ID and credit cards and people's hats and clothing.
I could have easily spent an entire day there, but I limited it to a couple of hours. The only limit is what sort of emotional toll the experience takes on you.
One part of the exhibition is a dark room with televisions displaying news coverage of the attacks, while recordings of people's final calls or voice mail messages to loved ones are played over the sound system. It's here the true human cost of the tragedy hits home.
When leaving the underground museum you arrive at a lovely grass plaza planted with trees.
It's the perfect place to sit down and absorb everything you've just taken in.
In the middle of this quiet garden in the city are two large square water features each lined with the names of all of those killed.
They are in that exact spot where the two towers once stood. The tragedy will always remain hard to comprehend for me, even after seeing the destruction with my own eyes.
