There needs to be a memorial in conjunction with rebuilding. I would have preferred that the towers be rebuilt as they used to be. I grew up in lower manhattan and work in the finance district. I remember the towers being built and I remember like it was yesterday when I saw the second hijacked plane fly by my office building and slam into the South Tower...

I walk by ground zero from time to time and I have to say that the area looks like a plain old construction site and you don't see any hints of what actually occurred that day except for the postings on the fences. I believe we have to go on with our lives but we also must be reminded of what happened there and pay tribute to all of the brave and innocent who lost their lives on that horrific day. Its to easy to forget!

I agree with Chuck. I feel for those people (very few people, I must add) who are up in arms over the Memorial Design. Unfortunately, it is impossible to please everyone, and five years is long enough. My feeling is that these few "9-11 families" ill-serve the memory of their loved ones in the public's eye by creating a pathetic media circus. It's time for the city roll up its sleeves and get to work down there.

My personal opinion is that the design is unique, and elegant. It is also very generous in scale. Perhaps a better memorial is the revised design for the Freedom Tower, because it's now a genuine, large building rather than a frilly waste of space, as the original concept was.

I also watched as the WTC Towers were built. I was in the USCG, and stationed on Governors Island from February 1971 until October 1971. I saw the transition from red steel to gleaming glass.

However, the terrorists also struck at the idea of world commerce centralized at the WTC. To let that propery lay dormant for five years was a real crime. The terrorist would prefere we make the entire USA a pastureland memorial, and become sheephearders like them. its not going to happen.

A fitting memorial could have been a large placque with everyones name on it. Wasting real eastate just plays into Bin Laden's plan. And bickering about it just give more publicity to the terrorists and their want-a-bes.

You want a real memorial. Then capture Bin Laden!! And stop wasting our treasure and lives in Iraq.

I think it was Bill Clinton who said "We should rebuild the towers except one story taller."

Make it the tallest building in the world. With permanent AA facilities on the roof.

The Freedom Tower will be the tallest building in the world when (and IF) it's completed. It will be exactly the same height from street level to roof elevation as the original towers, and its radio/TV mast will top out at 1,776 feet. How long it remains as the tallest building is another story.

"How long it remains as the tallest building is another story"

Or 3 stories, or 10 stories....(LOL)

Uhm, yeah Pete.....