Today we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. As the ne suggests, there are two parts to this. A museum (paid) and a memorial (free).
The museum does an excellent job describing all aspects of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. It touches on the moments leading to the bombing, the moments immediately after it, the search and rescue period, the body recovery period, the search for the perpetrators and their trials. Incredibly, they have artifacts such as parts of the exploded box truck that carried the explosives, as well as the escape car the bomber used. 168 people died.
The memorial part has a large reflecting pool in the space previous occupied by the building, and “sculptures” symbolizing each of the victims, organized roughly in the order of the location and floor they were on at the time of the bombing.
(Note: smaller sculptures denote children from the day care center inside the building who were victims of the bombing)
