September 11 memorial opens to public

The memorial opened a day early on Sunday only to victims' family members and those attending the commemoration service at ground zero.

"We're so proud of this memorial," said Monica Iken, who lost her husband Michael in the attacks. "I can go see Michael. He's home."

Iken founded the group September's Mission and has played an instrumental role in the construction of the site.

Iken said she comes to the site to connect with her husband. "Every time I come here, I feel the energy. It's powerful," she said.

The finished plaza is a calm spot in the midst of a busy construction zone for 1 World Trade Center -- the new skyscraper rising above the site.

The focal points of the memorial are a pair of granite reflecting pools -- "voids," as designer Michael Arad calls them -- that plunge into the earth.

Located on the footprints of the old twin towers, they are open-topped cubes, nearly an acre in size. Their walls are clad in dark granite, surrounded by brass parapets engraved with nearly 3,000 names: those killed on September 11, 2001, in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as well as in a 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

The largest man-made waterfalls in North America wash over the dark granite, flowing from beneath the etched names into the pools below.