The Sonic Memorial Project

Oregonian Cheri Goodwin went to the top of the WTC on Superbowl Sunday. She remembers all the foreigners, the sounds of the wind in the plaza, yelling, and having fun.

On September 10, 2001, Nashville songwriter Joe Nolan wrote Blue Turns Black, a song so serious that he wondered where the emotions had come from. The next day, the composition suddenly made more sense.

Ian Hochberg, who lives in Maryland, visited the WTC in the 1970s and remembers the silence on the observation deck. He visited Ground Zero in October and was again struck by the silence amid the destruction.

Virginian Jennifer Kronstein remembers hearing random reports of a plane flying into the WTC on the morning of 9/11 and wondering what kind of idiot would do that. Then the news became clearer. Her dad was supposed to meet with the Port Authority…

Kate Tour is afraid of heights. When saw a picture of two people holding hands and jumping off the tower on 9/11, she thought they must be the bravest people in the world.

Katie George visited New York from New Mexico years ago. She remembers the sound of the flushing toilet at the WTC--it was a unique noise, high-powered and industrial.

Gary Stephan talks about the barges that are being filled with the debris from the WTC. When the material hits the barges, there's a droning noise, a kind of drum roll.

Molly Albadoui visited the WTC when she was ten. The sounds of the John Hancock Tower, where she now works in Boston, remind her of the WTC.

Deb Green remembers people looking at her unshaven legs while she was standing on the observation deck. She reads the haiku she wrote about the experience.

An Iowa woman who visited her sister in NYC in the 1980s remembers looking up at the WTC observation deck from below. She saw what she thought was a bird in the sky, but it turned out to be a 747. Later, standing on the top of the building, she flew…

Massachusetts resident Peter Bolger reads a letter he wrote to his Aunt Pat about visiting her in New York and seeing the Twin Towers.

Alan Guttman reads a letter he wrote to the New York Times about the WTC climber, George Willig, in 1977.

King Lamb worked at the WTC years ago and remembers hearing a soft creaking from the walls--the eerie sound of the building swaying in the wind.

Violinist Emily McHugh used to play her Irish fiddle at the WTC on St. Patrick's Day.

Washington State resident Susan Small was a graduate student in NYC in the 1970s. She remembers that the WTC was totally empty by 10:00 at night. She can still recall the sound of her leather sandals against the marble floors of the WTC atrium.

Bob Barkerher is a former WTC executive who later became a tour guide at the towers. He explains that the tops of the towers sway 11 feet on windy days and says that the people working above the 75th floor sometimes got seasick.

Jan Bienhof, who worked from Minnesota as a mail service manager for the 90th to 97th floors of 1 WTC, talks about how the WTC server stopped responding at 12:47 GMT (or 8:47 a.m. EST). She also remarks on the way Peter Jennings lapses into a…

Jackie Herships, mother of artist Sally Herships, talks about her daughter's projects, Manhattan 9/11/01 and 366 Stories, which document the turn of the millennium in New York City.

Italian-American filmmaker Marco Ferrari talks about a video shoot he did at the WTC in 2000 that included the observation deck, view, and sculpture.

Wolf Loescher, a member of the Celtic rock band Jiggernaut, describes one of the group's songs, Legacy, which has taken on added meaning since 9/11.