The Tear Drop Memorial
By Dylan Croll
When New Yorkers imagine 9/11 monuments honoring the lives of the fallen, they likely picture sites like the Memorial Pools and Museum at Ground Zero. It’s much less likely that they consider The Tear Drop Memorial — and understandably so. The whopping, 100-foot tower is 15 miles away from Manhattan. It stands on a remote, man-made peninsula in Bayonne, New Jersey near a boat repair shop and a container terminal for cargo ships.
Russian Artist Zurab Tsereteli began designing the memorial after he witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers on television from his home in Moscow. When he went to work that day, he came upon a group of people gathered around the American embassy in tears. Not long thereafter, he visited the ruins of the World Trade Center. These experiences inspired his design for the monument: a 100-foot high, bronze tower with a teardrop hanging out of a jagged, vertical split through the middle of the sculpture. Tsereteli intended the large, nickel teardrop to represent the heartache caused by mass terrorism.
Though it was supposed to be located in Jersey City, the monument sparked controversy when the city council approved it in 2003. At the time, Jersey City residents complained that local artists should have designed the memorial and that Tsereteli’s design was ugly, according to The New York Times. In response, the council ultimately nixed the proposal. Consequently, Tserteli worked with Mayor Joseph V. Doria to erect the monument in Bayonne.
Upon its arrival in Bayonne, the Teardrop Memorial again spurred controversy. William Finnegan of The New Yorker called it a “giant tea biscuit.” The Virtual Tourist, meanwhile, ranked it the tenth ugliest building in the world.
Yet, twenty years later, many Bayonne residents love the memorial. Grace Bitetto, who escaped the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks, sees it as an important symbol of Americans’ grief at the time.
“To me, it signifies all the tears that people went through. It’s a teardrop. That’s what it signifies to me. I love it. People that I know do as well. I don’t know everybody else, what goes through their minds, but I was happy to get this monument,” says Bitetto, who visited the monument on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Another Bayonne resident, Mark Melvin, worked in Tower one on 95th floor in 2001 but luckily wasn’t at the Trade Center during the attacks. He also appreciates the monument.
“This is the best place I can think of for this memorial, both where it is and as solidarity being expressed by Russia…Typically, Russia and the United States are not aligned in everything we see, but in this we are.”
Regardless of its aesthetic, the Bayonne monument stands out among others for its quiet intimacy. The monuments at the World Trade Center have drawn criticism in the past for their crowds and commercialism. In contrast, the relative seclusion of the Teardrop Monument makes it the ideal spot for Americans to gather in solidarity.
