Our visit to the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building Site (Oklahoma City National Memorial)

Taken from Wikipedia:

The Oklahoma City bombing was a bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6, and injured more than 680 people. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country.


Within 90 minutes of the explosion, Timothy McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon. Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Terry Nichols to the attack; Nichols was arrested, and within days both were charged. Michael and Lori Fortier were later identified as accomplices. McVeigh, an American militia movement sympathizer, had detonated an explosive-filled truck parked in front of the building. McVeigh's co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation. Motivated by his hatred of the federal government and angered by what he perceived as its mishandling of the Waco Siege (1993) and the Ruby Ridge incident (1992), McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the deadly fire that ended the siege at Waco.


On April 19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Annual remembrance services are held at the same time of day as the original explosion occurred.


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You can't help but be quiet when you're standing in a place like this. Even my girls were quiet. For a whole hour, they did just what we told them they needed to do while we were there.

There are two 'gates', one on each end of the memorial. They are big, square, metal arches. On one end, the time 9:01 is shown. On the other, 9:03. The minute before the bombing when everything was normal and the minute after the bombing, when the city would be forever changed.

The above is the the arch with the time 9:03

We walked through this arch coming in to the memorial.

Below is the arch marked 9:01. It's kinda hard to see, but it's the best one we had.

(this is a view from by the survivor tree. this place is so pretty. it's hard to imagine what went on here)

Above is the survivor tree. This tree survived in a parking lot with burning cars all around.

Below is the Survivor's Wall. It is the only remaining portion of the Murrah Building that is still standing. The names of each survivor of the bombing is on this wall. It's both calming and sad standing here. Thinking about what happened on the very ground that you're standing on is almost overwhelming.

The Chairs are, of course, the saddest part of this memorial. They are arranged in nine rows (front to back), representing the nine floors of the building.

If you look close, you'll notice that some of the chairs in the second row are smaller than the rest. These are for the children in the daycare that were killed in the bombing. Timothy McVeigh ruled out a 40 story Government Building in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of a florist shop on the ground floor, saying that he wanted to minimize non-government casualties. Yet, he didn't let the fact that children would be killed here bother him at all. 19 of the 168 people killed that day were children. It amazes me the little regard that people have for human life.

We didn't go through the museum inside. We didn't know how the girls would do and we wanted to get on the road. I do look forward to visiting again and going through the museum. The memorial is a beautiful tribute to the lives lost that day. If you're ever in OKC, and you haven't been, you should stop.