The Bellevue Hospital Wall of Prayer

The Museum of the City of New York is restoring the 200 foot construction site fence from outside Bellevue Hospital that became a memorial to the missing of September 11. Every bit of the postings on the panels are being removed, including the tape. It is then being carefully conserved and reassembled to appear as it did immediately after the attacks.



The posters are striking for three reasons. One, the intimate physical details listed: moles, birthmarks, tattoos in every place on the body imaginable, long-ago scars now healed.

Two: many many people were last seen on high floors, from which there was no escape.

And most heartbreaking of all, the happiness in their faces. Many are shown playing with babies, going out to eat with friends, vacationing on a cruise, or just being with their spouse.

Many posters say simply "last seen on Tuesday", as if one particular Tuesday is all that matters, as if one Tuesday, the world changed so completely that it needs no further reference. And it speaks to the newness of the tragedy when these posters first went up: maybe it was only Thursday or Saturday when they were taped to this wall.

The fence remained until early November 2001 when it was removed as the construction going on behind it proceeded. It is now part of the 9/11 Archives of the Museum of the City of New York.