8. The Survivor Tree

Within the 9/11 Memorial Plaza stands the Survivor Tree. It is a Callery pear tree that survived the attacks on 9/11, and was worked into the design of the Memorial Plaza. Damaged down to the stumps, workers managed to free it, and it was nursed back to health in a Bronx park by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, before it was replanted it again in Memorial Plaza in 2010.

The Survivor Tree is more than four times its original height back in 2001, easily towering over the other trees planted in the Plaza. Visitors flock around the tree–a living and breathing reminder that in tragedy there can also be rebirth, though the scars on the limbs bear testament to the events on 9/11.