How NYC’s 9/11 Memorial Pools Are Cleaned

From the bottom of the 9/11 Memorial reflecting pools, James Maroon gets a unique view of the sunrise. Five nights a week, from midnight until 8:00 am, Maroon and his crew work at the bottom of the memorial’s 30-foot waterfalls (the largest man-made waterfalls in the nation), cleaning out dirt and debris that falls into the pools throughout the day. A short documentary by New York filmmaker Josh Charow gives an inside look at this process.

Cleaning the pools is a labor-intensive job. The workers must trudge through knee-deep waters and cover nearly an acre of surface in each pool. Two workers typically work in the pool together. One rolls over the pool floor with a vacuum while another follows with a broom. It can take up to seven hours to get every inch of the floor clean.

The two pools sit in the footprint of the original Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. Titled Reflecting Absence, the powerful memorial was designed by Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker. Along the top rim of each pool, the names of 2,983 people who lost their lives in the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center attacks are carved into bronze panels. In addition to being grouped by location, the names are also arranged based on “meaningful adjacencies,” which means friends who perished together and crews of first responders appear near each other, based on input from living relatives. The memorial opened on the 10th anniversary of the 2001 tragedy.

See the cleaning crew at work in the video above and find out why Maroon takes special pride in caring for this New York City site.

Next, check out more NYC locations where you can remember the events of 9/11