Sept. 11 memorial opens to public

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NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- The National September 11 Memorial opened to the public Monday where terror attacks brought down the towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

A day earlier, it was opened to victims' family members and those attending the commemoration service at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

"We're so proud of this memorial," Monica Iken, who lost her husband Michael in the attacks, told CNN. "I can go see Michael. He's home."

The memorial, containing a pair of granite reflecting pools, sits at the center of the busy construction zone for 1 World Trade Center, the new skyscraper that will anchor the site.

The pools sit on the footprints of the destroyed twin towers, and feature granite and brass parapets engraved with names of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"Looking down on those two fountains, it gives you the chills," Adam Romano, a concrete worker at the construction site, said. "You look at those footprints ... [and] you see those buildings as if they are still there."