Tear of Grief - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

To the Struggle Against World Terrorism (also known as the Tear of Grief and the Tear Drop Memorial) is a 10-story-high sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli

Zurab Tsereteli

Zurab Konstantines dze Tsereteli is a Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor and architect who holds the office of President of the Russian Academy of Arts.- Life :...

that was given to the United States as an official gift of the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing

1993 World Trade Center bombing

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 lb urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing...

. It stands at the end of the former MOTBY in Bayonne, New Jersey

Bayonne, New Jersey

Bayonne is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east...

and was dedicated on September 11, 2006 in a ceremony attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

and Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

Design

The sculpture is in the form of a 100 feet (30.5 m) tower made of steel and coated in bronze, split with a jagged opening through the middle. Inside the opening hangs a large stainless-steel teardrop, 40 feet (12.2 m) high, in memory of those whose lives were lost during terrorist attacks in the United States. The eleven sides of the monument's base bear granite name plates, on which are etched the names of those that died in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Tsereteli did not disclose the cost of the sculpture except to say that he paid for labor and materials. A lawyer for the sculptor released the cost at about $12 million. Tsereteli said metals for the sculpture were obtained "From a military factory that did airplanes. In Dzerzhinsk

Dzerzhinsk

Dzerzhinsk, transliterated from Russian, may be the name of one of the following places.*Dzerzhinsk, Russia*Dzyarzhynsk, Belarus*Dzerzhynsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine...

. A secret city."

It was initially given to the local government of Jersey City, but was rejected once city officials actually saw it. It was then relocated to its present placement in Bayonne

Bayonne, New Jersey

. In August 2010 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced it had plans to build a container facility on the location and the monument would most likely have to be moved. However these plans have not been confirmed by the Port Authority. Robert "Captain Bob" Terzi, a Bayonne taxi driver started an online petition to prevent the relocation.

Reaction to the monument has been mixed. It was listed as one of the The World’s Ugliest Statues by Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...

magazine, while The New Yorker said it looked like "a giant tea biscuit." However ordinary reactions from the general public include "Pretty impressive," said one person and another called it a "breathtakingly beautiful creation".

In September 2011, a four-foot section of steel from the World Trade Center was placed adjacent to the sculpture.

External links

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Design

See also

External links