Ground Zero locations draw Memorial Day weekend crowds

As a steady stream of people filed into the Tribute WTC Visitor Center on Saturday, assistant manager Emerson Dominguez was on the lookout for members of the armed forces.

With Fleet Week bringing in shiploads of sailors, the visitor center on Liberty Street, across the street from the burgeoning construction site at Ground Zero, waived its $10 admission fee for military personnel over Memorial Day weekend.

“We’ve been pretty busy the past couple days,” Dominguez said, pointing at a half-dozen men in white naval uniforms. The mercury hitting 76 degrees Saturday afternoon helped as well.

“As it get closer to summer, it picks up,” he said.

Around the corner, the sounds of German, French, Spanish and plenty of English were heard from the crowd of people gathered at a bronze relief that commemorates the 343 members of the city Fire Department who perished on Sept. 11, 2001.

At Ground Zero, a half-dozen Canadian sailors emerged from a restricted part of the construction site, where they had gone on a private tour.

“It’s somber,” said Brent Robertson, 34, leading seaman on the HMCS Athabaskan from Nova Scotia. “It’s a lot to take in.”

Whitney Hammel, 24, a special education teacher from Boston, was impressed with the progress of Towers One and Four, rising behind her, since she last visited the area a year ago.

“To come back and see buildings going up — it’s amazing to see it coming along,” Hammel said. “It’s inspiring to see that we can rebuild and celebrate the lives that were a part of these buildings.”

A few blocks north on Vesey Street, past the crush of shoppers scurrying into and out of Century 21 and the hawkers peddling 9/11 photo books, visitors poured into a center previewing the future National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

Danielle Felton, 26, a call center manager from Manchester, England, emerged after looking at displays that show renderings and models of what the site will look like when two reflecting pools with waterfalls and trees are installed. She said the concept for the planned memorial is “effective.”

“Maybe it’s the not the word for it, but it’s pretty,” Felton said.