There has probably been no time in the last seven decades when Russia has so dominated the headlines of U.S. newspapers: We were allies during the Second World War. We were chilly adversaries during the Cold War. Since then, we’ve had our ups and downs, with Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election, lately inflaming Russia-U.S. relations even further.
This makes Russia’s 2004 gift to the United States of the Teardrop Memorial all the more newsworthy.
Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli sculpted the 175-ton monument to honor those who died at the World Trade center on Sept. 11, 2001.
His present gives new meaning to the phrase, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Seems like everyone was looking down the maw of this gift horse and coming away disgusted or alarmed.
Reportedly, the sculptor wanted to install his memorial on the Jersey side of the Hudson because that’s where so many survivors were taken.
Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham was a delighted recipient. Unfortunately, Mayor Cunningham died on May 25, 2004. He was succeeded by Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who served until 2013. Healy was having none of it. Though not an established art or architecture critic, Healy waxed indignant in the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Jersey City Magazine.
“Trump Tower is an aesthetically pleasing sight,” he told JCMag. “It’s a good thing for Jersey City and gets us in the media. Goldman Sachs, the tallest building in New Jersey, is a beautiful building, though some artists may think both are ugly.” What’s ugly, he said, is that “100-foot tear drop. I consider that a hideous monstrosity in the same category of offensive as Xanadu.”
Phew!
The New Yorker magazine was no more admiring, snarkily calling the sculpture a giant tea biscuit. Regular wags routinely compare its 40-foot, four-ton stainless steel teardrop to a part of the male anatomy.
New Life on the Peninsula
Meanwhile, Bayonne Mayor Joseph V. Doria and Frank P. Perrucci, president of the September 11 Bayonne Remembers committee, were ready to receive it with open arms. Vladimir Putin himself gave the keynote address at the groundbreaking ceremony at the Military Ocean Terminal on Sept. 16, 2005. Renamed “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism,” the monument was installed at MOTBY on Sept. 11, 2006. Among the dignitaries on hand were former President Bill Clinton and the sculptor himself.
As it happens, a Staten Island photographer and retired teacher, just minutes away from the site, across the Bayonne Bridge, was coming under its spell. Though the monument is visible from ships navigating through the Narrows, that’s not where she first saw it. And she didn’t happen to be wandering around MOTBY—most outsiders don’t even know where MOTBY is.
Marianna Troia came across it while surfing the web. She was overwhelmed, and even more so when she visited the site and laid eyes on the real thing. Her book of images, Russia Sheds Tears for Americans, was published by the Austin, Texas-based Next Century Publishing in 2017.
“A lot of people don’t even know about it being there,” Troia told BLP. “People taking the ferry into Manhattan take pictures of the Statue of Liberty. When I ask them if they’ve heard of the teardrop, they say, ‘No, what’s that?’”
Troia is happy to tell them the story and point it out to them. “The teardrop itself symbolizes great loss,” she says. “I love the design. I was in awe the first time I went to see it. I’ve gone back several times and brought friends and family to see it. I just think it’s spectacular.”
Troia’s brother, Salvatore Troia, was a first responder. He survived, but the memory of those who didn’t has stayed with him.
Marianne Troia has reverence for all the 9/11 monuments. Included in her book and on these pages are pictures of the Empty Sky Memorial in Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
“I just don’t want anybody to ever forget what happened,” Troia says. “It scarred a lot of people in many different ways. People lost family members, and people were affected who breathed in the dust and debris. When the bombing happened in Oklahoma City, I felt sorry, but when it happens in your own backyard, the impact of it all is so much bigger.”—Kate Rounds
