DATE=3-29-2002

TYPE=Special English Feature

NUMBER=7-22767

TITLE=SPECIAL ENGLISH AMERICAN MOSAIC #863-Tribute in Light

BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach

TELEPHONE=619-2585

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Shelley Gollust

CONTENT=

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Chu Mong Hung asks about the Tribute in Light in New York City.

Tribute in Light is the name for two tall beams of light extending into the night sky over New York City. The lights re-create the image of the two World Trade Center buildings. The lights appear as the two huge buildings did before they were destroyed in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. The lights are also a temporary memorial to the more than two-thousand-eight-hundred people who were killed in the attacks.

Experts say the lights extend up to three kilometers high. People can see the lights from as many as thirty-two kilometers away.

The project was the idea of two building designers and two artists. The two teams joined together when they learned of each others' work.

The towers of light are produced by eighty-eight individual high-power lamps on the ground near the ruins of the Trade Center buildings. New York's electric company is providing the light without charge.

The Tribute in Light was first lit at a ceremony on March eleventh, six months after the terrorist attack. Twelve-year-old Valerie Webb lit the Tribute in Light. Her father was a police officer who was killed in the attack. Her mother died two years ago.

The towers of light will shine every night until April thirteenth. Later, a permanent memorial will be built.

The newspaper "USA Today" published some peoples' reactions to the Tribute in Light. Some people said the lights cannot replace the buildings. Others said it was a good way to remember them. One woman said looking at the towers of light fills an emptiness she feels each day when she sees that the World Trade Center buildings are not there.