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Sonic Memorial

The Sonic Memorial Special is an intimate, historic and sound-rich documentary marking the anniversary of 9/11 through stories, sound and archival audio. The special interweaves elements from Sonic Memorial stories heard over the past year on All Things Considered with voice mail messages, on-site recordings, oral histories, remembrances and stories collected from listeners nationwide who called NPR's Sonic Memorial phone line. The Sonic Memorial Special features stories that focus on little known aspects of the history and life of the World Trade Center and its neighborhood, including Radio Row, the district of electronics shops displaced by the building of the WTC, and the Mohawk ironworkers who helped construct the towers and who returned after 9/11 to disassemble the twisted steel.

Stories of the politics and public opinion surrounding the towers are told by the man who masterminded the construction of the buildings, and by the young college co-ed construction guides he hired to educate the public and put a friendly face on the project, in addition to artists, bankers, office staff, elevator and maintenance workers. Each tower had a thousand sounds; every floor had a thousand stories.