The same application will be available on multiple digital platforms

The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum has finalized the arrangement of all 2,982 names --representing the men, women and children killed in the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 terrorist attacks -- that will appear on the World Trade Center (WTC) Memorial site. The names arrangement is based on a system of “meaningful adjacencies” that reflect where the victims were on September 11, 2001, and relationships they shared with others who were lost that day.

The names arrangement can be explored through a unique web application at http://names.911memorial.org.

The online Memorial Guide allows users to instantly search and map the exact location of individual names and groups, such as flights and companies, on the Memorial pools’ name panels. The website also reveals the layers of meaning that underlie the arrangement, and displays brief biographical information about the victims, as provided by next-of-kin. The location and information found on the website can be printed on a map, e-mailed, or sent via text message.

The same application will be available directly on mobile smartphones, tablet computers and on electronic kiosks on the WTC Memorial plaza when it opens in September 2011.

The names at the Memorial are inscribed in bronze on panels that frame the two enormous reflecting pools that reside in the original footprints of the twin towers. The nearly 3,000 names include those killed on September 11, 2001 at the WTC, the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93, as well as in the February 26, 1993 WTC bombing. Cut by waterjet through the bronze, the names themselves are voids in daylight and will be backlit at night.

“Today’s announcement caps a long and complex process that succeeded in bringing the deeply personal histories of so many grieving families into a shared narrative that emphasizes both individual loss and collective grief,” said 9/11 Memorial Architect Michael Arad. “I am very grateful to the hundreds of families that helped place the names of their loved ones on the Memorial next to the names of others they knew and loved, and in doing so, helped us infuse the Memorial with meaning and depth.”