Oklahoma City National Memorial

A sobering day seeing the Oklahoma City National Memorial, honoring the victims of the 1995 domestic terrorist bombing. Until September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United States, and remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in our country’s history. The bomber was sentenced to death by lethal injection, and died in 2001, the first federal execution in 38 years.

: The blast destroyed one-third of the building, and destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius. Most victims died not from the bomb itself, but from the building collapse.

: An office clock frozen at the time of the bomb. An estimated 646 people were inside the building when the bomb exploded.

: An amateur photographer shot this photo of a firefighter tenderly carrying a one year old child, who later died. The photo won a Pulitzer Prize. In the weeks following, over 12,000 relief and rescue workers helped in the recovery effort.

: Dan Rather apologized later for jumping to the conclusion on air that the FBI was seeking “Middle Eastern” suspects.

: The bomber and his co-conspirator expressed anger with the federal government’s handling of the Branch Dividian standoff in 1993. They timed the bomb for the 2-year anniversary of the Waco, TX disaster.

: The bomb was made of ammonium nitrate, now banned in the US. In Afghanistan, it’s still destroyed when found to avoid its use in home-made explosives.

: The memorial field of chairs represents the 168 people who died. The field sits within what is left of the foundation edges of the building.

: Each chair has a name inscribed, and is placed according to the position in the building where the victim was before the bomb went off. Smaller chairs represent children. This is the portion of the building that housed a day care center for federal employees.