Bush Behind Them Towers?

This is partly down to the trees. There are 416 in total, lined up in rows among the granite flagstones that pave most of the plaza. These are fledgling oak trees, babies born in a New Jersey nursery, their youth emphasised by the ribbons of fresh grass set at their feet.

But one is different. Pitched at the centre of the site, a lone pear tree sways in the breeze. The "Survivor Tree", as it has become known, stood between the Twin Towers – and was pulled from the rubble, implausibly alive, crown blown away, branches ripped to stumps. Yet it has spent the last decade being nursed back to health in Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx. As a metaphor for recovery it is mutely powerful. New limbs, tinged with the pale green of regrowth, can be seen sprouting from the sad stubs of the tree's first incarnation.

The Memorial's two true points of focus are positioned on either side of the Survivor Tree, where the footprints of the toppled World Trade Centre are delineated by two colossal square pools, 30ft deep. Water cascades down their interior flanks – right-angled Niagaras making their own statement about regeneration in the constant, recycled flow.

Hmmmm....

Hmmm...